Your thoughts on this passage?

[JBeukema]

The OP promotes a destructive form of altruism in which one is allowed to keep the dregs of one's productivity only after all those in NEED first feed off of him.

No thank you.

The only reason why Government exists is because altruism is a myth.

Altruism is not wholly a myth. However, it is a myth that private altruism [that is, altruism not organized and enacted through the machinations of the State] has historically been sufficient.

 

[JBeukema]

bump



mikey?

 

[JBeukema]

mike?

 

[MikeK]

Forgive the lateness of my reply; something came up while I was composing it and I was forced to delay its completion by several hours

No problem. We all have other things to do. And one of the good things about these Internet forums is one can participate when in the mood to and when time allows.

We must define what constitutes 'excessive wealth accumulation'.

Having given that question a bit of thought some time ago I settled on the speculative point at which wealth becomes excessive and I settled on a sum which I believe to be reasonable. I believe a net worth limit of twenty million dollars should be imposed on the accumulation of personal assets.

The first time I proposed that idea on several Internet forums, which was about five years ago, I was attacked and virtually exorcised (from the NewsMax forum). But as time went on and the direction our country is headed in became more apparent the level of protest and diminished and the tone of disagreement softened. Lately there is little opposition to my overtly socialistic suggestion and recently I was pleased to find some agreement with it.

What is your opinion?

 

[IHI4eva]

great replies from everyone in this post thread. I don't even know if I want to voice my opinion now, I'll just back someone else's I think! (Trajan's actually)

 

[JBeukema]

Forgive the lateness of my reply; something came up while I was composing it and I was forced to delay its completion by several hours

No problem. We all have other things to do. And one of the good things about these Internet forums is one can participate when in the mood to and when time allows.

We must define what constitutes 'excessive wealth accumulation'.

Having given that question a bit of thought some time ago I settled on the speculative point at which wealth becomes excessive and I settled on a sum which I believe to be reasonable. I believe a net worth limit of twenty million dollars should be imposed on the accumulation of personal assets.

1) Why that number?

2) define: dollars American Dollars? 2010 Dollars or 1898 Dollars? Dollar bills? What about monetary inflation- or even, less probably, monetary deflation which could cause your 20 million to become at some point in the future the equivalent (in terms of buying power) of 200k or 200 million. How do you account for this?

3) You never explained why the accumulation of wealth is in itself a bad thing; I suspect you're viewing wealth as something near a zero-sum gain. If the average income of the American family were 19.5 million dollars, would you still demand your cap of 20 million? Keep in mind that hyperinflation has occurred elsewhere in the past.

Again, please explain how the accumulation of wealth is a bad thing.

What is your opinion?

I thought I made it clear here. In fact, it begins right right after the sentence you quoted.

For one thing, we should return to the pre-carter marginal tax rates. Since carter we've seen increasingly disproportionate wealth concentration and the decline of the middle class.

Second, we need a ban on all imported goods not deemed Sweat-free by an independent council and import tariffs on products manufactured in factories which do not meet a new 'Imported Goods Environmental Protection Standard' to mirror our own Clean Air and Water acts and related legislation. Together, these will disincentivize 'outsourcing' and encourage a return of manufacturing to the United States. There will be an initial state of market shock as the capitalists attempt to preserve their current profit margins [they won't be able to, since Americans no longer accept sweatshops and flaming rivers], but we must get past that phase in order to achieve market equilibrium at a new, healthier, paradigm.