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Comment by gnaritas | Hacker News Reader

> I live in California. I'm not "super rich" but we earn more than $1MM/year. > And high-salaried people are getting screwed under Obama's war against the most productive citizens.

Stop whining and blaming Obama; there's no war against productive citizens, you aren't a victim. You don't get to complain when you're among the wealthiest in the world that you don't get to keep enough money. 99.9% of the country makes less than you, have some fucking perspective and perhaps a bit of humility for gods sake.

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What does it matter what the rest of the world has? If he/she earned it legally, they deserve it. You don't get to make victims out of the rest of the world.

> If he/she earned it legally, they deserve it.

Utter nonsense. Legal doesn't equal moral nor does it mean fair. Slavery was legal, that doesn't mean the slave owners deserved the profits from their labor (you apparently think it does). Legals means nothing more than we can't put you in jail yet.

Eyeroll. And who decides morality? You? No thanks.

No, we; that's what democracy is for, we evolve and over time, the law catches up as the common morality evolves. Or do you really think slave owners deserved their money because it was made legally? That was your argument, that legal means they deserve it, stand by your argument.

And "we" decide laws. I'll stick to those.

I didn't say you shouldn't, I just said being legal doesn't make something just; that's a fact.

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GP earned it in California and so is subject to California taxes in addition to Federal taxes

You earned however much the state says you've earned legally; the state makes the laws. Every cent you've made is off the back of the state and at the state's whims, so the state gets to decide how much of its money it will take back, and how much of its money you get to keep as an incentive to keep helping others. If you claim you somehow 'deserve' the millions you are making, then you also 'deserve' to get taxed. You can't have it both ways.

> Stop whining and blaming Obama; there's no war against productive citizens, you aren't a victim. You don't get to complain...

Everyone gets to complain, you don't have a monopoly on it.

> when you're among the wealthiest...

Not everyone that is wealthy won the lotto. Some people actually worked for it (took risks, worked harder, etc).

Yes, and some people should be ashamed of complaining in the name of decency.

> How about when you are the among the ones that took the most risk in life, the ones that worked the hardest

Ah, the just world fallacy and survivor-ship bias all in one. You didn't work the hardest or take the most risks, far more people who worked harder and took equal risks didn't get lucky.

You're promoting the false narrative that if someone does better in life it is just chance and nothing else... If you fail, it's not your fault. If you succeed, it's not really your doing.

The formula for success has more than the single variable of luck in it. Luck plays a part, but so does allot of other variables.

> You're promoting the false narrative that if someone does better in life it is just chance and nothing

That's a straw-man, I didn't say it's "just" chance and it's called a fallacy, not a narrative, and it's a fact, not false. It's a cognitive bias all humans have to attribute their success to their own efforts, and that's what's false.

Reality is somewhere between the two positions being argued.

Reality is those biases exist, and chance plays a far greater role in everyone's lives than most like to admit; that's a fact. The just world fallacy is a fact. Survivorship bias is a fact. These are not debatable points, they're truths and they're true regardless of opinions to the contrary.

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