Here's an old post of mine (6/24/08) in the "race" thread that addresses my last two points above. Take a look. I know there was some more discussion on this back then, but don't want to reapeat everything that was said, only to reiterate my dislike of the "relative" rhetoric at the expense of "how do we grow the whole pie" type of thinking.Quote from Yannis:
I know someone who is a Supreme Court Judge in a EU country and makes about $50,000/year. He has a hard time being able to afford a nice apartment and a Toyota car, although he is (locally) considered very well off.
When did we stop using absolute language in favor or all-relative expressions? Many of our "poor" would be considered almost rich in most parts of the world. Many of them can afford to live at a standard that is enviable in most foreign countries: remember, over half of the world's population has no access to clean water. But we don't measure that, we don't document how many more services the bottom quarter of Americans get for free, including education, health care, etc. When Bush signed the truly bipartisan Medicare prescription program, he got almost no credit: why hadn't this multi-billion per year "entitlement" been there much sooner?
People never talk about the fact that 5% of Americans pay virtually all taxes in this country. Never a thank you to those of us who provide for everybody. Just the same old wealth re-distribution rhetoric, same old threatening comments that democracy for the liberals means "we're coming over there to take what's left of your money, to fund programs that we all know don't work, but what the heck."
When I was in highschool, many of my classmates would tease me that I wanted to go home and study instead of staying out with them to kick a ball around all afternoon. A few years later, a good portion of them, no doubt, believe that it's their "right" to take my "illegal" and "unfair" money that I managed to earn "on the back of the poor". Yes, it's called "working smarter than your competition for 70 hours every week, for many years, and staying out of trouble," but few of them acknowledge that, no doubt.
I don't want to sound too selfish, or give the impression that I don't care for the poor, because I do. But, at the same time, there is a reason that some people are getting richer, let's not forget that, not in this country. Oh well
Please screw up Obama
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Yannis -- "I just don't want to live in a socialist society, that's all."
You already do. Every society is a mix between socialism and capitalism.
And yes, those that gain the most from society must pay the most into society.
You already do. Every society is a mix between socialism and capitalism.
And yes, those that gain the most from society must pay the most into society.
You are right, I agree. It's just a question of how much. Is it right that all taxes in this country (that those ^^%%$$## politicians waste) are borne by the top 5%, more or less, of earners?
And a question of getting a thank you once in a while. Society should stop and acknowledge the fact that when a doctor or an executive make $300,000 in a year and then the many arms of the government take away half of it, it is "their" money, generated through ingenuity, risk taking and hard work, that funds all these programs that "everybody" wants.
Politicians should clearly acknowledge that if person A pays $150,000 per year in taxes and person B pays $1,000, person A CONTRIBUTES 150 TIMES MORE to our Treasury than person B. Not to mention the many persons C who pay even less.
But, they vote and Obama knows that. One of his battlecries has been, join me and we'll take THEIR money away! It's just too similar to pure and unadulterated financial lynching, so far as I am concerned. And what bothers me the most is that the net result will be detrimental to those who vote that way: the Government will grow but the overall economy will suffer, as it does whenever you remove those most capable of growing it from power. Why is it that unemployment in Europe is double ours?
In my case, I'm a white male too, and so, in this PC society "I get no respect." (Rodney Dangerfield was great, right?
)Yannis:
] Society should stop and acknowledge the fact that when a doctor or an executive make $300,000 in a year and then the many arms of the government take away half of it
I didn't see the doctor complaining when the taxpayer subsidized his education.
] Society should stop and acknowledge the fact that when a doctor or an executive make $300,000 in a year and then the many arms of the government take away half of it
I didn't see the doctor complaining when the taxpayer subsidized his education.