I do NOT condone comments like the following:
Most rich people won their wealth in benign ways: inheritance, good investments, hard work. Most of us would be quite happy to be rich. Some rich people donate heavily to charities; some don't. But it is human nature to be greedy, and to want to pass on one's wealth to one's children.
Wealth inequality is bad for society, but the solution is to take political steps to help the poor, steps like improved schools in low-income areas, increased government funding for healthcare, childcare, education; and so on. Since production is finite, to afford improving the living standards of our poorest it is necessary to insist on higher contributions from our richest: capital gains taxes, estate taxes, and so on. Regulations and transaction taxes are also good to reduce the waste on talent in the financial sector. Better law enforcement would help too; I just read that $100 billion of Covid aid money was diverted to criminals.
Perhaps he agrees with all this, but
Jarhyn's tone is completely wrong. We don't want to tax the rich because there's anything wrong with rich people as individuals. (There are plenty of greedy poor people who just haven't got lucky!) We just want a better allocation of society's finite resources: housing for the homeless, improved schools, and better nutrition for the masses, rather than spending society's finite resources on private jets and imported caviar.
@ Jarhyn, do you mostly care about helping the poor? Or are you more concerned with pulling down the rich? I assume it's the former, but if so, your words are very VERY misleading. I cringe whenever I hear a "liberal" write or speak like this.
I don't think many on the left actually care that much about helping the poor. It seems to me that some of them are MUCH more about wanting to pull down the rich than lifting up the poor.
I continue to be bemused and saddened by the confused hateful bullshit right-wingers come up with to justify their obsessive dislike of progressive thought.
I'm not a right winger. I am a moderate with some conservative leanings and some liberal leanings.
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I have, however, called some people in the modern progressive movement 'regressive', because I see many people of that ilk who do not appreciate the right to free speech and wish to eradicate it. I disagree with left wing proponents of compelled speech, and agree with Jordan Peterson's stance in that area.
That you could describe me as a hateful right winger shows me that you don't know my posting history and I don't believe you care to know me.
I don't keep good track of the political stances of posters. This is the first post from you on a political subject that I recall. (I may have read other political posts from you without noticing the name, or making a permanent memory.) I shall assume that I over-reacted. You DID write "I don't think many on the left actually care that much about helping the poor" which is extremely damning of progressive thought. Do you feel this way about AOC? About Sen. Elizabeth Warren? About me, if you consider me "on the left"?
I hope I'm not wrong about this, but I'll guess that Jarhyn is much more concerned with lifting up the poor than pulling down the rich. I understand that his tone suggests the opposite; I find his attitude very unfortunate.
There is a horrid schism in American politics today. You make a severe charge against most on the "left" which I think is unfair (and which I took personally); I over-react by using pejorative words against you. Can you and I move toward bridging this schism now?