Please note, my question is not "is it possible to MAKE a billion dollars?"

I hope nobody takes it as a loaded question, but I have been reading some posts in here that seem a bit anti-capitalism and it just kind of popped into my head.

Is it possible for one person to earn a billion dollars.

Sure it is, depending on what you do and how much someone is willing to pay for it. The question I ask is, "Is it possible for one person to need a billion dollars?"

Who's counting anyway?

I guess I would answer that question with: "Is it immoral to live beyond your needs?"

I see people in this protests with signs like "Eat the rich", "Billionaires, your time is up", etc., so obviously someone is counting..

Interesting reality:

[attachment=0]walton-full-480x414[1].jpg[/attachment]

That is reality? Is Alice forcing people to work at her Walmart? Is the very fact that Alice has $21 billion dollars mean that someone else cannot do the same?

I for one don't believe that most people need food stamps, and also believe that too many items qualify as food or necessities, but I suppose that is another argument entirely.

A very simple way to solve this problem is to throw out the income tax, which Alice can afford to legally avoid, and go with a consumption tax. The rich simply consume more than the poor, I know I consume more now than I did when I made less money (I am not rich btw lol). When you tax income it punishes people for achieving income, where a consumption rewards people for saving and investing their income. Of course I mean the Fairtax with prebates for low income individuals/families (see more at fairtax.org).

Alice didn't "earn" her money all by herself. She ships the goods to her stores on roads that we taxpayers pay for. Her underpayed employees learned how to read and write and count in public schools that we taxpayers paid for. She can give something back. In any case, sooner or later EVERYONE'S GOT TO PAY THEIR TAB. You know what the bible says about rich folks getting into heaven........

And Alice pays for the fuel taxes and vehicle registrations that pay for the roads her trucks are driving on. (I used to drive truck for a living years ago, and fuel taxes and fuel stamps are huge for commercial trucks) This she also does while she matches the payroll tax contributions of her literate underpaid employees (when the government actually collects them). She also pays for insurance should these workers become unemployed. Let's not even consider all that she has to pay because of arbitrary regulations passed by unelected people from OSHA and the EPA. Alice and the rest of the top 1% pay almost 40% the federal taxes now. I fail to see why such animosity is leveled at Alice by people who have absolutely no idea what she does with her money (as if it were their business anyway).

I am not a very religious person, but if we are going to use the bible to make a point then:

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."

I don't want Alice's donkey. But, forgive me for being so direct, and please don't take this personally, but in my opinion your "defense" of Alice's business practices is pure donkey-shit. I respect your opinion; I just absolutely do not agree with your argument.

It isn't Alice's money. The money is Alice's karma. Positions between a person and their karma only amplify the pain.

Wal-Mart millions don't bother me. But capitalism is one part money and what money can make happen. Using the systems designed to protect the wealth to acquire more wealth is evil. We need to get our heads out of the class war and see the wars really happening such as snapping the constitution with the abrogation of habeas corpus and posse commitatus. That is a very big deal. All bets are off. The powers that be hit the tripwire. How America responds is one of the key historical decisions of our time.

Just one man's opinion.

I have to agree with Kevin.

You are right about one thing Jafo, Alice is big on that insurance thing. She has been known to buy life insurance on her workers. No benefit to their families, just to the big

W.

Kinda reminds me of a president we had...

I hear a lot of slogans and cliches, but no facts here.. I could reply to the last three posts with nortonkevins direct impersonal response of "it is pure donkey-shit" and if all things being equal, I just made some kind of point.

I think what I am learning here is that many people believe it is somehow evil to earn or otherwise legally acquire a billion dollars. I think it is funny that a mugshot of Alice Walton being booked on a DWI charge is used to create some kind of illusion that this person is some natural capitalist criminal; off to the group W bench Alice.. Considering the plethora of mugshots coming out of the occupy protests, I would think that kind of coloring of the facts would be considered bad taste.

I am not going to make this a political argument, because I think Bush, Clinton, Obama, FDR, Reagan, Johnson, etc., are for all intents and purposes, the same person, just packaged for different audiences. It is pointless to say we are here because of President X or Senator Y. It is a diversion.

No. The power over diversion is recognizing that the diverter is spending x amount of resources to achieve it. It has value to them and to change outcomes, you must acquire control over that value.

The money is bullshit. Necessary but only insofar as it enhances access to value.

And that makes absolutely no sense..