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https://aeon.co/essays/history-tells-us-where-the-wealth-gap...
In a just society the only way you can get rich is through voluntary interaction by adding value to world. In our society you can get rich through legislation, which has created the wealthy parasitic class that earns a living by preventing competition. To target all the rich is to loot and destroy your society. To target the wealthy parasitic class would be a revolution frankly.
I feel this abolish billionaires movement needs some tweaking. History has many examples of people changing the world for the better and getting filthy rich doing so. If we start wealth taxing these people to limit their resources you are limiting their ability to push boundaries and hopefully advance society. Where I feel the issue sits is with dynastic wealth. Just because grandpa did something, great grandchildren…
In a just society the only way you can get rich is through voluntary interaction by adding value to world. In our society you can get rich through legislation, which has created the wealthy parasitic class that earns a living by preventing competition. To target all the rich is to loot and destroy your society. To target the wealthy parasitic class would be a revolution frankly.
"Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes."
- Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
Real question: If I start a business and people love my product so much so that I become a billionaire. Am I a bad person?
>the man who dies leaving behind many millions of available wealth, which was his to administer during life, will pass away " unwept, unhonored, and unsung," no matter to what uses he leaves the dross which he cannot take with him. Of such as these the public verdict will then be : "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced."
—Andrew Carnegie
In a just society the only way you can get rich is through voluntary interaction by adding value to world. In our society you can get rich through legislation, which has created the wealthy parasitic class that earns a living by preventing competition. To target all the rich is to loot and destroy your society. To target the wealthy parasitic class would be a revolution frankly.
The Jesuits are a very serious bunch of guys - many have died for their beliefs. And just because they are Catholic doesn't mean that they agree with Catholic policy - though they recognize that it has the weight of established policy (as Pope Francis has said more than once as he defended things I know he disagrees with.)
The combined wealth of America's top 400 billionaires in 2017 was 2.7 trillion.
If the social democrats got their dream and took all of their money we could fund the government for only about seven months. When will D.C. and the American people realize that tax rates aren't the problem?! It's the spending stupid!
Edit: Yep, keep downvoting facts people. That will surely save us.
[1]: https://www.thebalance.com/current-u-s-federal-government-sp...
[2]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2018/sep/...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally, I don't go so far as to advocate abolishing billionaires, but I do favor a very high tax bracket like 80 or 90 percent to fund basic redistribution. This would not abolish billionaires, but would make it harder to become a dollar billionaire. When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton answered: "Because that's where the money is."
Well, at least you understand that you’re robbing someone.
Abolish billionaires. Okay, and then what? These ideas never seem to consider what the next steps are. Wealth and inequality will always exist no matter how hard you try to eradicate it. It is fortunately or unfortunately depending on your viewpoint, a fundamental part of the human condition. The only viable stable long-term solution is focusing on uplifting the masses from the bottom up such that, even the poorest c…
You don’t need to eliminate wealthy people or raise everyone into the middle class, you just need policies that constrain the extremes within reasonable limits — for the sake of societal stability if not of basic fairness.
Real question: If I start a business and people love my product so much so that I become a billionaire. Am I a bad person?
No you are not a bad person. If you knew for a fact that you would never make more than $100million no matter how successful it was would you still try to start a business?