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If you bring up UBI, or other reforms, you'll inevitably get someone who brings up: "voting yourself someone else's money".
You could convince me, except that things have gotten to an absurd state.
I look at some graphs of wealth inequality and it is unimaginably shocking. I never dreamed it could be this bad. More than 50% of the US wealth is owned by 5% of the people. [1] 35% is owned by only 1% of the population.
This image from this article also tells the story.
I'm not going to argue how accurate those numbers are. Rather, I will extrapolate the trend.
Let's continue the current trend to its logical absurd conclusion. The entire planet is owned by one single person. You (and everyone else) are one of the wage slaves in the bottom 99.99999999 % of the population (at least 8 decimal places). [7.5 billion people, minus that one person who owns everything, then divided by 7.5 billion people.]
Naturally, we should respect property ownership. Somehow this one person deserves and "earned" the wealth of the entire planet through his hard and diligent efforts and deserves to own everything and everyone. It is absurd on its face.
At this logical endpoint, it clearly seems that the rest of the planet should seize the wealth of the one person.
Wealth transfer has already happened. And is still happening. Republicans are just fine with this as long as it is all trickling upward.
Yes, "voting yourself someone else's money" involves taking away some of the absurd amounts of wealth hoarded up by a few. Amounts of individual wealth that one person couldn't spend in a lifetime; then leaves to others, who themselves can't spend it in their lifetime.
Not as a proposal, but just to make a point, hypothetically, if all of these people who exceed this threshold had their net worth capped at $100 Million, they would still be just fine. Yes, really! They would still live in fabulous homes, drive fabulous cars, and eat whatever they wanted, travel wherever and whenever they wanted -- for the rest of their natural lives.
In case my "one man owns the world" didn't get the idea across, I'll be more blunt. Any time too few people have owned way, way too much, and too many had nothing, there is always an uprising. I'm not proposing an uprising. I'm merely warning it is inevitable. Hopefully not in my lifetime. Maybe it would be better to solve this peacefully where the wealthiest, while heavily taxed, still end up, after taxes, fabulously wealthy beyond the dreams of most everyone else. I'm not proposing reducing all the rich people's wealth to some cap. Just that they should pay their fair share. Why are they the ones who get the tax cuts?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 28 2020, @07:33PM (6 children)
Your comment is an incredibly dishonest representation of what I posted.
Absolutely nowhere in my post did I criticize urban minorities. Not one fucking time. And you know it. In fact, I said something very much to the contrary. Perhaps if you'd bothered to read my post fully, you'd have seen it:
A large portion of these low income workers are urban minorities. They are performing services that are essential for us. So we should make sure their needs are addressed, too. That's what I said. Also, welfare has become a pejorative term. Let's call those programs what they are. There are three big programs that come to mind:
1) The Earned Income Credit: Low income workers perform essential services that we need in order for our economy and society to function. These workers perform essential duties. They deserve to be paid a living wage.
2) SNAP: This program subsidizes the purchase of groceries for low income people so they can put food on the table. Everyone deserves to have food to eat.
3) Medicaid: This program subsidizes medical care for low income people so they can receive treatment for medical issues and get routine check-ups. Everyone deserves to be able to afford health care and they shouldn't fear drowning in debt because they're injured or get sick and require hospitalization.
Let's not call it welfare because that term has become a pejorative. Let's say it like it is. We're making sure that workers who perform essential services for our society and economy have shelter, utilities, food, and health care. Those urban minorities are just as essential as the rural workers. The US is the wealthiest nation in the world. If we can't bring ourselves to distribute that wealth in a sufficiently equitable way as to ensure that everyone has shelter, utilities, food, and health care, then we are awful people.
For that matter, it really pissed me off when right wingers whined that enhanced unemployment benefits were paying people a bit more money than they would otherwise have been paid at their jobs, so those people are sitting at home mooching off entitlements. That should be offensive to any blue collar worker in this country. It impugns the character of the working class. If we truly gave a shit about the working class, a statement like that would be political suicide for any politician who suggested it. If we started voting out assholes who say shit like that, bullshit like that would quickly cease. We also need to stop fucking attacking the integrity and character of immigrants. They are also essential to our economy. They work hard. Immigrants are particularly prolific at entrepreneurship, which create jobs for Americans. We need to stop demonizing them.
It also really pisses me off when people like you misrepresent my comment as an attack on urban minorities. I said nothing of the sort. But because I defended the need for rural workers, you inferred (despite direct evidence to the contrary in my comment) that I must be racist. That is bullshit. If there's anyone who is mooching, it's wealthy individuals and corporations who don't pay their fair share in taxes, but also exploit their workers in the name of profits. It is racist to demonize urban minorities. But it's also offensive to accuse someone of racism, which you effectively did, particularly when there's explicit evidence to the contrary.
I'm sick of The Mighty Buzzard, Runaway1956, and khallow spewing right wing misinformation here. I'm sick of Runaway1956 posting overtly racist journals, then burying them. I'm sick of those three and some ACs spreading misinformation and bullshit whenever someone calls for an end to racist policing or making sure that the basic needs of all Americans are covered for. And I'm also sick of cheap shot artists who misrepresent people's comments and can't wait to try to accuse people of racism. All of you have made this board incredibly fucking toxic. Perhaps it's time to leave, at least until after the election, and let all of you wade in the cesspool you have collectively created. All of you can wallow in the shit you continue to drop all over this forum.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 28 2020, @07:49PM
AC you replied to here.
I read your comment. And put a really fine point on it as a rebuke to all the selfish, right-wing shitheads by hoisting them on their own petards of "personal responsibility" and pointing out the hypocrisy of their demonization of "welfare queens."
Yeah, you got caught up in it. Oh well. Life is hard sometimes.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday October 28 2020, @08:22PM
If you were feeling really vengeful just take a bunch of screenshots of some of the shit Runaway's posted (I have an old journal entry that blockquotes some of the worst) and send it off to the FBI and DHS. He's made enough noise about wanting to shoot government officials that in the current political climate he could very well find himself on the wrong end of a no-knock warrant raid.
It's not nice, but he will have brought it on himself, and it would be especially poetic because he's repeatedly spoken of "making common cause" with people like the unmarked DHS troops.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 29 2020, @11:46AM (2 children)
A) I'm not right-wing, you're just so far left you can't tell the difference.
B) Get used to it. It's not going to change.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @07:42PM (1 child)
A) correction - politics shifted so far right you think you're liberal, def a u prob
B) lol
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday October 30 2020, @02:52AM
You think politics shifted right? Holy shit! You're not only unable to tell the difference, you didn't even learn shit in history class.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Thursday October 29 2020, @12:14PM
If you're deliberately not working because the benefits are better than working, then you're not working class.
You know where the exit is, Buttercup. I'm a bit sick myself of people labeling my posts as "right wing misinformation" and the like while clearly not bothering to think. You're just noise.