Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We're all 'forced' to redribute our weath, well anyone who has any. It's called taxes and I'd feel swell if every millionaire/billionaire were forced to distribute as much of a percentage of their wealth as I pay.
But of course if your not a millionaire/billionaire and one of the 'little people', you're screwed.
Welcome to America...
The rich pay much more in taxes than you in the vast majority of cases.
I am sure many are sick and tired of all these million/billionaires hogging all the money spending it on frivolous things rather than helping poor people. Hypothetically let's say every person that has millions/billions were forced to distribute all their money to the poor and social programs, how would you feel?
I would be outraged. I am by no means a millionaire and believe me we struggle at times, and at one point in my life I was actually living at poverty level! If some millionaire or billionaire wanted to go ahead and help the needy I would be all for it! That being said, by no means should it ever be conceivable that the government takes, by force, a person's property (including their money) and redistributes it. There is something far and away more sinister about this than the shady ethical dealings that you mentioned. We would by no means be living in a free country if this were the case.
For the record, why would you frame many big business leaders as corruptible and inherently evil, yet big government (necessary for the redistribution picture that you painted) inherently benevolent?
I would feel like I lived in a communist country and know life would change for the worse. Thou shalt not covet.
I don't understand wanting what others have worked for when you live in a country where you are free to do any work you choose for yourself. That sounds like a lazy person to me.
Isn't working so that you can have more things still coveting? I mean, you did earn them yourself, but you had to want them in the first place in order to be willing to work for them, so isn't that in itself coveting?
What I don't understand is people don't mind their money being spent on things to kill people (military, weapons, armored vehicles, etc.) but don't you dare spend one penny of their money giving the american people free healthcare. It won't be an exclusive thing anymore, the playing field will be leveled, and they don't want that.
It's the same reason society is against prostitution, it removes the whole social hierarchy that says "Only certain, high status men get to have sex with attractive girls" and makes it to where anyone with money can get access to sex whenever they want, instead of playing by the rules society has put in place. People want social inequality so they have someone to look down on.
What I don't understand is people don't mind their money being spent on things to kill people (military, weapons, armored vehicles, etc.) but don't you dare spend one penny of their money giving the american people free healthcare. It won't be an exclusive thing anymore, the playing field will be leveled, and they don't want that.
It's the same reason society is against prostitution, it removes the whole social hierarchy that says "Only certain, high status men get to have sex with attractive girls" and makes it to where anyone with money can get access to sex whenever they want, instead of playing by the rules society has put in place. People want social inequality so they have someone to look down on.
That's our government, not 'we the people'.
Look through a number of threads here and you'll find people of all political persuasions arguing we need to stop sticking our nose in everyone's business and take care of our domestic problems.
How would you feel if every millionaire/billionaire were forced to distribute their wealth?
I'd certainly quit trying to work hard enough to become a millionaire.
And so would pretty much everyone else who used to try.
Why should I try to start my own business (the most frequent way Americans become millionaires), go through years of 20-hour workdays, take all the dangerous chances, risk my family's future, fail a few times and start over until I finally get it right....
....only to have some government bureaucrat tell me I'm greedy and heartless, and take it all away?
What I don't understand is people don't mind their money being spent on things to kill people (military, weapons, armored vehicles, etc.) but don't you dare spend one penny of their money giving the american people free healthcare. It won't be an exclusive thing anymore, the playing field will be leveled, and they don't want that.
It is the government's job to maintain strong defenses. It is not the government's job to provide healthcare. That's a socialist concept which is relatively new to our mostly capitalist society, which we have maintained for the last 200 years or so.
I would feel like I lived in a communist country and know life would change for the worse. Thou shalt not covet.
I don't understand wanting what others have worked for when you live in a country where you are free to do any work you choose for yourself. That sounds like a lazy person to me.
How cute, you want to play the Bible game:
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter Heaven."
"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God."
"Thou shalt not covet" is also not one of the commandments listed by Jesus in the Gospels.
There is absolutely no Biblical justification for catering to the wealthy, especially at the expense of the poor which is the absolute foundation of the Republican party.
It is the government's job to maintain strong defenses. It is not the government's job to provide healthcare. That's a socialist concept which is relatively new to our mostly capitalist society, which we have maintained for the last 200 years or so.
All modern liberal democracies have elements of socialism. It's not a bad thing.
If we had a system where everyone paid their "fair share", people would pay for the infrastructure and services which they consumed.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't please most conservatives (let alone most liberals), because a large part of taxation is to incentivize certain norms of behavior, and another part is to spread (socialize???) the costs. For example, I have no children - by choice. Under your proposal, I'd be exempt from the portion of income-tax, property-tax and so forth, that go towards funding public schools. But most people would argue, that such private gain leads to public impoverishment, for it attenuates the potential of the next generation. Furthermore, my failure to become a parent, is itself a kind of irresponsibility, since I'm not even contributing to the existence of a new generation. Conservatives might even argue for a "childlessness tax", to disincentivize my lifestyle choice.
I live in the countryside, where we don't have public utilities such as water, sewer, gas, internet and so forth. If I were to be exempted from the state/local taxes that subsidize utilities in the city, arguably the overall community would suffer. Grocery stores, banks, restaurants and so forth would have to pay higher utility-prices, because the tax-base has been reduced.
I'm relatively (knock on the proverbial wood!) healthy, but my health insurance premiums aren't tied to my level of health, fitness, weight, age and so forth. I don't get a discount for not smoking, or for being able to run a mile within a certain number of minutes. If I did, then other persons - less blessed with comparatively robust health - would have to pay more, leading to unfair and unsustainable situations.
In sum, I'd personally be delighted with a fee-for-service paradigm, be it in public utilities or healthcare or education or whatever else. But is this practical?
Wisdom that I recently found in a fortune-cookie: "A fine is a tax for doing badly. A tax is a fine for doing well".
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
