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How does a rich person being rich harm my chances of becoming rich myself? Until someone can answer this, I'll continue to believe a wealth tax is nothing more

How does a rich person being rich harm my chances of becoming rich myself? Until someone can answer this, I'll continue to believe a wealth tax is nothing more than legalized robbery. If it's a company using anti-competitive behaviors, attack that. If it's unfair laws due to lobbyist, fix it. If it's underpaid employees, figure out how to increase their pay. If housing/healthcare/education is too expensive, figure out how to fix the system to decrease the price. Government's shouldn't be allowed to pick favorites like this--especially from individuals. The real solution to a shrinking middle class won't be solved by taking money from the wealthy and putting it into the governments hands. Governments do a poor job with the money they're given already. Why? because there's no competition in government. There's no one holding governments accountable for how they actually use the funds. I think http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html is a good supplement to this. Hello down votes.

j-krieger 6y ago
1. Rich people historically take wealth out of a country via offshore tax heavens. If money is spent on giga-companies instead of local businesses, it drains wealth from communities and creates inequality. 2. Taxation is not robbery at all. Rich people have used all public services at one point or another, it‘s only fair to pay back. They don‘t most of the time, so these services wither. 3. The „free“ market has shown time and time again that branches of business will steer to monopolies if you give them time. Look at amazon for example. You _cannot_ create an amazon competitor. Many have tried. All have failed. 4. Giga-Companies and Rich people have shown many times that they will just copy a good idea and steal your customers by using their giant existing consumer base. Things like these don‘t make it impossible to „get rich“, but they make it very hard.
- camhart 6y ago
  1. Wouldn't that dodge the wealth tax too? 2. They use the public services, but so does everyone else. Should a gallon of water cost me $1 but the wealthy $10? That seems fair/right to you? 3. What's walmart? Regardless, don't punish them (Amazon) for being successful, punish the anti-competitive behaviors. 4. This is true, and unfortunate. Though a wealth tax doesn't solve this. Minorities have rights. In regards to this topic, the wealthy are the minority. I'd argue our education system should be teaching people how to build businesses, not just be an employee at them. Most wealth is built by owning a business (no source here, just personal observation). It can then be passed down generation to generation if it's big enough. But let's focus on making it easier for people to obtain wealth instead of trying to take wealth from those who've earned it. It's funny, Rob Bonta keeps saying that they're "asking" the wealthy to help and that it's the right thing to do. I couldn't agree more, asking is the right thing to do. If you're in a position to give, then giving is the right thing to do. Taking prevents asking and giving from occurring.
tfehring 6y ago
"Probability of becoming rich" is a weird thing to optimize for. If a rich person being rich costs you a fixed and relatively small amount - say $1,000 - every year, that wouldn't materially affect your chances of becoming rich, but it would still be reasonable to be unhappy about it. Lots of government spending creates value in proportion to wealth. The military is a good example of this - if the US had no military, Americans would likely buy insurance against acts of war, and the premium for that insurance would be proportional to wealth (or, more precisely, to the value of real assets owned directly plus real assets supporting the value of directly owned financial assets). So the financial value that the military creates is allocated roughly in proportion to wealth - but it's mostly paid for by taxes on income, so the net effect is to create a transfer from labor to capital.

j-krieger 6y ago

1. Rich people historically take wealth out of a country via offshore tax heavens. If money is spent on giga-companies instead of local businesses, it drains wealth from communities and creates inequality. 2. Taxation is not robbery at all. Rich people have used all public services at one point or another, it‘s only fair to pay back. They don‘t most of the time, so these services wither. 3. The „free“ market has shown time and time again that branches of business will steer to monopolies if you give them time. Look at amazon for example. You _cannot_ create an amazon competitor. Many have tried. All have failed. 4. Giga-Companies and Rich people have shown many times that they will just copy a good idea and steal your customers by using their giant existing consumer base. Things like these don‘t make it impossible to „get rich“, but they make it very hard.

camhart 6y ago
1. Wouldn't that dodge the wealth tax too? 2. They use the public services, but so does everyone else. Should a gallon of water cost me $1 but the wealthy $10? That seems fair/right to you? 3. What's walmart? Regardless, don't punish them (Amazon) for being successful, punish the anti-competitive behaviors. 4. This is true, and unfortunate. Though a wealth tax doesn't solve this. Minorities have rights. In regards to this topic, the wealthy are the minority. I'd argue our education system should be teaching people how to build businesses, not just be an employee at them. Most wealth is built by owning a business (no source here, just personal observation). It can then be passed down generation to generation if it's big enough. But let's focus on making it easier for people to obtain wealth instead of trying to take wealth from those who've earned it. It's funny, Rob Bonta keeps saying that they're "asking" the wealthy to help and that it's the right thing to do. I couldn't agree more, asking is the right thing to do. If you're in a position to give, then giving is the right thing to do. Taking prevents asking and giving from occurring.

tfehring 6y ago

"Probability of becoming rich" is a weird thing to optimize for. If a rich person being rich costs you a fixed and relatively small amount - say $1,000 - every year, that wouldn't materially affect your chances of becoming rich, but it would still be reasonable to be unhappy about it. Lots of government spending creates value in proportion to wealth. The military is a good example of this - if the US had no military, Americans would likely buy insurance against acts of war, and the premium for that insurance would be proportional to wealth (or, more precisely, to the value of real assets owned directly plus real assets supporting the value of directly owned financial assets). So the financial value that the military creates is allocated roughly in proportion to wealth - but it's mostly paid for by taxes on income, so the net effect is to create a transfer from labor to capital.