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> one is expected to work AT LEAST as hard is required for subsistence farming on an average 8-acre lot. Are you proposing then that every person should start

• ctdonath 10y ago
  Way to wantonly misconstrue my point. I mean, that's really a concerted attempt to make me a strawman. In no way do I contend everyone should, compulsorily, start from that exact baseline. If someone wishes to share the fruit of their productivity with you, fine - that's basically a contract between the two of you, and none of anyone else's business. The "idle rich" are plainly not what I meant. They achieved (and exceeded) baseline productivity somehow; again, so long as it's either the direct result of their efforts, or otherwise the fruit of a mutually-agreed contract, they've done their part to not be an unnecessary burden on others. The "capable idle" are those who could work and sustain themselves, but opt not to because they leverage a system of coercive redistribution based on police power of the state. I do think if you're going to have a government-mandated education system, it should prepare every child to be capable of starting from that baseline, should ill circumstance befall them.