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If you think I'm in that category of individual, you clearly haven't been paying any attention to my posts.
To be clear-
I do not believe that inheritance in any form is earning.
I do not believe that tax evasion via off shore banking and "investment" is earning.
If you made your wealth with real, honest work. Cool. You deserve to defend it. I don't really care if you stepped on direct competitors, that's business, but don't step on the people underneath you just for a third yacht.
I find these comments unacceptably in contradiction to the American ideal for the protection of liberty and property. For starters, who are you or anyone else to pronounce that inheritances are not earned? How in the world could you possibly know what anyone contributed to the family farm or other enterprise to earn, or not earn, their inheritance? What unpaid forms of labor they have devoted to the decedent and to that estate? And even if that bequest is not "earned" in that fashion, how dare anyone presume to take what someone else has got, no matter whether it was their family member's first or not?
In my opinion, it is a disgusting, thievish attitude to have because the only reason to have it is to justify stealing it, by condemning those who have inherited as being not the rightful owners or otherwise unworthy of their own property. Property rights should be sacrosanct - that is the American ideal. The State does not have any legitimate claim to what anyone has got, so whether they die and leave it to their relatives or give it to a stranger, or order it to go to a cause that they support, its not any concern or business of the government's or of anyone else.
As for investments not being earned....that's also ridiculous. You don't think investing is "real work"? I guess investing requires zero effort to product a return, right? It doesn't require any knowledge. You don't have to expend any time or effort to figure out how to invest, or where to invest, or when to invest. There's absolutely not any risk, not an iota of time, nor a single thought, or any research required to invest. It's just all magical. Unearned manna from the gods of fortune and random chance.
Clearly if you have this perspective then you have never been an investor. Well, I have. And I can assure you it was a full-time job. A stressful, demanding, never-ending job, complete with long days, sleepless nights, travel, worry, and ill-effects on health and happiness. I can honestly state that being an investor has been the hardest job I have ever had. And I have been many things in my life, and had work assignments that were dangerous, physically exhausting and demanding, some not even well-compensated, which I won't delve into. Suffice it to say I have done the "real honest work" to which you refer.
Investment is just a term that means your money works for you. It is the same as if you dig a well, or plant a garden, your prior labor works for you. Money is just another store of value. That value can represent the accrual of labor, or the accrual of some other owned resource which has been previously exchanged for money.
I just cannot fathom how anyone could possibly view either inheritance or investment as "stepping on the people underneath you". How does that harm anyone else? What have they got to do with your inheritance, or your investments?
To me, this position of disdain and disrespect for other people's property smacks of nothing but base emotions like jealousy. It is what the Marxists have exploited to gin up "class envy".
I once naively thought we were a better people than this, than to covet what others have. I know I was not raised that way. Here's how I was raised: It isn't yours, so hands off other people's stuff.... I thought we all learned this rule back in Kindergarten. Clearly, I was mistaken. It has become very disappointing.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
4,409 posts, read 6,543,919 times
Reputation: 6253
Quote:
Originally Posted by phantompilot
I find these comments unacceptably in contradiction to the American ideal for the protection of liberty and property. For starters, who are you or anyone else to pronounce that inheritances are not earned? How in the world could you possibly know what anyone contributed to the family farm or other enterprise to earn, or not earn, their inheritance? What unpaid forms of labor they have devoted to the decedent and to that estate? And even if that bequest is not "earned" in that fashion, how dare anyone presume to take what someone else has got, no matter whether it was their family member's first or not?
In my opinion, it is a disgusting, thievish attitude to have because the only reason to have it is to justify stealing it, by condemning those who have inherited as being not the rightful owners or otherwise unworthy of their own property. Property rights should be sacrosanct - that is the American ideal. The State does not have any legitimate claim to what anyone has got, so whether they die and leave it to their relatives or give it to a stranger, or order it to go to a cause that they support, its not any concern or business of the government's or of anyone else.
As for investments not being earned....that's also ridiculous. You don't think investing is "real work"? I guess investing requires zero effort to product a return, right? It doesn't require any knowledge. You don't have to expend any time or effort to figure out how to invest, or where to invest, or when to invest. There's absolutely not any risk, not an iota of time, nor a single thought, or any research required to invest. It's just all magical. Unearned manna from the gods of fortune and random chance.
Clearly if you have this perspective then you have never been an investor. Well, I have. And I can assure you it was a full-time job. A stressful, demanding, never-ending job, complete with long days, sleepless nights, travel, worry, and ill-effects on health and happiness. I can honestly state that being an investor has been the hardest job I have ever had. And I have been many things in my life, and had work assignments that were dangerous, physically exhausting and demanding, some not even well-compensated, which I won't delve into. Suffice it to say I have done the "real honest work" to which you refer.
Investment is just a term that means your money works for you. It is the same as if you dig a well, or plant a garden, your prior labor works for you. Money is just another store of value. That value can represent the accrual of labor, or the accrual of some other owned resource which has been previously exchanged for money.
I just cannot fathom how anyone could possibly view either inheritance or investment as "stepping on the people underneath you". How does that harm anyone else? What have they got to do with your inheritance, or your investments?
To me, this position of disdain and disrespect for other people's property smacks of nothing but base emotions like jealousy. It is what the Marxists have exploited to gin up "class envy".
I once naively thought we were a better people than this, than to covet what others have. I know I was not raised that way. Here's how I was raised: It isn't yours, so hands off other people's stuff.... I thought we all learned this rule back in Kindergarten. Clearly, I was mistaken. It has become very disappointing.
Jesus Christ, did you read more meaning into my words or what. The person you are arguing with isn't actually me. Further, you completely missed the point I was making.
Did you notice those quotation marks around the word? "Investment". You know what they imply? Go on, give it a guess. I'm not spelling it out for you, I think you're smart enough.
Some believe that it's just the current minorities that are being vocal and demanding. But that's not true. Many ethnic groups in our nation's past tried to assert their own pasts into the America of the time.
The future is built on today. The future belongs to the living of today, the hustlers of today, the problem solvers of today, etc.
I am not vocal and demanding but I do challenge when claims are being made against whole groups of people even in my own home. I think there is a big difference between somebody who challenges vs. somebody who is vocal and demanding.
Jesus Christ, did you read more meaning into my words or what. The person you are arguing with isn't actually me. Further, you completely missed the point I was making.
Did you notice those quotation marks around the word? "Investment". You know what they imply? Go on, give it a guess. I'm not spelling it out for you, I think you're smart enough.
What do you mean its not you? Its *your* post. Or is CookieSkoon just an autonomous collective that all takes turns posting?
And I have no idea what you intend by putting "investment" into quotes, only that it seems to dismissively characterize the term, in keeping with your expressed belief that the proceeds of investments have not been earned.
That's as smart as I am. If you intended some other Super Secret Decoder Ring meaning, I don't have one.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
4,409 posts, read 6,543,919 times
Reputation: 6253
Quote:
Originally Posted by phantompilot
What do you mean its not you? Its *your* post. Or is CookieSkoon just an autonomous collective that all takes turns posting?
And I have no idea what you intend by putting "investment" into quotes, only that it seems to dismissively characterize the term, in keeping with your expressed belief that the proceeds of investments have not been earned.
That's as smart as I am. If you intended some other Super Secret Decoder Ring meaning, I don't have one.
What I mean is that you put a lot of meaning into my words that was not intended. We are not as at odds as you think.
Quotations imply facade. In this case, investment is a word many crooked rich hide behind to conceal or distract from criminal and immoral dealings. A lot of which I am sure I do not have to lay out.
I am not condemning investors. I am condemning the sheeps clothing of "investing" in foreign "business".
jbgusa has a point. As much bashing as they take it was white Christian males who demanded an end to the slave trade in civilized countries.
America was last in and first out in that wretched practice.
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