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It's much easier to rob someone when you convince yourself that they didn't actually earn what they have. This us vs them reductionism is seen in the early day

It's much easier to rob someone when you convince yourself that they didn't actually earn what they have. This us vs them reductionism is seen in the early days of any communist system (the mass killings come a bit later)

aaomidi 7y ago
Ah yes, communism. This isn't us vs them - this is us vs... us. Everyone should want to allow people to access education.
- cloakandswagger 7y ago
  >I know a bunch of people who are not particularly responsible with their money (splurging) but they are beneficiaries of a lot of unearned income (interest, dividends, rent) and I have yet to hear a coherent argument for why this unearned income shouldn't be taken away and used to fund the kind of education that improves the overall wellbeing of society. This is the point where somebody tells me that those people don't have enough money to fund this kind of thing (bullshit), or that Bernie won't target them he'll target you (bullshit) or that if you tax them they'll just run away to Panama (there was a study that demonstrated that when their taxes are jacked up they didn't even run away from New York to New Jersey). Emphasis mine
  - burfog 7y ago
    Calling the income "unearned" doesn't make it unearned. It doesn't make people any less deserving of keeping what rightfully belongs to them. At some point in the past, a person (possibly an ancestor) took risks to create wealth. Part of the motivation is to later have an easy retirement or to support one's children. You'd kill that motivation, causing people to avoid the risks which would no longer create wealth, and thus prevent things like start-ups.
- Macross8299 7y ago
  >Everyone should want to allow people to access education. Why?
dang 7y ago
Please don't take HN threads on generic ideological tangents. They're highly repetitive, therefore predictable, therefore off topic here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

aaomidi 7y ago

Ah yes, communism. This isn't us vs them - this is us vs... us. Everyone should want to allow people to access education.

cloakandswagger 7y ago
>I know a bunch of people who are not particularly responsible with their money (splurging) but they are beneficiaries of a lot of unearned income (interest, dividends, rent) and I have yet to hear a coherent argument for why this unearned income shouldn't be taken away and used to fund the kind of education that improves the overall wellbeing of society. This is the point where somebody tells me that those people don't have enough money to fund this kind of thing (bullshit), or that Bernie won't target them he'll target you (bullshit) or that if you tax them they'll just run away to Panama (there was a study that demonstrated that when their taxes are jacked up they didn't even run away from New York to New Jersey). Emphasis mine
- burfog 7y ago
  Calling the income "unearned" doesn't make it unearned. It doesn't make people any less deserving of keeping what rightfully belongs to them. At some point in the past, a person (possibly an ancestor) took risks to create wealth. Part of the motivation is to later have an easy retirement or to support one's children. You'd kill that motivation, causing people to avoid the risks which would no longer create wealth, and thus prevent things like start-ups.
Macross8299 7y ago
>Everyone should want to allow people to access education. Why?

dang 7y ago

Please don't take HN threads on generic ideological tangents. They're highly repetitive, therefore predictable, therefore off topic here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html