“I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.”
It’s incredible how our education systems fail to teach the most basic economic realities to people. Capital gains result from allocating capital wisely and taking massive risk. This actually makes them very well “earned” in the one system that is most responsibly for the improvement of the human condition than any other system ever conceived by humans - hint: because it’s organic and natural!
In contrast your socialist nonsense is an ideology based on Envy masquerading as Empathy. It is responsible for the most death and destruction by any system conceived by humans - hint: it’s because it’s evil and artificial! To attempt to steal from and punish the very capitalists responsible for lifting humanity up and forward due to Sloth and Envy is truly disgusting!
It’s very interesting that extensive propaganda has somehow convinced newer generations that libertarian capitalism is actually anarchy, which it is absolutely not, if fact it’s not even related. Liberalism in the classic sense, and therefore libertarian capitalism, requires a strict government enforcement of property rights, individual rights, rule of law, and (extremely important!) to it’s health functioning a well regulated markets free from corruption! anarchy and oligarchy have no relation to capitalism! You are confused my dear socialist.
Please help yourselves and learn the truth. Don’t live your lives consumed by the evils of Envy and Sloth!
https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Niemietz-Socia...
You see there is nothing more honorable than risking what you have for a better future for yourself and others. Capitalists are the actual heroes in the world. Socialist governments the single biggest evil.
Capitalism isn’t an intuitive concept and that’s caused by our evolutionary past, much like our desire for sugar and fats cause us health problems, our evolutionary past with Envy is making us sick, where it once made small groups perform better and survive longer. In a tribal setting Envy encourages the middle of the group to reach towards the accomplishments of the best performers. Unfortunately in a large scale society the middle and bottom of the group can’t conceive of how to reach the top performers and can only think of cutting them down resorting to theft which lowers overall performance.
Some insightful quotes to help:
"Socialism is an alternative to capitalism as potassium cyanide is an alternative to water."
"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."
"The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both."
"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."
“The case for capitalism is counterintuitive: to most of us, capitalism simply feels wrong. Socialism, in contrast, chimes with our moral intuitions. Socialism simply feels right. Being a socialist is a 'default opinion', which comes easily and naturally to us. Appreciating the benefits of a market economy, in contrast, takes some intellectual self-discipline. Even prominent free-market intellectuals, such as Milton Friedman and F. A. Hayek did not start their careers as free marketeers. ”
Now we have a serious conundrum. If words can only have a single meaning regardless of context, surely we need some sort of centralized authority to manage this authoritative dictionary. Who should that be?
Unconditional free speech solves it. The IRS can call it want they want and I can say they are idiots and evil. As long as we are allowed to speak truth then there is hope.
The ministry of truth will bring nothing but death and destruction. You are forewarned.
We have the liberty to assign whatever meaning we want to words, but at the same time we need to come to agreements on what those words mean to be able to communicate effectively. In the US, laws almost always have a table of word definitions at the beginning. Some of them are longer than the actual law!
It's almost paradoxical to rail against the IRS text as socialist propaganda. You are imposing your definition of "earned" on everyone, but the US government is saying "you will use the English language however you wish, but just to be clear, when you read this law (and only when you read this law) this is how to interpret the words"
I think we agree with each other quite a bit :)
Corporations themselves are a legal fiction made up by the state. Its incredibly fair to tax for this and Could Not Possibly work any other way.
And on top of that, come on: look at https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/?v=3 and tell me that having hundreds of billions of dollars isn't greedy. 10 million (ie. thirty thousand times less) and you can retire in luxury.
Unfortunately the rest you likely have completely misunderstood. fwiw you visualization is very silly so much of reality makes no sense on linear scales, I suggest you use logarithmic scales and it all makes perfect sense. Unless a crony capitalist has corrupted the state to gain unfair advantage, has monopoly power, or is providing unnecessary services or providing weapons for war and embezzling public funds, then when they are successful they earned their “unearned” income in capital gains by providing a valuable service to the society. The impulse to strike them down and steal their capital is frankly disgusting and embarrassing. Nothing but Envy masquerading as Empathy!
& Also: why is it necessarily true that they 'earned' their 'unearned' income. This is going from relative fact to opinion here "how does the enocomy work" to the squishier "what does it mean to earn something", but when I put my $$ in an index fund and wake up next month with more money than I did before, it doesn't really feel earned to me.
But its not like that money is from choosing wisely what to invest in and taking on risk, I'm literally putting it all into index funds its dead simple. The only trick is to have money.
I have no problem with the government deciding that this is unfair. Its not fair that I get free money for having money already and other people don't.
Here's an actual quote, not a made up sarcastic one
"Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
and that the church itself runs one of the biggest "redistribution schemes"
And once again, various Christian churches' tithe and charity systems are voluntary, not enforced by state violence.
But in your world, does the govt use violence to stop people from doing what they want? For enforcing things like labor contracts? (a made up legal fiction that can only exist in the context of a state)
If no: I commend you for imagining a world free from state violence. I don't have the vision for it myself but I can respect that.
if yes: 1. Who funds the police, & 2. Why is violence legal only when done by the rich?
Who benefits from having a well educated society? Everyone.
Who benefits from having a healthy society? Everyone.
Who benefits from having well maintained infrastructure? Everyone.
Who benefits from social safety nets, providing a soft landing in case of illness, failure at a business endeavour, etc.? Everyone.
Your view that the state is only using taxes to help the poor is absurd, a well running government benefits a whole society.