Why are billionaires good or are they not?

I’m mocking conservatives because otherwise I have nothing to add to the conversation.

 

My last post was about addictions to booze, cigarettes, drugs, and the financial ruin those lifestyle choices can cause. How did you jump from that, to going to the movies and buying fancy coffee at Starbucks?

The cost of spending habits like dining out, going to the movies, and buying $6 coffees on occasion PALES in comparison to the habits of being hooked on booze and cigarettes. Which are expensive because they're both taxed very heavily. Not to mention the artificially inflated prices of illegal drugs. There are inexpensive and even free ways to have a little recreation in your life when times are tough.

Although I've never been truly poor. I have experienced being fired and laid off on separate occasions, causing me to go on unemployment and food stamps for some time. It was a humbling experience. I went from dining out 5-6 days a week, to doing it hardly at all. While I was on state assistance, it was fueling my depression and my unwillingness to go out and try again with the job market. It took some time but I came around and settled for less than what I was used to. Because that was better than sitting still.

It's not that I lack sympathy for the poor. I just think that subsidizing the poor creates more of them. After trying to help my homeless friend better his life by taking him in, and having him refuse to take any action about it because the state was providing him all he wanted without having to work for a source of income, I could see that he was not just an anomaly.

 

Anyway, back on topic about billionaires...

Anyone here notice how in the last 20 years, socialists have gone from targeting millionaires, to targeting billionaires?

This is because many of them have become millionaires themselves! The fact that they've achieved this while working a government job is terrifying.

 

That is really sad.

I have no guilt. I worked hard to be where I am and I own things like sports car which are 100% things I don't need only for me. As much as I like to help others sometimes the many hours I spent stressing over a test or how to make something run are why I treat myself now. That seems to be the pro-rich argument. They earned it so let them have it. I don't think everything should be shared. Your work means something but not at the expense of others to an extreme.

And I don't want to brag but my job already gives me an income above average middle class. I certainly do not pay 70% but I pay more than a coal miner for sure. Despite this I am fine with high tax. I say this since the main attack on it is I must make no money therefor I am OK with taking what I did not earn.

Empathy does not equal guilt. I am just one person in a large society.

 

It's sad that you think that is sad. I'd give most of it away to the people I love and to worthy causes that would provide long term benefits to society, and that's sad to you. Presumably you'd rather see the government confiscate my wealth and blow it on government stuff: a bloated military, a border wall, 'aide' for millionaire farmers awarded through the Department Of Agriculture...I not going to keep listing stuff; anyone who is interested can easily Google the particulars.

 

I share with my family, my wife and I have a good monopoly going where rental agreements is our sole source of income, but I own a town house that I let my sister have rent free and i will be gifting it to her soon enough. Our bank account isn't the greatest, but we stand on a lot with our properties.

We still have near half a million to pay off our current mortgage.

I think it's appropriate to give back where necessary but I don't feel like every single person deserves the same when they don't really apply themselves to earn it. I've always wanted to meet someone I could help out one day, I'll look after family first but one day I'm going to meet someone who I think really deserves it and I'm going to give them the same feeling my now wife gave me when she said I didn't have to work anymore. It's been a dream of mine, something I think of every day.

I also put a lot of money into eye health foundations as I've had lots of problems with my eyes, eye health charities really deserve it. I know my money has gone to glasses for African children, or so I'm told, well I've seen it in newsletters they send me. I also donate to wolf conservation parties and local nature parks.

They're just a few things that mean a lot to me that I like to support. 4 years ago I also gave a donation to the American Drive to End Hunger program, because my hero Jeff Gordon said so... I got my name on the hood of his car for that with the other donators, he came I think 8th that race. They send me photos of the car and our names afterward. I also went and bought the diecast of it, the names are tiny and barely readable if they are even readable. Cool concept though.

 

money doesn't make anyone good or bad, or even smart or stupid. they're almost the same mix of everything else as people who aren't.
the only problem is their ability to purchase political advantage, and of course the exposure that gets politicians elected.

 

Yes it is sad that you had a whole rant about worshiping money. And it's sad that you see yourself as an ultimate authority on who gets "your" money when the goverment is not. That kind of attitude is why socialism is a bad word and why my guess is you would never in 100 years give money to many things a highly taxes goverment would fund. Things that need it yet in your own selfish mind you don't like it. It's the issue with right wing charity in general. They say they are so nice don't tax me I give it away but they are not.

I'm not saying you a bad person but you have a lot to learn.

 

Ironically, people with like minded policies of Breadline Bernie and Occasional-Cortex, rely on taxing billionaires to keep their economic dreams afloat.

So yes, billionaires ARE good for this kind of socialism

How are we going to fund your Green New Deal? Tax billionaires of course.

 

I don't know of any goverment job that makes easy millionaires. If they did wouldn't that be a great example of the state giving a person opportunity though? A perfect example for why tax and infrastructure is good. I mean look at how well the person is doing working in that system which helps him to feed his family.

Can you name a goverment job that pays millions? Cops are the highest paid I can think of and that is around a LOW six figure max and is that even a "goverment" job opposed to a local state one? They work for the state goverment. Not sure how deep the definition of goverment goes to you.

Low 6 figures is not enough to make a true millionaire which is taxed highly in European style systems. There is making millions and saving to have a "million" in the bank. How many million in a billion? It's an obvious choice who to target if your concern is a fair economy.

 

It is a very complex issue.

Some very wealthy people have an assumed wealth in the value of the companies that they own or hold majority shares. In this case their wealth is proportionate to the number of jobs that they providing and the value of goods for home consumption and export.
These companies are the backbone of a countries economy, since employees all pay taxes and all along the chain of the goods or services that they provide. Further jobs and taxes are provided by all the companies who provide their raw materials. Exports are even more beneficial to the country's balance of payments.

On the other hand, people who simply amass wealth and put nothing back into their country are no more than parasites in an economic sense.

Overpaid pop-stars and sports personalities sit somewhere in the middle. While they provide some wealth to the country by their performances, as well as enjoyment to the people, their personal wealth is dead in the financial sense.

 

And why is "your" in quotation marks? Of course I'm the ultimate authority on who gets my stuff. It's you who seemingly has a lot to learn.

 

This is what £2 million buys you in London. It is just crazy.
The house was sold for £600 in 1957 and has just changed hands for £1.8 million. (In 1957, £600 was one years salary for a skilled manual worker)

 

Most of what you think you earned you did not without the state. You used many other serviced and labors of other people to make the money you made. That is why you have the burden of tax to other people. You are thinking like you are loosing something when it's cheaper for many of the services you use. For example healthcare.

Unfortunately living in a society there many examples of when "your" money is taken from you for things you will never use or don't like. It is the basis for tax which already exists in America. You and I are not really the ultimate authority on it. Which is why the middle class fight so hard for what they get anyway.

You are already loosing more of your money to the military each year than something like an American NHS could cost taxpayers. You are mad at the wrong people and already a victim of the system taking your cash.

 

I pay for my own healthcare. And my premiums keep going up, but that's better than the government telling me what coverage to have.

Yes we are. It disturbs me greatly you would think otherwise.

The military is bloated and getting bigger and I'm well aware of that. It costs way too much and is a waste of money. But I wouldn't be any happier it my tax dollars were wasted in some other way. Whether it's a socialist or a nationalist wasting my money makes no difference to me.

 

Are you fundamentally opposed to the morals of your money helping other people? That seems to be the very American only view that I get as an American about people who don't want goverment healthcare. All you work is for you only and if other people have this your money goes to people who do not work. They are the illegal with a broken arm or the women with 6 kids and on food stamps. Those kind of people will just use my resources and tax all my money. So fundamentally from a right wing/ libertarian standpoint taxes are theft and the goverment is corupt so the free market will just decide to charge me less to compete. Well do you see that? I don't.


If you paid into a NHS system your whole life it would be less to treat an illness than our best American insurance. But you might never use it and pay for others to use it. Kind of like you pay for insurance hoping not to you use that. Your premiums don't go up because it's always affordable to go to a doctor. Doctors themselves want socialized medicine. It means people are able to come to them. They don't like dealing with taking X or Y insurance plan and billing you. They just follow the system. That system means people do not go to them when they are sick. It's $10,000 to call an ambulance. Can you risk your insurance not paying for that? They often do not unless you died or got close to it. Many can not so they drive while having a heart attack to the hospital or get a worried family member too. That's kind of a traffic risk yet people have to take it over the private system you hate.

 

Why are you fine with a high tax? If you like being taxed, to give your money away to politicians is to assume they know how to spend your money better than you do.



Even if these politicians are spending your money on fighting a war you oppose, are you still ok with just handing over your property to fight an unjust war? To give money to politicians so they could better run your life assumes they are smarter and more moral than you.



There are better ways to contribute to the betterment of society, and the ones in need, then it should be left to you to decide which organizations to send your donations.

 

He's not giving it to a bunch of individuals who then decide solely by their own preferences what they're going to spend it on.

 

I do give money to charity in the principal that says "class warfare" is bad. If we just depend the charity of the rich they will give it away so don't tax them. I am on probably a dozen mailing lists for homeless shelters and other public services.

Oddly you would say this idea does not work in socialism since people are greedy and lazy so they will never give anything away. I suppose having a billion is a sign of work ethic to you?

Again I don't think you understand the tax system getting popular in America. No one even me wants to give 100% away of my upper middle class salary. Is that what you want to hear in your libertarian world? However if I was making many millions absolutely take it. At a certain point I have too much money.

But as of now with degrees in a field that is not easy to get I am still WAY below a 70% tax rate. With in demand job skills I am not even close to making a single million which is only 10% if the AOC tax cut off. Unless I was a rock star or NFL player I am not at this level so why think as if I am?

I don't support wars but I would say I am not selfish enough to be so childish about it. Like sure things I don't want are bought. But that does not give me the right to drop out of society and think of myself as the ultimate judge as if the money the state helped me earn is all mine.
You did not build that as Obama said. In my job I see this. Many people work together to build anything. You work hard to make sure your small part is up to code. When it comes to things like an Iraq war Americans want it. So vote to change it.

 

It depends on who is being 'helped'. It also depends on how much of a say I have on how my money is spent. Right now, the government being what it is, I don't see that I have all that much of a say at all. So I had just as soon keep as much of my money as I can, that way I know it gets spent wisely.