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It has never been tried. What has been tried is what we have - excessive regulation and brigades of government officials who are routinely paid off to look the other way.
Or are you under the impression that under the heavy regulation of collectivist governments we are presently experiencing a "corruption free, environmentally clean, livable, and functioning society". Yeah, that's so obviously true! Like in China. Or Chicago. Such a notion is so utterly ludicrous that it seems impossible that anyone could entertain it. But yet, here we are... In actuality, it seems that corruption and political depravity correlate directly with the volume of regulation that a government is "trusted" with. With the biggest collectivist and statist regimes exhibiting the most unparalleled and fantastic levels of utter corruption. I'll take my chances with the industrialists.
Actually, it has. In the US it's called the Robber Baron Era. Rotten food, life threatening working conditions, sewage in the streets, no child labor laws, poison peddled as medicine, dangerous tenement housing, etc., and no one liable for the suffering. When there are no regulations, there's not even anyone to pay off - the rich truly do rule. The courts? They own those too.
I've said time and time again, eventually corporations will be our elected officials. For a preview of how a city can become a corporation, look no further than the City of London where deregulation runs rampant, where the 'city' is considered a corporation, where corporations and companies have more votes than the average citizen, the corporation of London is so powerful that even the UK parliament doesn't write rules for it nor does it have to answer any questions from the UK parliament, this is what your future US will look like if things aren't controlled a bit more.
SN: none of what I was saying about the City of London is an exaggeration, The City is really considered a corporation where corporations have more say so in the politics than the people do.
All I can say is that if you think you've got it bad, try being in the top 3-5 percent of income earners - too well off for anyone to feel empathy for, but definitely NOT the filthy rich and usually lacking the "connections" to evade taxes, hide money, call in favors, use public resources for personal use, etc.
My husband and I had an income increase this past year - and that increase resulted in us paying in HALF that increase in additional taxes. What a work incentive! "Work harder - pay half your extra income back in taxes!"
We work from January till May before we make one penny for ourselves. I'm not complaining about paying our taxes, or about our lifestyle. What I'm saying is that it's not the 1 percenters who are carrying the load, and it's not the nearly 50 percent of working Americans who either don't pay in or get refunded (sometimes in EXCESS of what they paid in) their federal taxes, who are footing the bill. It's the stable, and fairly well off middle class - who is becoming more and more "demonized" by being categorized as "the wealthy" by the media - and politicians who, as part of the top 1-3 percent of wage earners, are the consummate hypocrites.
It's ridiculous to claim so simply and with such a blanket statement that anyone making over $200,000 a year is wealthy.
There is no wealth inequality in America. Because the concept is meaningless. If someone wants wealth and they do not have it, the path is clear - you need to be smart, you need to work hard, you need to make sacrifices with respect to free time - in short: you have to be amazing and not willing to be less than amazing. You have to bring a high amount of value to other people. Predictably, not many want to make that effort. For those that don't, there will always be wealth inequality: the amount of wealth they would like to have, but are not willing to work for and earn!
What other people have is their problem, or their opportunity, and no one else's business. I don't care if 90% of the wealth is controlled by 10% of the population. Guess what? That's how it works in every profession. Most of the wealth is earned by the few, because they are worth it, while most others are not. Yes, there is a such thing as talent, and strength and speed and intellect and ability at athletics, music, organizing, motivating others, etc, etc, etc.
If you are not talented and are just a boring member of the middle of the bell curve, you should not expect wealth, and should consider yourself lucky that the talented blazed the trail you get to walk on at a leisurely pace.
We need less envy in this country. Stop worrying about the rich. If you want money, earn it. But be prepared - there will be a sacrifice. If you are a lazy good-for-nothing, you are still free to sit there with your stupid brain cell-killing six-pack and stare at the football game every Sunday, Monday, Thursday, on the 70 inch plasma that someone amazing invented and/or improved. But stop complaining. you shouldn't have wealth, you do not deserve it and wouldn't know what to do with it if you did have it.
There are elite human beings. Be thankful and bow down. Without them you are the same caveman your 100-great grandfather was.
(when I say you, I mean "one", not you personally... so many people misinterpret the pronoun "you" as a personal attack).
There is no wealth inequality in America. Because the concept is meaningless. If someone wants wealth and they do not have it, the path is clear - you need to be smart, you need to work hard, you need to make sacrifices with respect to free time - in short: you have to be amazing and not willing to be less than amazing. You have to bring a high amount of value to other people. Predictably, not many want to make that effort. For those that don't, there will always be wealth inequality: the amount of wealth they would like to have, but are not willing to work for and earn!
What other people have is their problem, or their opportunity, and no one else's business. I don't care if 90% of the wealth is controlled by 10% of the population. Guess what? That's how it works in every profession. Most of the wealth is earned by the few, because they are worth it, while most others are not. Yes, there is a such thing as talent, and strength and speed and intellect and ability at athletics, music, organizing, motivating others, etc, etc, etc.
If you are not talented and are just a boring member of the middle of the bell curve, you should not expect wealth, and should consider yourself lucky that the talented blazed the trail you get to walk on at a leisurely pace.
We need less envy in this country. Stop worrying about the rich. If you want money, earn it. But be prepared - there will be a sacrifice. If you are a lazy good-for-nothing, you are still free to sit there with your stupid brain cell-killing six-pack and stare at the football game every Sunday, Monday, Thursday, on the 70 inch plasma that someone amazing invented and/or improved. But stop complaining. you shouldn't have wealth, you do not deserve it and wouldn't know what to do with it if you did have it.
There are elite human beings. Be thankful and bow down. Without them you are the same caveman your 100-great grandfather was.
(when I say you, I mean "one", not you personally... so many people misinterpret the pronoun "you" as a personal attack).
You are either still young and extremely naive, or Poe's Law is in play here. It's so hard to tell around here.
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