Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Wealth Without Work

Good Essays
409 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Wealth Without Work
This refers to the practice of getting something for nothing - manipulating markets and assets so you don't have to work or produce added value, just manipulate people and things. Today there are professions built around making wealth without working, making much money without paying taxes, benefiting from free government programs without carrying a fair share of the financial burdens, and enjoying all the perks of citizenship of country and membership of corporation without assuming any of the risk or responsibility.
How many of the fraudulent schemes that went on in the 1980s, often called the decade of greed, were basically get-rich-quick schemes or speculations promising practitioners, "You don't even have to work for it"? That is why I would be very concerned if one of my children went into speculative enterprises or if they learned how to make a lot of money fast without having to pay the price by adding value on a day-to-day basis.
Some network marketing and pyramidal organizations worry me because many people get rich quick by building a structure under them that feeds them without work. They are rationalized to the hilt; nevertheless the overwhelming emotional motive is often greed: "You can get rich without much work. You may have to work initially, but soon you can have wealth without work." New social mores and norms are cultivated that cause distortions in their judgement.
Justice and judgement are inevitably inseparable, suggesting that to the degree you move away from the laws of nature, your judgement will be adversely affected. You get distorted notions. You start telling rational lies to explain why things work or why they don't. You move away from the law of "the farm" into social / political environments.
When we read of organisations in trouble, we often hear the sad confessions of executives who tell of moving away from natural laws and principles for a period of time and begin overbuilding, over borrowing, and over speculating, not really reading the stream or getting objective feedback, just hearing a lot of self-talk internally. Now they have a high debt to pay. They may have to work hard just to survive - without hope of being healthy for five years or more. It's back to the basics, hand to the plow. And many of these executives, in earlier days, were critical of the conservative founders of the corporations who stayed close to the fundamentals and preferred to stay small and free of debt.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Whether it be government regulation, legal specifications, or merely consumer expectations; “corporate normalcy” in the form of policies, procedures, standards, patterns, and the status quo is sometimes the only option. The collapse of Enron is a very tangible example of how dysfunctional “orbiting” can lead to a company’s demise. Utilizing creativity in its business procedures, executive decisions and accounting practices, Enron has become a symbol of willful corporate fraud and…

    • 1928 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    While a get rich schemes may seem more enticing than a long-term savings plan, the mirage that is get rich quick, only feeds into the human condition to want to do or receive something fast and the easy way.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Earl Jones Ponzi Scheme

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Finances affect everyone’s life and the choices they make, increases and decreases of money are happing all around us in all of our everyday lives. There are several ways people make their income and people are satisfied with what they have, so we develop ways in order to gain more income and pleasure this need for money. There are many legal ways to do so, unfortunately for several people Earl Jones did not choose a legal path in obtaining his finances. Mr. Jones used an investment fraud referred to as the Ponzi scheme. It’s a scheme made famous in 1920 by a man names Charles Ponzi, although he wasn’t the inventor of this plan, he was just the first man to take so much money that it became popular all across the United States of America. The scheme works by promising investors abnormally high returns, but then not invest their money and just pay the client and himself dividends with the original investment.…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    False riches, consisting of money, houses and lands, acquired by selfish means at cost to others…

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Dodd-Frank Act

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Its an oftenly stated human cliché to never feel “Too Big for ones own boots.” However cliches only seem to gain there momentum in the wake of a crisis. A company at its prime which could not have dared to be looked at with disdaining eyes had finally crumbled. The Lehman brothers resilience has to credited towards the strive that was taken to open operations on a daily basis in the mast of a world financial criss in 2008, however whether that can be attributed towards a wholehearted desire to keep the company afloat or the sheer power of human greed is a debate left for another occasion.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    One of the sins that stood out to me was the idea of wealth without work. I have known people who have tried to get rich without work, or at least attempted it. While there are some get-rich plans that are legal, many are not, they are simply scams, and someone loses in the end. One such corporation that I have a personal experience in is Quixtar. While this corporation may be technically legal, it is built on shaky ground, and the chance of you making it rich is not likely.…

    • 1331 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The relationship between justice and the law is one that has been debated for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Many theorists have attempted to explain the exact characteristics of this relationship in order to outline a system of just law. However, this relationship is far too intricate for any one theory to dominate the field. The values used to formulate a system of just law are often times based upon personal preference, unseen biases, or self-motivation. Law is such an intrinsic facet to so many different aspects of life that finding a theory of justice capable of covering the entirety of law is impossible. The fact is that, man has neither the impartialness nor the capability of creating such a complete theory. Without a complete theory for application we are forced into using elements from several theories to debate even the most minuet topics of just law. The issue that arises when using several theories at once is the inherent contradictions that can be found when comparing and contrasting them. Every theory has a theorem which is used to outline its most basic principles. With the vast number of theories it is only rational that contradictions occur.…

    • 2367 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bernard Madoff

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “A Ponzi scheme is a type of securities fraud where the promoter makes some sort of false or misleading statement about an investment (often including a guaranteed high rate of return) and pays off older investors with newer investor 's monies. Eventually, when the promoter can 't find any new investors, the scheme collapses. Ponzi schemes are named for Charles Ponzi who, in the early part of last century, took investors for millions by guaranteeing big returns from arbitrage profits from purported investment called an "International Postal Reply Coupon." (American Bar Association.)…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Leadership and Strategy

    • 1754 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Internally a company is likely to suffer crises of morale, confidence and productivity among employees. Similarly stakeholders may panic when a company is left rudderless and worry about the safety and future of their investment. The crux of…

    • 1754 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Common Sense Economics

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This book is very much a textbook, therefore going through the material and listing off what is in the book will not be feasible in such a short paper, I will however cover the information that struck me as the most interesting or important. Almost everything in the first part of the book is common sense, there is nothing free, people respond to incentives, decisions are made in the margin, profit drives business decisions, the invisible hand. The points that I found more interesting were points 7 and 10: People earn income by helping others and too often long-term consequences of an action are ignored. The book states that if you figure out a way to help other people you will be rewarded with a large income. Even people who are damaging themselves believe that they are getting what they want, for instance cigarette smokers, they are ruining their bodies and destroying their lives, but they want the cigarette and by helping them get the cigarette, companies make a very large amount of money. Cigarette smoking can also tie into point 10: Too often long-term consequences, or the secondary effects, of an action are ignored. Many people who smoke will tell you that…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chick-Fil-a Case Study

    • 3744 Words
    • 15 Pages

    In today’s tough economy organizations around the globe are experiencing the stress of surviving financially. The news headlines everywhere are full of companies who have fallen prey to poor organizational planning solutions and consequentially have been forced to file bankruptcy with no means of returning. And prior to…

    • 3744 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Myth of Money and Success

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Bambara, Toni. “The Lesson”. Literature: Reading and Writing the Human Experience. Shorter 7th ed. Ed. Richard Abacian and Marvin Koltz. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 121-126.…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wealth In America

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Should wealthy nations be required to share their wealth among poorer nations by providing such things as food and education? Or is it a responsibility of the governments of poorer nations to look after their citizens themselves? I say the rich should be made by the government to help out with all the poverty in America today.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jackson, D. (1993, March 16). What is a ponzi scheme? Los Angeles Times (Pre-1997 Fulltext), pp. 8-8. Retrieved from http://ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/281999655?accountid=6579…

    • 9503 Words
    • 39 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    No matter where people are in the world, everyone wants to be able to enjoy a luxury lifestyle. Even though people’s definitions of luxury differ, most people want to be wealthy. It’s no secret that good education is a path to decent income. However, the philosophy; get good grades and get rich seems to be contagious. More and more people are pursuing things that seem practical and safe rather then doing what they love, that is a huge problem. People have forgotten how important it is to find and pursuit your passion.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays