It's no secret that capitalism, conservatism, "trickle down economics" or whatever you want to call it is designed to create opportunity. And a consequence of that opportunity is that some people and families will eventually end up with much more wealth than others. The system opens doors, but people have to take it upon themselves to walk through them.
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What blows my mind is that people truly believe that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren are actually looking for their best interests. People honestly think that a Socialistic society works for anyone other than the "ruling class". And that makes it an enormous hypocrisy.
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The reality is that EVERY government model requires a lower class. At least the GOP is honest about what it is and the system allows people to move up and down. Socialism temporarily lifts the bottom up a little but it pulls the people who try to move up back at the same time.
No, trickle down is designed to put all the money at the power at the top with the idea that those with the money and power know best how to use it. In reality, a rich person would rather buy another house than pay their employees more. Theres a reason George Bush Sr called it "voodoo economics."
Says the guy whose salary, housing, food, job training, and future college education are all paid for by everyone else’s taxes and who, when paying taxes, is actually just giving back the tax money he took.
That's right, I'm the guy who sees up close and personal how shitty the government is at taking care of people.
Housing is shitty, black mold, infestations, minimal maintenance that's like pulling teeth, and shitty neighborhoods. Food is deducted from my paycheck and I end up going hungry or buying my own groceries anyways because the schedule is shit and I have too tight a timeline to stand in line for an hour. Job training that had nearly a 50% fail rate and is completely irrelevant to what the Army actually makes me do, which costs even more in materials and man hours to teach. And while I don't give two shits about college, the only reason things got so bad is because the feds stuck their noses where it doesn't belong.
And then I have to pay it back anyways, effectively making less than minimum wage, nevermind costs of uniform maintenance, replacements, transportation, and everything else people seem to think we don't pay for.
With elevated rapes, assaults, suicides, Domestic Violence incidents, and otherwise toxic work and living environments that commanders seem to think one more suicide brief or alcoholism awareness seminar will fix, when really we just want to fucking train, deploy, and maybe not be woken up at 0100 for a random health and wellness inspection to see how many privates' lives Top can ruin for having an empty beer bottle on counter, or worse, trash in the trashcan.
Hey, famousone...you're not wrong! There are a lot of shitty things in military life, and the housing situation is a travesty, but you're assigning fault to government for the simple fact that they are the government. Americans have a solid individualism streak, but that means we are dog shit at rallying together as a majority to do something. We need to take care of our vets and service members, but we can't do that until the country as a whole pressures our duly elected officials to do so.
@pripyatplatypus, when that rich person buys another house, doesnt that crate a demand for people to step in and build that house?
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Also, yes it's designed to reward people for economic accomplishment. That reward is the motivation that has driven entrepreneurs to take a risk, build a company, and create opportunity for non-entrepreneurs to punch a clock and make a living. No reward means no entrepreneurs means no jobs opportunity for people who arent interested in the taking the risks of self employment.
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My point is that in socialism, the families at the top stay at the top. Capitalism leaves the door wide open for new people to step in and rise to the top (and leave a wake of improved life quality along the way).
That may be the idea, but it doesn't work. It hasn't worked. It creates massive rifts in the economy and focuses everything at the top, where people jealously horde their wealth. And please don't fall into the trap of thinking that there is only pure capitalism or pure socialism; a hybrid system that takes the best from both is the best answer for everybody.
I think the entire human aspect of this has been lost on everyone here. There is a reason a dragon was used, they tend to horde wealth because of their greed. The exact same thing happens with billionaires, and is the root as to why trickle down doesn't work. It's not like that greed is bound to just billionaires though, pretty much any human in that situation would do the same thing; as being greedy is in our very nature, especially when it helps one ensure their grip on power and influence.
People aren't dragons, and those billions aren't being hoarded in a giant pile. They're in stocks, investments, used to purchase goods and services, passed around family and friends.
Or even if the money is hoarded, so what? It ain't yours, it ain't mine.
It’s being hoarded but maybe not out of greed. It has to do with purchase power. A billionaire has somewhere around 1100x the purchasing power of an average person. In order for them to participate individually at the same level relative to wealth as the average person they would have to consume impossible amounts. Say average Joe buys a special coffee for themselves every week for $4.50. In order for a billionaire to contribute as much relatively they would have to consume $257k worth of coffee in that same timeframe which isn’t really feasible. A vast majority of their fortune is idle and earning interest, making the gap even worse. Becoming a billionaire is good for the economy but being one is not.
The easy way to deal with this is inheritance taxes. Capitalism is a system that provides for opportunity to become rich. Once a person is done being rich (dies) then a portion of that wealth is re-injected back to the lower economic stratum via public education, grants for college, nutrition programs, etc to hopefully produce the next person who is going to do all sorts of good thing for the economy becoming the next billionaire.
@scatmandingo Nice elaboration. I was going to get into the inheritance tax. Most billionaires have pledged their fortunes be spent after they die on nearly everyone but their own children (who are already set up anyway), but that leads to another path I'd also have to go on is to point out what would happen if say... when Bill Gates dies if suddenly all his stocks are liquidated in one day. He'd screw over, quite literally, millions of investors by tanking the company value by 10% at the least. I'm sure there is a plan in his will, but can you imagine the chaos if $100+ billion of Microsoft stock were cashed in on a random Thursday?
Well it’s slightly more complex than that. Gates has pledged his fortune to go to his foundation which would inherit his MS shares and handle them as any other investment portfolio. They aren’t going to dump and kill the market; that wouldn’t be in their best interests. Foundations are not as altruistic as they seem at first. They are private companies with little to no transparency which make them a great place to stow away your fortune and do whatever you think is right with the money. Sometimes that is influencing the political process in ways that don’t suit the democratic process.
Dude, we all know know Gates is already has it set up so his money is put in the foundation without drastically altering Microsoft stock... I was just presenting that as an extreme example so my point would be clearer. As for foundations being closer to private companies, that's not exactly true. There are MUCH easier ways to accomplish that goal; like an LLC... the taxes are more complicated, but, ironically, it's more transparent.
.
What blows my mind is that people truly believe that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren are actually looking for their best interests. People honestly think that a Socialistic society works for anyone other than the "ruling class". And that makes it an enormous hypocrisy.
.
The reality is that EVERY government model requires a lower class. At least the GOP is honest about what it is and the system allows people to move up and down. Socialism temporarily lifts the bottom up a little but it pulls the people who try to move up back at the same time.
Housing is shitty, black mold, infestations, minimal maintenance that's like pulling teeth, and shitty neighborhoods. Food is deducted from my paycheck and I end up going hungry or buying my own groceries anyways because the schedule is shit and I have too tight a timeline to stand in line for an hour. Job training that had nearly a 50% fail rate and is completely irrelevant to what the Army actually makes me do, which costs even more in materials and man hours to teach. And while I don't give two shits about college, the only reason things got so bad is because the feds stuck their noses where it doesn't belong.
And then I have to pay it back anyways, effectively making less than minimum wage, nevermind costs of uniform maintenance, replacements, transportation, and everything else people seem to think we don't pay for.
.
Also, yes it's designed to reward people for economic accomplishment. That reward is the motivation that has driven entrepreneurs to take a risk, build a company, and create opportunity for non-entrepreneurs to punch a clock and make a living. No reward means no entrepreneurs means no jobs opportunity for people who arent interested in the taking the risks of self employment.
.
My point is that in socialism, the families at the top stay at the top. Capitalism leaves the door wide open for new people to step in and rise to the top (and leave a wake of improved life quality along the way).
Or even if the money is hoarded, so what? It ain't yours, it ain't mine.
You lookin at ma gold, partner?
-Got any oil?