HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS

Have-nots want what haves have.  Haves want more of what they already have.  The coveted assets are usually land, monetary wealth, material goods, services, or power.  For private parties, land represents a piece of terrain that can be used for agricultural or recreational purposes or on which can be placed a factory or commercial structure.  For a nation, land is that part of the territory of the world over which it exerts sovereignty.  Monetary wealth includes precious metals, cash, and various types of financial instruments that enable ownership of tangible or intangible means of generating wealth.  Power gained through ownership of assets permits individuals, groups or countries to strongly influence the actions of people who, voluntarily or involuntarily, are directed by those in control.

For centuries, wealth and power were enjoyed by a small percentage of the citizens inhabiting a city-state or nation, while everyone else labored to support the affluent lives of those on top.  When the merchant class came into being, the upper classes began to include people who earned money through their business activities, rather than those who were part of landed aristocracies.  It was not until the industrial revolution took hold in the early part of the nineteenth century that a large middle class began to flourish in various European countries and the United States.  By the end of the twentieth century, millions of families in America were getting a respectable piece of the available economic pie.

Wealth is generated by utilizing combinations of land, labor and capital.  Even financial or data processing companies utilize resources that were produced by extracting minerals, agricultural commodities and electricity from the land.  Labor comprises all those who earn a living by using their abilities, training, and education to produce flows of goods and services.  Capital consists of physical assets, such as factories and commercial structures, as well as stored monetary wealth, which includes bank accounts and investment instruments.

Haves secure their ability to benefit from a disproportionate share of the goods and services that a nation produces by inheriting wealth or by exerting skills that permit them to amass and control assets.  In coercive societies, those in subservient positions are forced to provide their labor for low wages to the benefit of those in power.  In more democratic countries, economic competition permits those with technical or business skills to attain highly paid positions in companies or to run their own companies.