Cornfed wrote:The_Adventurer wrote:I don't get all this talk about investments and properties. If there is a real collapse, you only own what you can protect with your shotgun.
Someone above made a good point. Rather than tryi g to own something, BE something. A good doctor will never go hungry no matter how bad things get.
Actually, there are qualified doctors going hungry in various parts of the world right now. They said the same thing about pilots once, and they start out on near minimum wage these days, if they start out at all.
Pilots are actually doing really well right now internationally.
http://www.willflyforfood.com/airline-pilot-salary/
You can see the average hourly pay by company. I would hardly say that any of even the entry level salaries come close to minimum wage.
There's a projected global shortage of 450,000 pilots over the next few years. The trouble is the cost of education- it can cost 120k or more to become certified to fly in many first world countries. This makes being a pilot the sort of thing only upper middle class and wealthy kids can easily afford.
On another note, I don't think the will be some massive wiping out of people (until an inevitable pandemic hits). The whole point of being on top is to enjoy how many you have beaten to get there. There have been experiments that show that people take more joy in winning money when another person also losses as they gain. It has also been shown that if one makes substantially more than their neighbors, their happiness is significantly improved, while those that have the same level of affluence but live in communities that are equally as affluent, their happiness declines. By having a larger underclass, the happiness of the wealthy is thus improved. The less people there are beneath them, the more diminished their success becomes.
What I think will (and is) happening is a freezing of the income classes. Between skyrocketing college costs, home costs, and increases to the cost of living, middle class individuals find themselves unable to invest or build capital due to their profound debt loads. This leaves them unable to provide funds to educate their children, who must struggle to pay for school to remain a part of the middle class, and thus the cycle begins again. The poor don't have a chance from the outset, as they cannot even afford basic necessities let alone a home or school. Finally, the wealthy are solidified in their position because the interest paid by the lower classes all goes to them and the companies they own. Only the best and brightest can break from the lower classes to the upper class- more common are those too lacking in self control that spend themselves into financial ruin or too unmotivated to pursue education or start a business, the ones that drop down the rungs rather than move up them.
The rich have already won the financial war. What do you do once you conquer a people? You fortify your position and protect your assets.
