Why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer | Us & Them | DW Documentary

29 comments

1. You also in most cases be smart to get rich and accumulate more and more. But dont worry all you need is money to get by in your life and be happy in your head. Beeing rich does not make you happier, belive me I know from real life cases.

2. Beacuse you print money and import useless refugees.

3. How can you get poorer than poor?

4. The world is not fair, the sooner you deal with that and try to get as much as you can for yourself, the easier you will be able to become wealthier. Rich people own the businesses that poor people spend money at. Perfect example-After Covid, the US government spent billions of dollars giving people stimulus checks and that money was effectively a wealth transfer from the poor to the wealthy because, they went out and spent that money at Walmart, Costco, and Amazon, which then paid their shareholders, mostly rich people.

   We can look at South Africa in greater detail because it is spoken about in the video. In the 1970s/80s/90s/and even now, the ANC has absolutely driven that country into the ground. Prior to the end of Apartheid in the 1990s, the ANC was widely recognized as a terror organization. However, between 1990 and 2015, SA installed absolutely ZERO power plants of any kind. This despite its population doubling. The ANC replaced Apartheid and squandered all of the wealth of the nation themselves. It is the same story across Africa. Some $5 trillion has been given to all of Africa in assistance and where has all that money gone? Directly to the African dictators that run these places. I was there, in 2017, actually, both in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The people don't care about racial issues, they all blame the government yet do absolutely nothing to address it except vote for the ANC, who have done nothing to address the problems of the nation. That same year the Cape government released water from the dams in the middle of a record drought, not to water crops mind you. Then they complained about problems and issues all around.

   For the bloke in London, clearly he has money for cigarettes, he is overweight so he is eating in a surplus. Thus, he has both disposable income and enough food to eat. This is a terrible example to use if you are trying to garner emotional reactions to support these people. This while the UK government continues to bring in migrants by their millions and they all get put on immediate benefits. If the man was disabled because he was hit by a car why hasn't the person that hit him been thrown in prison forever and forced to pay him millions of pounds out of their property or insurance? Sounds like the UK laws are terrible.

5. As a South African, the mental side of poverty has become deeply entrenched within our societies. I remember the President celebrating the number of people on grants ( I couldnt believe it), yet people still vote them in. If you are born in Yemen or the DRC, etc. then your outlook is bleak and damn near impossible to escape…but African countries like South Africa, Botswana, etc have a myriad of opportunities to uplift yourself. Extreme poverty usually occurs in totalitarian regimes and thats the sad part about South Africa. We are a fully functional democracy. People can easily vote out corrupt officials but they chose not too, then cry about corruption. The biggest example if the Province of the Eastern Cape – An ANC stronghold and the poorest province in the country.

6. So what will the poor do when all the migrants take their benefits, take all the food in the food bank?

7. Its all about wealth inequality (ASSET inequality). The uber-wealthy have hard assets & spend little to none of their wealth, which continues to grow dividends. The majority of the population who are increasingly LOSING assets (or never obtain any) to the selfishness of the uber-wealthy, who gobble up assets pennies on the dollar, like a pack of vicious wolves on a carcass! (Remember HAWAII, anyone??)

   Every financial problem we face is due to absolute greed & entitlement of the FEW. The true pariah of society IS the "elitist".

8. The average person has never been so poor. Millions of families are struggling financially as living expenses hit the highest levels in more than four decades. Over 60% of our country lives paycheck to paycheck and about 40% earns poverty wages. Even after working all their lives, more than a quarter of older people have no savings and many believe they will never be able to retire in dignity, while around 55% of elderly people try to survive on an income of less than 25,000 a year.

9. 6:55 as a white person…this lady makes me feel utterly ashamed for her Deluded viewpoint on poverty and equal opportunities. She's obviously out of touch with reality. Do some research lady and educate yourself on systemic poverty and subtlety of discrimination in society.

10. It's true there are people there with no motivation, they can be rich or poor. But the head start and the opportunities that some people get are almost impossible for others. I understand it's a mindset to strive for something greater, but you cannot ignore the fact that for some it is difficult. Be grateful for what you were given, do your best to achieve what you want.

11. I can't listen to the BS of 'capitalism" anymore. Someone show me where capitalism actually still exists. Our problem is socialism and not capitalism. Where are still free markets? In some niches, but not generally in the modern market place. Everything is taxed and regulated by the state which is just the opposite of a free market economy. Here in Alberta for instance they raised the minimum wage a few years ago. The outcome is that you have much less restaurants, less workers in the stores with longer line up's and less nannies so that less people actually can go to work. If you want a kid, one person has to stay home like 100 years ago. I wished we had capitalism and a lot of it!

12. If you want to get rich, then you have to figure out how to make other people work for you. That's the way the system is set up. Many people fail, but some succeed because they happen to have connections to other rich people and/or created something valuable and made it available for others. Working hard is gonna get you only so far, because if your hourly pay is low then no amount of backbreaking hard work is going to propel you to riches. There's also alternative – organize with fellow coworkers and demand the company to increase wages to acceptable level, but it is high risk strategy in some areas as you'll be always pressurized from the company as they're not interested in increasing wages which means increasing business operation costs and lowering profit margins.

13. Rich Lady: "I started off living a very conventional life. I was a debutante." Ah yes, and that opportunity is available to everyone!!

14. the debutante woman has never worked a day in her life and has prospered from generational/familial wealth

15. Can we stop blaming merely apartheid already? We can blame the government at this point.

16. Dw should be make documantary about Indian or Kerala government workers and politician corruption. Socialist cheating people 's real horror country

17. As for the opening statement made by the lady, yes, the same opportunities may be out there for everyone, but it's the education about and ACCESS to those opportunities that is the real challenge…..prove me wrong. Money gains access……..not simply them just 'being' accessable. Bank vaults openly exist too, but access to them is limited……SAME THING!

18. Poor is a state of mind, poverty is a living condition. Free and high quaity education is the key to eradicate poverty.

19. I got someone on YouTube saying if you want to be a rich do not consume and produce only.If there will be no one to consume where the producer buy his goods to be oppulent.

20. The people filming showed an immense amount of restraint by not decking that out of touch lady when she said that shit in the beginning of the video. Dear fucking god.

21. Its difficult to become rich. You need all the work you put in, your personality, luck and the stars have to line up. Def not just put in the work. Sorry to burst your bubbles. That being said, but it's not that hard to survive.

22. It's not "the rich versus the poor"…… It's the capitalist owners and those in power versus the rest of us. Rich get rich by opening capital and forcing others to pay for access to it. Then they convince is that we need all these products "to live the good life" when really all these things trap us in this cycle of working just to pay for junk so we have the illusion of being owners…. The illusion of being like the rich…

    But in all honesty? No one is free… Workers are slaves of their jobs and capitalists are slaves to the economy… We're all slaves to money…. which only had value because we imagine that it does…. and the only ones who see it are those who are or have been homeless and jobless.

23. Behind every great wealth is a great crime. Follow the money. Always. Balzac

24. Just your average debutante. You can't nake this stuff. God she is precious. Hilarious 😂

25. Five and a half years unemployed while there is a record low unemployment rate is wild.

26. European channel showing South Africa in a bad light as usual despite the country being on thr up and up with our new government, inflation going down, food costs going down. Where are these riots every week? I'm in Cape Town and I have friends in every Province and there are not weekly riots. The irony after the UK has just come off their horrific riots but haven't strikes in UK, Germany, France etc brought each country to a stand still? This obsession with bringing down SA while Europe is a failing continent with a massive rise in neo-Nazi right wing governments is hilarious and short-sighted.

27. I think you are trying to show a balanced perspective of the issue but, could that not be better done by using either reflective numbers of people effected or their dollar influence?

28. government enmey of middle class & upper class

29. This video has succinctly encapsulate the adage "Privilege is invisible to those who have it".