4 ms·

I'm not suggesting we take the $10,000 from a rich person and give it to 10 poor people, rather I'm saying, "We have a surplus of wealth equal to $10,000 and mu

by fnid2 17y ago

I'm not suggesting we take the $10,000 from a rich person and give it to 10 poor people, rather I'm saying, "We have a surplus of wealth equal to $10,000 and must decide what to do with it. Someone is going to benefit, how do we distribute the surplus such that it creates the most good? I would suggest distributing the wealth equally among all is the best route to the greatest happiness, rather than giving most or all of it to one individual for whom it may not even be noticed. I'm not sure, restricting freedoms of the innocent or demanding individuals work to benefit others at their own expense could create a net positive. The "badness" of that might be infinity.

dtby 17y ago
Whence comes this wealth? Government is not a wealth-creating enterprise. It's (arguably, entirely; verifiably, primarily) in the wealth redistribution business.
- fnid2 17y ago
  The wealth comes from within the borders of a given country. Government might not be in the business of creating wealth, but it is in the business of controlling who gets to be within its geographical borders. If you look throughout history, it's never really worked out well to allow a rich minority to determine what happens to people and the land. Since time immemorial, a rich few have been abusing the property rights of others. Even America was founded by a rich minority who took the wealth of the land from the majority incumbents. It's the same thing as always.
  - dtby 17y ago
    Without arguing the points above one way or another: Unless I misread your initial message, you suggested that the government was not "taking" wealth from anyone, but rather it somehow had "surplus" wealth to be distributed. My question is more finely tuned to "where did this 'surplus' wealth come from, if it was not 'taken' from someone at some point?"
    - fnid2 17y ago
      You could say it was taken from the native americans. Indigenous people or that it was in the ground, the result of decayed dinosaurs and random locations of minerals and plants and weather.

by fnid2 17y ago

dtby 17y ago

Whence comes this wealth? Government is not a wealth-creating enterprise. It's (arguably, entirely; verifiably, primarily) in the wealth redistribution business.

fnid2 17y ago
The wealth comes from within the borders of a given country. Government might not be in the business of creating wealth, but it is in the business of controlling who gets to be within its geographical borders. If you look throughout history, it's never really worked out well to allow a rich minority to determine what happens to people and the land. Since time immemorial, a rich few have been abusing the property rights of others. Even America was founded by a rich minority who took the wealth of the land from the majority incumbents. It's the same thing as always.
- dtby 17y ago
  Without arguing the points above one way or another: Unless I misread your initial message, you suggested that the government was not "taking" wealth from anyone, but rather it somehow had "surplus" wealth to be distributed. My question is more finely tuned to "where did this 'surplus' wealth come from, if it was not 'taken' from someone at some point?"
  - fnid2 17y ago
    You could say it was taken from the native americans. Indigenous people or that it was in the ground, the result of decayed dinosaurs and random locations of minerals and plants and weather.