Thanks to interests-based economy, rich keeps getting richer & poor keeps getting poorer. The wealth of the rich keeps increasing because their mountain of money earns money while the poor are dimed & nickled on their wages, & whatever they are left with, they need to service debts, leaving them with nothing much to save, if at all.
Another problem is the constant increase in greed. Greed is an animal which never feels satisfied & always needs more. Rich keeps hoarding money to increase their wealth, but what's the point of hoarding all that money.
A great movie from 2011, "In Time," explored this phenomenon, in a fictional setting, where people stop aging at 25 but are engineered to live only one more year. However, more time can always be bought. So, the poor masses work & then spend their money to buy more time & the rich have amassed so much time that they could live forever.
We can easily replace "Time" in the movie with "Money", & we realize that it is the story of our world. Poor spend whatever they earn on basic needs, so they can live. While, rich have so much money that they don't even know how much money they actually have. There's a saying that if you can count your money, then you are not rich.
The developed world is falling back in the age of kings & peasants. The extremely rich elite (Kings) have their own world, while the general public (peasants) work their whole life away & still have nothing to show for all that work.
That's why, Islam:
1. Forbade Interest. It only widens the gap between rich & poor in the society.
2. Ordered to give alms. One of the 5 pillars of Islam to give 2.5% of the annual net income to the poor.
3. Encouraged to give charity: Give charity to poor as much as you can.
4. Consider this world as merely a hotel, where you are living for a finite period. There's no eternal life on this planet.
5. Never hoard money. Money will all be left here in this world for your descendants to squabble over. In the end, a little hole in the dirt is the eternal home of every human being on this planet.
6. The more you hoard money to increase your wealth, the more you buy assets for yourself (expensive cars, clothes, jewelry, furniture, houses etc), the more you will be questioned on the Judgement Day for what you actually accomplished in your life with all those assets. Did you actually do anything for others?
Perhaps, that's why, doing things for others makes a human much more happier & feel satisfied, whereas, increasing wealth never fills that inner hole, because, as I said above, greed is a blackhole.
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The gap between the rich & poor in big cities in the US is widening, according to a new report.
Atlanta is the most unequal city with the wealthy taking home nearly 20 times more than low-income households, data from the Brookings Institution revealed.
The analysis compared 2013 census data for the top 5% of earners with the bottom 20% to work out the difference in wages.
Nationwide the rich took home around 9.3 times more money - approximately $200,234 in comparison to $21,433.
But in big cities it was up to 11.6 times more with top earners pocketing $221,700 & lower income households only taking home $19,143.
The data showed the average wage for top earners in Atlanta was $288,159 - nearly $274,000 more than the bottom fifth's earnings.
The income gap was also large in San Francisco, Boston & Miami, with San Francisco boasting the highest earnings for the wealthy at $423,171. Rich households in Washington were the only others to top $300,000.
The nation's most equal city is Virginia Beach, where the rich only take home around 6 times more.
Colorado Springs, Mesa & Oklahoma City are also fairly equal.
In total 31 of the 50 largest cities had lower incomes in 2013 than they did in 2007 before the recession.
But only one city - Albuquerque, New Mexico - saw incomes for the wealthy decline between 2012 & 2013.
The report was released amid discussions about minimum wage increases.
President Obama called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been at $7.25 since July 2009, to $10.10 in his State of the Union address last year.
Many states - such as Washington, Massachusetts & Florida - have already put increases in place with more promised in the next two years.
But the report concluded: 'These findings confirm that income inequality remains a salient issue in many big cities today.
Another problem is the constant increase in greed. Greed is an animal which never feels satisfied & always needs more. Rich keeps hoarding money to increase their wealth, but what's the point of hoarding all that money.
A great movie from 2011, "In Time," explored this phenomenon, in a fictional setting, where people stop aging at 25 but are engineered to live only one more year. However, more time can always be bought. So, the poor masses work & then spend their money to buy more time & the rich have amassed so much time that they could live forever.
We can easily replace "Time" in the movie with "Money", & we realize that it is the story of our world. Poor spend whatever they earn on basic needs, so they can live. While, rich have so much money that they don't even know how much money they actually have. There's a saying that if you can count your money, then you are not rich.
The developed world is falling back in the age of kings & peasants. The extremely rich elite (Kings) have their own world, while the general public (peasants) work their whole life away & still have nothing to show for all that work.
That's why, Islam:
1. Forbade Interest. It only widens the gap between rich & poor in the society.
2. Ordered to give alms. One of the 5 pillars of Islam to give 2.5% of the annual net income to the poor.
3. Encouraged to give charity: Give charity to poor as much as you can.
4. Consider this world as merely a hotel, where you are living for a finite period. There's no eternal life on this planet.
5. Never hoard money. Money will all be left here in this world for your descendants to squabble over. In the end, a little hole in the dirt is the eternal home of every human being on this planet.
6. The more you hoard money to increase your wealth, the more you buy assets for yourself (expensive cars, clothes, jewelry, furniture, houses etc), the more you will be questioned on the Judgement Day for what you actually accomplished in your life with all those assets. Did you actually do anything for others?
Perhaps, that's why, doing things for others makes a human much more happier & feel satisfied, whereas, increasing wealth never fills that inner hole, because, as I said above, greed is a blackhole.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The gap between the rich & poor in big cities in the US is widening, according to a new report.
Atlanta is the most unequal city with the wealthy taking home nearly 20 times more than low-income households, data from the Brookings Institution revealed.
The analysis compared 2013 census data for the top 5% of earners with the bottom 20% to work out the difference in wages.
Nationwide the rich took home around 9.3 times more money - approximately $200,234 in comparison to $21,433.
But in big cities it was up to 11.6 times more with top earners pocketing $221,700 & lower income households only taking home $19,143.
The data showed the average wage for top earners in Atlanta was $288,159 - nearly $274,000 more than the bottom fifth's earnings.
The income gap was also large in San Francisco, Boston & Miami, with San Francisco boasting the highest earnings for the wealthy at $423,171. Rich households in Washington were the only others to top $300,000.
The nation's most equal city is Virginia Beach, where the rich only take home around 6 times more.
Colorado Springs, Mesa & Oklahoma City are also fairly equal.
In total 31 of the 50 largest cities had lower incomes in 2013 than they did in 2007 before the recession.
But only one city - Albuquerque, New Mexico - saw incomes for the wealthy decline between 2012 & 2013.
The report was released amid discussions about minimum wage increases.
President Obama called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been at $7.25 since July 2009, to $10.10 in his State of the Union address last year.
Many states - such as Washington, Massachusetts & Florida - have already put increases in place with more promised in the next two years.
But the report concluded: 'These findings confirm that income inequality remains a salient issue in many big cities today.
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