PeterSchiff, are you an adherent of the Labour Theory of Value by any chance?

How much money we make has very little to do with how much we work.  Our ability to make money is almost entirely a result of the capital we have access to, and you are no exception to that.  Like it or not, that is simply how a modern free economy works.

I make 100 times more money per hour than an Indian rice farmer.  Is this because I work 100 times harder than him? Of course not, in fact he probably works a hell of a lot harder than me. Is it because I am more intelligent? I doubt it, human beings have roughly the same cognitive skills regardless of their culture and technological state.  

It is simply because I have access to:

* Financial capital - Assets that I inherited, assets my employer allows me to use, etc.
* Social capital - I know people who can help me accessing high paying jobs.
* Information capital - My education, my superior internet access, etc.
* Political capital - if the Indian rice farmer decided to move to Europe and compete with me, the friendly government I am living under would point a gun to his head and kindly ask him to return.
* Cultural capital - I was brought up to think innovatively and independently.

...and the rice farmer doesn't.

So if you think it's wrong to make money from capital and that we should all just be making money from work alone, we would probably all end up living like Indian rice farmers.  Are you prepared to do that? No? Who is the real hypocrite then?


PS. Bitcoin will give the Indian rice farmer access to capital that was so far withheld from him by the banking elites.