It’s becoming very popular to hate the rich because they are simply rich. Never mind the ones that became rich serving people and improving the lives of everyone around them because of innovation and technology. The liberal media paints the millionaires and billionaires as greedy scumbags. Politicians would like to “fix” this income inequality problem by taxing the rich more and redistributing the wealth as if it’s the government’s money in the first place, pretending that their policies would actually solve anything.

First of all, we know the government fails when they mess with the free market – look at healthcare and college tuition. Both are areas that are crushing the working class and making it very difficult for companies to be profitable in the current environment.

Look at what happened in Seattle when they raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour. We are now seeing restaurants closing at higher rates than prior to the implementation, stranding the very people the minimum wage hike was supposed to help. Other restaurants in the city are tacking on a 15% surcharge to cover the higher wages. Some managers are no longer encouraging customers to tip, leading to a redistribution of income within the company. Workers in the back of the kitchen, such as dishwashers and cooks, are getting paid more, but servers who rely on tips are seeing a pay cut.

In One Way or Another, You can’t mess with the Free Market

So getting back to income inequality, let’s take a look at the trend. The Oxfam report shows that the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010, a drop of 38%.  Meanwhile, the wealth of the richest 62 individuals has increased by more than half a trillion dollars, to $1.76 trillion.

The trend is downwards for the poor and upwards for the wealthy. In 2010, the wealth of the poorest 50% of the world’s population equaled the wealth of the top 388 people. In 2011, the bottom 50% equaled the top 177 richest individuals. Year after year, the trend continued until 2015, where the poorest 50% of the world’s population equaled the wealth of merely 62 individuals.

As much as the liberal media wants you to think it’s somehow the fault of the people with the money, if there weren’t central banks around the country inflating their currencies, thus inflating asset prices which wealthy people own, you wouldn’t see such drastic shifts happening in global wealth. The real problem isn’t the system not taxing the rich enough or the governments not handing out enough entitlements to the working class, it’s central bank intervention, in collusion with governments.

So why do I say all of this?

You need to start doing what the rich are doing, and simply own assets, starting with precious metals, to carefully selected real estate, to undervalued quality stocks. Invest in things that will thrive in an environment of central bank expansion. I could tell you to complain and whine about the system, but I’d rather encourage you to thrive and be ahead of the curve on this. Do what the rich do, and own assets.