Quote:
Originally posted by iroc409
you worked awful hard at the post, but i don't think you really see the big picture.
yes, there are 'bad' ceos and all that crap, but that's the way it's always going to be. you can't destroy the hard workers that really strive to get to where they are just because of some bad seeds.
what you're pointing out here is seemlingly a point of "everyone should be happy with mediocrity". even that, a $250,000 house in a lot of parts around this country, won't buy much.
but say even that everyone was happy to have the same thing. what about the entrepreneurs and such that make the world go round? do you have any idea of how much capital that requires?
sure, you can tax the fuck out of the rich so it makes it harder to make big business work (which many of the "poor" are clearly dependant upon for their livelihood). but where do they get the extra capital to make things work?
even if you put an extremely light tax on the poor, they aren't going to have the capital to make business work, plain and simple. if a person making 20k a year only pays 1k in taxes, that other 19k a year isn't going to do shit in business.
if you tax a person who made 1 million dollars, $500k (just for example), that kind of capital could be re-invested in biz. it could open a new store of a franchise (albeit a small store) that adds jobs to a local market. it could be used for all kinds of things.
maybe you see where i'm getting at, maybe you don't. it's early.
but not only that... if everyone would be happy with a $250k house and $20k cars, it just takes the motivation out of everything. rather orwelian if you ask me. the only thing that drives people to work harder and acheive more is through getting a better position in life. make it too difficult, and people will stop.
if there's no money for private business, there's no motivation. there's no innovation. we get fewer and fewer enhancements on living. and there's certainly no motivation to make the nice cars on the road and such (and i'd argue that an "average" car these days only costs $20,000. go look at accords, camrys, impalas and the like. even a basic 2wd pickup new costs more than that).
money isn't everything, and it's not everyone's "key to success". but it makes society and the world go round...
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I'm in a hurry, so I'll have to complete this post later, but you missed one thing:
Like the money that goes into business, the money that goes into taxes also benefits society. It pays for policemen, highways, hospitals, schools, teachers, universities, science, the military, etc. All those things are needed to make society run.
Like you said, the 20k of the common worker won't do jack shit in business. Neither will it in taxes. However, if you tax the common worker with his 20k a year 25%, that means he won't be able to afford a car, or won't be able to make rent or whatever.
If you tax the guy making 1 million a year 25%, he'll still be able to live extremely well, with a huge house, some nice cars, etc.
Communism is an extremely dumb idea that doesn't work. We know that.
But this isn't about making everyone equal. It's about being able to pay for the necessities of society and letting the strongest shoulders bear the heaviest burden. With progressive taxes people can still get extremely rich. It'll just benefit society as a whole more and have less negative impact on the lives of people.