Elephants and wealth are hard to understand (have you ever had a conversation with an elephant?) so let's analyse a very primitive model.
Imagine you are on a plane which comes down near an uninhabited desert island. The air-sea search and rescue think that the plane probably crashed a thousand miles away as the pilot went mad and turned off all the tracking devices (see Flight MH370 for details).
So nobody is going to find you and the people who struggle ashore are all in real danger. But you and your three brothers are all ex-SAS on your way back from assassinating a dictator (as you do) in a banana republic. "His bodyguard killed him then committed suicide". You are not just assassins but survival experts and hunters - think Bear Grills without the irritating posh accent and the family owned PR company (how else do you think people become famous?).
In fact, you are all very nice friendly people who prefer to solve problems without assassinating people but on occasion, needs must. When you do kill people you do so politely in an environmentally appropriate manner.
So of the 100 people who survived, 96 spend all day complaining and tapping on their moblle phones while the batteries die and four people (you) set out to do something useful.
Specifically, Dave and Warren build a hut using stone, mud and timber with a saw made out of a strip of titanium from the plane. Within two days you have a nice place to live with a fire burning outside. Meanwhile, you and Kyle are out hunting. After 48 hours with no sleep you manage to kill a big animal like an elephant but smaller. You pretended to take its photo and while it was smiling for the camera, Kyle pushed it off a cliff with a long pole (sorry about that)
You drag it back to your hut where one of the three following things happens:
You are all denounced as enemies of the people by comrade Grabsky (he was returning from a meeting of the Politburo) because you have a hut and food and nobody else has anything. Clearly, you must have stolen all this from the people so they take you outside and kill you all. Meanwhile, comrade Grabsky and his family take all of the meat and move into your hut.
Everybody else starves but occasionally they get some scraps and have to attend huge rallies where the generosity of comrade Grabsky is praised. He gives speeches which last for three hours and you have to cheer enthusiastically (see Fidel Castro and almost every other communist dictator for details) .
Anybody who fails to cheer or complains is killed or sent to a re-education camp where they are worked to death breaking rocks
You are met with grudging acknowledgement and allowed to keep the hut but all of the meat apart from a leg is taken in taxes. People mutter that you are rich bastards and inequality is unfair. After a bit you get fed up with all the endless carping so you build a boat and sale off to another island a few miles away - taking all the hottest young chicks with you - they are all paid generously in dried meat.
All the people left behind die of starvation while endlessly banging on about how it's all your fault because you are rich bastards and the girls who went with you are all whores.
Meanwhile on the big island you operate a capitalist market economy (like Singapore - see below) and you all live happily ever after,
When you return with the meat, they all cheer and congratulate you on what you have achieved. You announce that everybody will have cooked meat in exchange for getting off their fat arses and working. Specifically, you employ them to build a row of huts which they are allowed to rent from you. Nobody is forced to work but if they don't they will starve. Then they build a road, latrines and a shop where stuff can be exchanged in return for bits of dried meat.
In return for their labour you also teach them how to fish, hunt, build and grow stuff (you know all about vegetation - it is a vital part of survival training). After a year, the community is incredibly comfortable, ample food, warm clean huts, fresh water, a sewage system and a hospital - there were two doctors and a surgeon onboard who are very well paid for their work.
There were also two lawyers who survived but they both drowned in an unfortunate accident* a few days later. There are young babies running around and beautiful naked girls on the beach (a dozen beach volleyball teams on their way to a competition - it is too hot to wear much and they don't have any clothes anyway). The old and infirm are employed as baby sitters, cleaners or just to collect wood and make sure the fires don't go out.
When people die they are buried with respect in holes dug by a guy who is well paid for his trouble. Perfection. When a search plane comes overhead you all hide.
But one day a socialist swims over from the original island - you swim out to help him but unfortunately he drowns*. The next three socialists who arrive also drown* as you help them ashore. Fortunately, no more arrive as they have all starved to death.
Now do you understand - the four brothers may not be nice people but they have created immense amounts of wealth for their own benefit but also to the benefit of the community. That is how capitalism works. That is why Americans are wealthy and Russians are poor.
* You could see where this was heading and you were trained by the SAS to solve problems before they start
Bob Cory
Modified on 30/07/2023 at 12:13:20 by ℗ Bob Cory