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Have to agree with this post although I would take out the left/right pro/anti Obama stuff.
Our responsibility for societal equality is really about ensuring equality of opportunity as far as that is possible. Because, in the real world, we are not all equal. Some are smarter than others, some are willing to work harder than others and some have the gift of creativity and originality. At the same time, we all have different attitudes to wealth. Some like to spend, others like to save.
The question therefore is .... is it fair to penalize people for being smart, for working longer hours (e.g. overtime), for enhancing their education while still working or for being creative over those who are happy to work their 40 hours and live day to day? And is it fair to penalize those who have been frugal and not spent every penny they ever earned?
And is it fair, healthy or ethical for politicians to play on class jealousy as a tactic for getting elected.
This is not an argument against social justice or giving a helping hand to those who need it. But it is not social justice to penalize some at the expense of others.
asking a rich person to make a larger contribution is not penalising them , unfortunatley we cannot simply sit and hope that they will make a satisfactory volluntary contribution , history has taught us that most people wont play ball unless they are compelled to for the most part
maybe its a european - american divide but i can never get my head around the american mindset of deep concern for how the well off are suffering
Who cares what other people want. You get places in life by going after what YOU want.
do you collect all theese pearls of wisdom from comic books or the waltons or worse still , those insufferable donald trump speeches
for every ten people with a die hard wil to win approach , one will make it , same with successfull musicians or actors , do you think tom cruise is that much better at what he does than a thousand other actors of the same height , appearance etc , life is a lottery for the most part , most do average , a small minority have endless hardship and an even small minority have unlimited success , the difference in ability between the top 1% super successfull and the middle 80% is measured by luck for the most part
Is that it Bob , you want to be an actor but cant act? Too effing bad. Then get another job . Give it your all and work your way up the ladder to a management position.
Or continue to do what your doing , next to nothing but complaining like a 12 yr old.
And no such thing as a government that want poor people to settle and be happy, what's going on now is what should have taken place decades ago.... A angry middle and poor class asking questions and seeking answers.
First of all, it isn't the 98% making a stink, it is a small percentage of that 98% and they are not asking questions, they are blaming other people, specifically the rich, for their own failures.
Is that it Bob , you want to be an actor but cant act? Too effing bad. Then get another job . Give it your all and work your way up the ladder to a management position.
Or continue to do what your doing , next to nothing but complaining like a 12 yr old.
i dont need a life coach or any other kind of advisor , im doing fine financially , doesnt mean i have to entertain bullcrap about how taxing the megawealthy so ordinary folk can afford decent services is immoral
First of all it isn't the 98% making a stink, it is a small percentage of that 98% and they are not asking questions, they are blaming other people, specifically the rich, for their own failures.
so you dont think the rich get a better deal in america than the poor , its simply a case of all well off people being winners and all less well off folk being pathetic losers , its that simple ? , the system is fine as it is ?
All 10+ million of them? I mean, are you really going to reduce their situation to, "the fact that they're poor is evidence they didn't work hard"? Because that's quite the logical fallacy.
All 10+ million of them? I mean, are you really going to reduce their situation to, "the fact that they're poor is evidence they didn't work hard"? Because that's quite the logical fallacy.
Witht the exception of a small percentage who faced unavoidable roadblocks, yes. People come to this country , struggle with the language, struggle with racism and still make something of their lives. This is the land of opertunity. If one is left behind it is usualy their own doing.
i dont need a life coach or any other kind of advisor , im doing fine financially , doesnt mean i have to entertain bullcrap about how taxing the megawealthy so ordinary folk can afford decent services is immoral
Go ahead and tax the megawealthy. I realy dont give a damn. Most will just either hide money or retire. But if you realy think 1700 people are going to balance the budget you are living in lala land.
The working poor often work hard and have nothing to show for it.
To a certain extent that even goes for the middle class.
The relationship between work and pay has simply been perverted over time.
Anyway, unfortunately this has turned into the usual rich vs poor discussion. The interesting thing about the op article is that more than 90% of Americans regardless of political views considers an egalitarian society the goal. How to get there is a different story.
The US vs Sweden thingy prompted some fool to say something like Sweden = socialist = people work little or not at all, and for the US the opposite. Sweden has an unemployment rate of 7.5%, and that according to the stricter EU standards of measurement. In US terms that would be something like 5%.
I think it has nothing to do with politics as such. It is a matter of philosophy, of wisdom, of attitude, of priorities, of culture. Swedes tend to be modest, bragging and piling stuff up is not their style. The average Swede knows their role in society, they don't take themselves so seriously as to think they are the center of the universe and have to drain as much wealth from the system as possible.
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