— WEALTH, POWER, AND THE FUTURE OF THE PLANET —
- 111 WEALTH, POWER AND THE FUTURE OF THE PLANET:
FOUR ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE EXTREME
CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH
JACK SANTA BARBARA, PH.
D
SUMMARY
Contrary to popular beliefs, extremes in wealth are...
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— WEALTH, POWER, AND THE FUTURE OF THE PLANET —
- 111 WEALTH, POWER AND THE FUTURE OF THE PLANET:
FOUR ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE EXTREME
CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH
JACK SANTA BARBARA, PH.
D
SUMMARY
Contrary to popular beliefs, extremes in wealth are bad for society, the economy, and the planet.
Concentration of wealth is unjust and confers undue advantage to those with the most wealth, who then use
this wealth primarily to usurp the democratic process and further enrich themselves at the expense of the
majority, and the ecosystems that support all life.
There is no moral or economic justification for extremes in wealth.
Wealth accumulation is often accomplished by illegal means, but it can also derive from the unjust (but legal)
pressure that the wealthy use to influence lawmakers to legislate in their favor.
The accumulation of extreme
wealth1 is the result of laws that inappropriately reward the marginal contributions of individual innovation
but ignore the vastly larger
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