7 ms·
You're making quite a number of faulty assumptions. > Medical bills, sure, but they have always been around. Prices for medical care have increased disproport
by esarbe 3y ago
You're making quite a number of faulty assumptions.
> Medical bills, sure, but they have always been around.
Prices for medical care have increased disproportionately in the last few decades[0].
> Investing giant sums in defending Ukraine's border.
It's barely 1% of your budget. It's 3% or so of your military budget. That doesn't move the needle. I mean sure; you're spending too much on the military, no doubt about that. But that doesn't have anything to do with Ukraine.
> We need a system that works, not a system that doesn't work with a heavy-handed thumb on the scale.
You already have that. Currently it is heavily biased in favor or the upper 10% of the population.
> The actual obvious candidate is not punishing people who create so much value they have a load of money,
That's assuming that people that "have a load of money" necessarily created that value. Given the current socio-economic conditions, I doubt that is usually the case. [1]
[0] https://www.in2013dollars.com/Medical-care/price-inflation https://www.in2013dollars.com/Medical-care/price-inflation
[1] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwards-decline-usa-us-america-economics/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwar...
- robertlagrant 3y ago> That's assuming that people that "have a load of money" necessarily created that value Other than generationally wealthy families (very few) or thieves or people making laws that then make them rich in the stock market, there are plenty of wealthy people who got wealthy because people chose to give them money in exchange for something worth that money to them.
- esarbe 3y agoThat's the idea, the "American Dream" - you roll up your sleeves, spit in your hands and go to work - get busy and rich. Alas, that's not been the case for a long time. Please look at the data. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/thirteen-economic-facts-about-social-mobility-and-the-role-of-education/ https://www.brookings.edu/articles/thirteen-economic-facts-a...
- robertlagrant 3y agoCan you point at which of these shows that wealthy people weren't paid for value created please?
- esarbe 3y agoWhat make you assume that this is the case or that the data I linked to would answer that question?
- robertlagrant 3y ago> What make you assume that this is the case or that the data I linked to would answer that question? I assumed you posted the link and said "look at the data" as it had some data with some bearing on what I was saying.
- esarbe 3y agoAh, I think I got your question now; you mean to ask; "What makes you think that all that wealth is not rightly earned by the rich people. They are producing value, that's why they are rich." At least that my interpretation, let me know if I got that wrong. Sure, let's have a look at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwar https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwar... We can assume that industrious, ingenious people with the will to to greatness come from all parts of society equally. If productivity and ingenuity were the driver of wealth, we would conclude that throughout all economic layers of society, we have a constant percentage of people that are getting richer, i.e. that they get to earn more value than their parents. If we look at the date we see that this was roughly the case for the 1940ies cohort. With each next cohort, people from lower-income households not only have a lower chance of moving up the socioeconomic ladder, but also a reduced share of total wealth. At the same time you see agglutination of wealth in the upper levels of society. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-08/top-1-earners-hold-more-wealth-than-the-u-s-middle-class https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-08/top-1-ear... Go figure.