A "free ride" makes being poor sound desirable but that is far from the case. Even if you ignore everything else, the life-span and health differences are enoug

A "free ride" makes being poor sound desirable but that is far from the case. Even if you ignore everything else, the life-span and health differences are enough to show that you are better off being anything but poor even if you are getting a "free ride" in one way. I think our progressive tax system (for example) strikes a lot of people as being the same - giving some people a "free ride", but what is the alternative? The money that makes many rich people rich filters up from the millions of poor and middle class people that spend 99% of their income directly on goods and services. If you own restaurant chains, stores, factories, and/or are invested in all of those things, you benefit from the spending of the rest of the nation. It may seem counter intuitive, or maybe its just ideologically disgusting (if you believe everyone is entirely self-made that is), but a less progressive system could ultimately harm the upper class. If the lower and middle classes don't have money to spend, our economy does not do well and given that a large amount of our wealth is tied up in financial products the last thing the rich really want is for the whole system to grind to a halt.