Re: Income Gap Between Rich And Poor Biggest In A Century
why redistribution doesn't work
It does since redistribution is the basis of modern society... but okay.
Much of the money that goes to the government ends up being wasted, resulting in ineffective government programs, and less wealth for EVERYBODY.
And with money going to the private sector unregulated then it ends up with the few aka the 1% and the rest get more and more poor. Government may be ineffective but at least it should be on the peoples side and not the 1% wealthiest... now of course we are talking the US so government and the 1% are sleeping buddies but still.
Government is only as inefficient as politicians make it.
Many are tempted to assume that money collected by the government goes to help the poor and downtrodden. However, much of that money ends up in the hands of the rich and politically connected, those who have the most resources and ability to lobby for it.
Yes it does.. that is corporatism which is what happens in the US. Now this is not a left wing idea, but a right wing .. big time. Free markets which are not free and massive regulation based on protecting the 1% and their wealth is exactly what happens in the US.
Had Reagan and the GOP been true free market promoters, then they would have long ago opened up US markets, both to international companies but especially to internal companies. That it is only recently that HMOs were allowed to sell their products across state borders... is mindboggling. And it is far from the only example.
Socialism concentrates money and power in the hands of the government. When government grows, the greedy and corrupt don’t go away. Conversely, they now have a more powerful tool in their hands, the government itself.
But that is not what is going on in the US. It has zero to do with socialism, because the backbone of socialism is to help the general population. That is certainly NOT happening in the US.. here government has grown to protect the 1% and big business at the cost of the masses. That has been right wing policy since Reagan...Conservative values and ideas died with Eisenhower.
The richer you are, the easier it is for you to avoid increasing taxation and leave the bill to the middle class.
Yes.. thanks to the 1% owning government.
A soak-the-rich, high tax strategy inhibits the economy. And who is hurt the most by a slow economy? Not the rich!
Bull****, since you already said that the rich avoid paying their fair share of taxes.. It does not slow the economy and the proof is the US. Taxes have never been as low as they are now, and the wealthy have never been as rich.. and yet the economy for the masses are is in the toilet. According to you then the lower the taxes for the wealthy should mean that this money will be put into the economy and help the rest of the population... the so called trickle down effect.. which time and time again has been debunked.. it does NOT work.
with the transfer of earned wealth that socialist policies mandate are a detriment to entrepreneurship and innovation. Entrepreneurship and innovation are driven by the potential for material rewards. If we take away or reduce the material rewards, we’ll have less innovation. Less innovation means less of all the cool, useful, and life-saving stuff we all love.
Sorry but that is not exactly true. Transfer of wealth is to help the less well off to get up the wealth ladder so to say. If it was not for transfer of wealth, then there would be no entrepreneurship or innovations because they would not have the ability to get loans and credit to do such things. And there is a massive material reward in the US .. the richer you get the less you have to follow the law and pay taxes.. aint that an incentive?
Transfer of wealth from the well off to the less well off has been a cornerstone of modern western society since forever. In the 1800s it was the uber wealthy that had a social backbone and gave most of their wealth to the poor and masses, but now days only a few do that. Instead it is up to government to attempt to redistribute wealth, but the US government is piss poor in doing that since it is more like the poor give money to the rich instead of the other way around.
high taxes and government regulations make it more difficult to start and grow a business, thereby leaving much greater opportunities for those who are already rich and have the resources to overcome those difficulties.
Yes and no.. high taxes have not stopped business growth in Scandinavia. Nor has government regulations.. the problem comes when those regulations are more than there are needed.. like in Spain and France. Fact is there is a big difference between on paper taxes and actual taxes.. especially when it comes to business.. the bigger the company the less taxes they pay.. and THAT is the biggest problem. It is simply hard for small and medium business to start up in most countries due to big business being bullies and stacking the deck against upstarts and smaller companies. Fix this problem and watch growth like you have never seen before.
social programs create more demand and need for those very programs in a self perpetuating cycle because given government handouts, people come to expect and rely on them. And therefore, you can never spend enough, because the more you do, the greater the need to do so becomes.
Yes and no. Social programs should only be used as a help to get on your feet. The problem happens when social programs are better than getting a job. Let me give you and example. A single mother on benefits... she can get at minimum wage, but the child care costs would eat up her whole income after paying for housing.. to me that is not worth doing then. So what is the solution? Cut the benefits? No, because you would have to cut them so much that she and her kid would basically not be able to pay for housing and food. The solution is to provide childcare that is either free or affordable.
Benefit programs should always be designed to give people a helping hand and not become something to live off.. but the problem is that social programs more than often do not take real life into consideration as shown above.
Social programs are a disincentive to work and act responsibly. After all, if some or all of your needs are taken care of, and if someone else picks up the tab whenever something goes wrong, why would you worry about such minor details as work ethic, productivity, financial responsibility and family obligations? Consequently, when productivity takes a downturn, leading to a shrinking economy, guess who suffers… everybody! Oh and as always, the rich suffer the least.
Again yes and no.. there are segments of society that live on benefits in all countries.. but they are small numbers in most countries relative to those who use the social programs to get back on their feet. Now do you want to punish the few slackers by hurting also those who use the program to get on their feet? Do you want starving poor people living on the street?.. no wait you already have that en mass in the US... guess it would be no change then!
A combination of the above points causes a vicious cycle of decreasing revenues and increasing demand for social spending that results in a socialist government running out of money and having ‘no choice’ but to perpetuated tax increases to every level of society, rich and poor.
Why Socialism and Wealth Redistribution Don’t Work
Now if you are talking about the US (and a few other countries) it is wrong. The problem in the US is a lack of tax income due to a tax system that only slightly better than the Greek tax system. The fact that the 3rd richest man on the planet pays less in % than his hard working but well paid secretary is ... mind boggling. The fact that 43% pay no federal taxes is crazy.. but why dont they? Because they dont have the income to meet the threshold of paying federal taxes... and that means that 43% of the population is actually barely scraping by.
On top of the lack of tax income you have massive waste due to government being owned by the 1%. The amount of government subsidies the US pays out to big corporations and military contractors is mind boggling.
Add to that all the loopholes, stupid regulation protecting big business in many areas of the country and corrupt political system and you have a serious problem.
A good example.. Tesla. The company is banned from selling in several states because of local laws protecting car dealerships. Err what ever happened to the free market? Or telecommunications/cable companies who have defacto monopolies in many cities and states because of legislation? Or the fact that you are a criminal if you buy Asprin in Canada and take it across the border... All this type of rules are mostly put in place by right wing legislation over the last 50 years... please note the mostly.
No the American problem is not socialism.. it is a right wing that lives in a fantasy world where everything that is bad is socialism and not realizing that they are in large part causing the problems with their own policies and ideas because their whole political structure is utterly corrupt and protects the 1%