The Politics Test: #4

[YaBoyNY]

Strongly Agree. (Normal opinion)

[YaBoyNY]

Why must we raise the rates?

Sometimes governments like to have revenue.

Sometimes the people like to be entitled to the fruits of their labor and not have so much unneeded, cuttable bureaucracy

Aw, boohoo.

The rich person making $5,000,000 a year might make only $2,500,000 a year. How will they ever survive with such meager pay?

Oh, oh, or even worse. Somebody who never had to work a day in their life for their fortune might have some of the fruits of somebody else's labor taken away. A travesty.

[YaBoyNY]

I don't know. Jealousy? It seems like basic morality to me that something is fundamentally unfair when one arbitrary group of people get all the fruits of economic growth while others are left in the cold.

Economic growth doesn't fall from the skies, it happens because people take risks and add something that the market values. I'm for a safety net for those who cannot work, but I don't think it is immoral for some to earn much more than others. And I don't think at this point the rich should be taxed even more.

You sure are right.

All those silver spooned kids took tremendous risks and added to the market by popping out of the vagina of a rich mother who had a rich husband.

[YaBoyNY]

All those silver spooned kids took tremendous risks and added to the market by popping out of the vagina of a rich mother who had a rich husband.

That is literally nonsense for many people. Personal example: my grandfather worked in a factory all his life, coming from an extremely poor background. My father is a working-class guy, he built his own successful company himself by working 80 to 90 hours a week, every week. While I do agree he should contribute to the social system etc., I do not think at all it's fair to characterize stories like these as people who "were lucky" or "popped out of a rich mother". For every silver spooner, there are so many hard-working people who, in Republican terms, did build that.

Notice how it's your father and grandfather who you speak of.

Wealth inequality has jumped tremendously in the past few decades.

[YaBoyNY]

Notice how it's your father and grandfather who you speak of.

Wealth inequality has jumped tremendously in the past few decades.

Not sure what you're implying with that first statement. Yes, wealth inequality has jumped (in the US probably a lot more than in the Netherlands, but still...) but I don't think this changes reality regarding my statement. Today people are also earning their own money and wealth through hard work. I'd understand raising the capital gains tax, even if I disagree with it, but the sentiment that all well-off people are simply upper class and didn't earn anything themselves is hopelessly 19th-century-like.

It's more modern than it is 19th century. The amount of self-made millionaires really is far smaller than you think.