Wow. Does anybody else see the huge gaping flaw in his logic? Could it be that is because the government has kept it’s greedy little hands off of the the earning American’s public money that we as a people have risen to these highly productive times? Mr. Moran… having wealth is not a bad thing.
Abraham Lincoln said it best himself:
Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world.
Could it be these people are accumulating wealth because they are working hard?
For those who feel disheartened by this, here is a bit of motivation for you:
November 12, 2008 at 10:53 am
It could be that these people are cheating their way to the top, or living off the wealth and privilege of those before them, just as much as those who work hard.
Joe the Plumber was a joke. His basic argument is that because he believes something, it’s a principle. Just because he believes that those who are rich shouldn’t be taxed more does not make it a principle. It makes it a belief. We’ve seen in the past few months that rich people clearly are not responsible enough to manage wealth, whether it’s theirs or not.
On another point, all of this arguing over the economy is really pointless and almost disrespectful. I make just over $30,000 CDN a year, which puts me in the top 8% of the worlds richest people. Is that really much to complain about?
I’m not suggesting that government should tax for the sake of taxing. Both the American and the Canadian government need a real overhaul in how it spends tax-payers’ dollars. However, I think America needs a better balance of where it’s getting its money from.
November 12, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Hey again Pat,
I some-what agree with you. Without-a-doubt there are always going to be people who are cheating and scheming their way to the top, or they’ve someone fell into it. That fact alone makes an economic overall not as easy as it should be.
What I would like to see happen in the case of ill-gotten-gains is the justice department come down like a hammer. (This will never happen.) If I were President Paul, I would not tolerate this behavior, there would be no 3 strikes your out, there would be no “golden parachutes” to be had. The first time your hand got caught in the cookie jar, I would get you in front of a judge and jury, if convicted, not only would you be looking at time, your assets would be liquidated, and not given to the government, but rather spread out to help repair that damage that you caused.
(Start Rant) If we had seen this happen in the case of Fanny May and Freddie Mac, I don’t think that the US economy would be in such rough shape. Instead, what we have done is created money seemingly out of thin air and given it to the people who caused this mess in the first place, and told them to go fix it. I have a problem with that. These people have proven to me that they are not going to be responsible with my tax dollars, I don’t want them anywhere near this problem anymore.
On a side note, it bothers me that the number one President Obama has appointed Rahm Emanuel to his staff, when Rahm Emanuel himself should be sitting on front of a judge for his misappropriation of funds as a board member of Freddie Mac. (End Rant)
You point about complaining about incoming does raise some very important questions about the flaws in the system. The question the really needs to be answered is how do we make the tax system fair? I’m not huge fan of the current tax system here in the US, but I think just because somebody makes more, doesn’t necessarily mean they should be taxed more.
I think what would level the playing the field appropriately would be a flat purchase tax system. This way the tax would be appropriate to the level of income (you’ll pay more tax buying a boat, then you would buying a DVD) and it would ensure that everybody pays their fair share. If you don’t want to pay taxes, just don’t buy anything. Otherwise, contribute to the system.
I do disagree with you on issue of principle however. First Timothy 5:18 states:
If you are a determined individual and your work your tail off, the fruit of that should be appropriate compensation, while on the flip side of the coin, if you’re lazy and not striving to make anything better out of yourself, I don’t want the government spending money to try and make you equal with the person who is willing or able to work harder. All things being equal, I’m not trying to punish the lesser, nor promote the greater, I think it is a system build on a simple principle: if you work smarter or harder, you should get paid more.