Zone1 What is Wrong with Inequality?

[alang1216]

Where is your shining beacon of egalitarianism and equity?

We fought a war to get rid of a monarch and his nobles, do you really want to live through another?

 

[Captain Caveman]

You guys make me laugh

You villainize migrants who do those jobs and chase the homeless out of your cities

You laugh because you're stuck for words, hence the deflections and not answering.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

I've had a blast accumulating wealth and my kids will have a blast spending it.

My son will pay off his student loan and home mortgage.
My daughter will give most of hers away to her lazy, good-for-nothings friends

Oh well.

America Is a Country Club Hosting the Nepo Open

HeirHeads should be ashamed of not doing it on their own. Preppy Progressives, who think they are ashamed, really want to be HeirDads to the worthless. Their birth-class instincts make them just as much enemies of civilization as those who believe they are preordained, either by a supernatural power or a natural and inevitable justice, to deserve being born rich. It is as irrational, self-serving, and destructive as the Hindu belief in reincarnation.

The RichKid's Reich unspoken religion is that there was a pre-life. So who were judged by God to be obedient servants were rewarded by being born rich.

 

[alang1216]

If the homeless guy mowed the lawn, pulled the weeds, and swept the driveway, what tax did he pay on the $50?

He probably paid more in taxes than Trump did (as a portion of his income). Even if he didn't pay income or SS tax, he still paid sales and gas taxes. A portion of his rent went to local real estate taxes.

 

[OODA_Loop]

We fought a war to get rid of a monarch and his nobles, do you really want to live through another?

I don’t see the connection with a government bureaucrat to determine how much money they can take from my pocket to redistribute to others in the name of their view of what is equitable.

 

[alang1216]

I don’t see the connection with a government bureaucrat to determine how much money they can take from my pocket to redistribute to others in the name of their view of what equitable

Government bureaucrats do NOT determine anything, it is your elected representatives in Congress that take money from your pocket to redistribute to others in the name of their view of what equitable.

 

[OODA_Loop]

Government bureaucrats do NOT determine anything, it is your elected representatives in Congress that take money from your pocket to redistribute to others in the name of their view of what equitable.

The elected officials, I vote for try to reduce the tax burden.

 

[Captain Caveman]

He probably paid more in taxes than Trump did (as a portion of his income). Even if he didn't pay income or SS tax, he still paid sales and gas taxes. A portion of his rent went to local real estate taxes.

I wish posters would take the topic seriously.

 

[Woodznutz]

That's a lot more nuanced argument and position than most of what we get from the commie left.

If you want to have a discussion about changing the environment to make it easier for the working poor to survive or even thrive, without demonizing the rich or middle class, that could be a constructive discussion.

Most lefties aren't interested in anything like that.

A good place to start would be accepting the facts of life.

 

[Woodznutz]

An Ignition Key Is Not an Engine

True, but it starts the engine.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

“Better is bread with a happy heart, than wealth with vexation”​

― Amenemope, Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh

From an HeirHead pharaoh? He just wanted to make the commoners feel sorry for those sitting pretty.

 

[Woodznutz]

The elected officials, I vote for try to reduce the tax burden.

Taxes are low in America. Not so much in socialistic countries.

 

[Meathead]

Speaking of personal wealth as measured in economic Net Worth, there is absolutely no question that "inequality" is increasing beyond any precedent in a free country. The people at the bottom, so to speak, have less than nothing; their Net Worth is below zero, while the wealthiest of us - mainly entrepreneurs and investors - accumulate more and more wealth.

It is axiomatic on the Left that "inequality" is bad. They obviously feel that increasing "inequality" is self-evidently evil, and must be fought. They base whole political campaigns on promises to fight inequality.

What's wrong with inequality? Imagine an entrepreneur who invents a new gadget that millions of people quickly decide that they are willing to pay substantial amounts of money to have, and that entrepreneur is able to accumulate a King's Ransom on the profits from those gadgets.

So what? Why is that a bad thing? Is anyone else made poorer or more wretched by the entrepreneur's accumulation of wealth? Assume he pays millions and millions in all manner of taxes, complying with every relevant tax law.

Equality is a human construct and counter to nature which only recognizes equilibrium.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

We live in a society that requires the interaction between people. Super-wealth serves no purpose in a society. Protecting the accumulation of super-wealth is counter to the country's best interests. Taxes should be really high as you make super-wealth levels of income.

Taxing away inherited wealth would eliminate the need for any income taxes, including those on the earned income of the plutocracy.

 

[Woodznutz]

I spent 10 years saving up for an apartment building. In the same time period tens of thousands spent the same amount of money or more on cigarettes, drugs, and booze.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

Yes, because a bloated bureaucratic government sucking up money is better somehow, because, reasons....

False alternative

 

[citygator]

Taxing away inherited wealth would eliminate the need for any income taxes, including those on the earned income of the plutocracy.

That's pretty radical but I get the sentiment. Keep what you earn but your kids dont get much of it. Certainly keeps the rewards to the earner and minimizes nepotism through family wealth. Trump would be broke.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

People who don't work don't pay taxes. Many low wage earners collect more in tax-funded benefits than they pay in taxes.

Arbitrary Profit Is Also a Tax on the Employees and Consumers

Everybody pays sales tax. Buying anything also creates taxable income for the seller.

 

[AZrailwhale]

Sure. You can starve with dignity intact, no doubt.

In most states retail food is not subject to sales tax.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

However, what is good for my family may not be good for our society.

Familyism Is Even More Primitive Than Tribalism

Unless hereditary opportunities are abolished for everyone, a father would be cheating his son out of the most available way to get opportunities. The disinherited would become as excluded as the commoners are, no matter what his natural abilities.