I think the rich should ABSOLUTELY pay more because the majority of them are selfish and don't care about anybody but themselves! Trust me, if you are a millionaire, it is NOT going to hurt you if you just pay a little more in taxes. I believe that if you are a good and righteous person, you would want to help the poor or people that are less fortunate. It's as simple as that! People need to stop being so selfish.
That would work if you believe in charity, but government shouldn't be treated as a charity organization. The greater role and responsibility of the less fortunate should be left to private organizations like the Salvation Army and various faith based groups or shelters. Government having to force others to give, and pick and choose who best should be coerced into that role is not so much from the fact the rich are selfish. When you begin to believe it's the role of government to take on the role of providing for the poor rather than the individual, and society becomes numb and acclimated to accepting that view, it speaks to the nation as a whole being very self centered. In other words "Let someone else do it, they can spare to give something and the government can see to it they do." - kind of mentality. However, the government of freebies and checks hasn't shown an improvement in helping the poor achieve a better way of life, in fact Billions of unanswered dollars hasn't been shown to put a dent in reducing poverty. Rather it appears to have created more an accustomed "acclimated" mentality without much accountability or self sustained improvement to seek a better way of life, where government soon becomes the enabler rather than the help the poor really need.
Yes, better to have "work" no matter how low a wage (3rd world nations CONServative policy creates!), than be dependent on Gov't like EVERY OTHER DEVELOPED NATION right?
Without the myths and fetishes of the Randian cultist, you Klowns MIGHT have something!
Government welfare does not increase wages. We had high wages in this country before we ever had welfare or Social Security.
Sure Bubba, sure
1890–1928
The Progressive Era
In 1900, if a mother had four children, there was a fifty-fifty chance that one would die before the age of 5. At the same time, half of all young people lost a parent before they reached the age of 21.
In 1900, the average family had an annual income of $3,000 (in today's dollars). The family had no indoor plumbing, no phone, and no car. About half of all American children lived in poverty.
Most teens did not attend school; instead, they labored in factories or fields.
Digital History
In 1900, only 6 in 10 school-aged children in New York were enrolled in school. By 1920, 9 out of every 10 school age children were registered.
The Gordons' Story
March 12, 1907 — West 28th St. Storm water poured from the ceiling of the basement apartment and down its plaster walls, soaking the family’s meager bed, dresser, and table before coming to rest in deep, dirty puddles on the floor. Maria Gordon’s family—her nine-year-old niece, Edith, and six month-old foster child, Perry—had nowhere to sleep, and the workspace where Maria laundered clothes for her clients was unusable.
The Progressive Era | History of Poverty & Homelessness in NYC
From the mid-1800s into the 1900s, reformers pushed for a ban on child labor, arguing that working was bad for child development and that it decreased the wages of working adults. This campaign was successful on the state level—New York created restrictions on child labor in 1903—
but there would be no successful national ban on child labor until 1938.
The Progressive Era | History of Poverty & Homelessness in NYC
The Tenement House Act of 1901 was the third in a series of tenement-reform laws passed by the New York State legislature. Like the
laws passed in 1867 and
1879, it aimed to improve conditions in the city’s tenements—particularly in terms of ventilation, waste removal, and fire safety. Unlike previous laws, it provided a mechanism for enforcing its regulations.
Although the
Tenement House Act of 1879 required a window in each bedroom, in practice most windows still opened onto dark interior airshafts. In an attempt to bring light and fresh air to bedrooms, the 1901 law set a minimum amount of space outside each window and required that the window be accessible for cleaning. As a result, landlords constructed buildings with courtyards rather than airshafts. To add to the increased illumination of tenement interiors that these modifications provided, the law also required all public spaces inside the buildings to be lit by either natural light (through windows and skylights) or artificial light (powered by gas or electricity).
The Progressive Era | History of Poverty & Homelessness in NYC