Taxing the rich is good for the economy

JLM

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Sal

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As far as I know rich and wealthy are just two words for the same thing!

And here is an article that contradicts that!
The Difference Between Being Rich And Wealthy
to me one can work and become wealthy...they invest well, work hard and have a wonderful life style, they have big homes, drive nice cars, take multiple holidays all over the world every year...most of us know people who are quite wealthy or at least work for people that are

rich can be inherited and it's big, it's cars and boats and personal jets and servants, they are in a class of their own and they know each other well

they have multiple homes usually on different continents etc
 

JLM

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rich can be inherited and it's big, it's cars and boats and personal jets and servants, they are in a class of their own and they know each other well

they have multiple homes usually on different continents etc

Yeah, but only if you value all that crap!
 

Murphy

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"All that crap" is certainly of value. Often, people downplay the importance of something like money because they do not have enough. They attempt to rationalize their diminished circumstance by saying "Give me friendship/family/good health..." That is a cop out, pure and simple.

Money doesn't bring you happiness. Money is the root of all evil.

These are statements aimed at keeping the great unwashed docile. The message: It is alright to have nothing. For the most part, the rich are unhappy. Rubbish!

Money, friends and other accomplishments are all achievable. To dismiss that which you do not have is rationalizing and accepting your diminished circumstance. It is defending your lack of will to do better. Yet, in the same breath, you tell your children to reach for the stars. It is also a contradictory message.

The welfare state exists because the majority of its citizenry are dependent on government. People willingly subjugate themselves. They are cattle. A herd that accepts they exist to be controlled.
 

Sal

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Sep 29, 2007
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"All that crap" is certainly of value. Often, people downplay the importance of something like money because they do not have enough. They attempt to rationalize their diminished circumstance by saying "Give me friendship/family/good health..." That is a cop out, pure and simple.

Money doesn't bring you happiness. Money is the root of all evil.

These are statements aimed at keeping the great unwashed docile. The message: It is alright to have nothing. For the most part, the rich are unhappy. Rubbish!

Money, friends and other accomplishments are all achievable. To dismiss that which you do not have is rationalizing and accepting your diminished circumstance. It is defending your lack of will to do better. Yet, in the same breath, you tell your children to reach for the stars. It is also a contradictory message.

The welfare state exists because the majority of its citizenry are dependent on government. People willingly subjugate themselves. They are cattle. A herd that accepts they exist to be controlled.
agreed it certainly is of value, immense value...people kill for it, sell their souls for it, screw others for it, lose who they are for it.

they also save others with it, build hospitals, contribute to research and change the lives of others for the better or the worse

I can be quite happy with as much of it as possible...I don't believe it would make me a better individual but I am certainly balanced enough now in my world and within myself that it would not destroy or diminish me
 

Curious Cdn

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I was talking about things like jets and servants and houses on various continents.



Rich might be more a state of mind.

Rich might be having mountains of money more than even a luxurious lifestyle requires. The World's economy is increasingly under the grip of fewer and fewer controlling more and more. Don't tell me that the Russian Oligarchs and Arab oil sheiks got RICH by hard work and industriousness. Even in Canada, there has to be some crooked business behind the very rich as the system really doesn't allow it to happen in the Horatio Alger sense. (See Conrad Black)
 

Machjo

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Rich might be having mountains of money more than even a luxurious lifestyle requires. The World's economy is increasingly under the grip of fewer and fewer controlling more and more. Don't tell me that the Russian Oligarchs and Arab oil sheiks got RICH by hard work and industriousness. Even in Canada, there has to be some crooked business behind the very rich as the system really doesn't allow it to happen in the Horatio Alger sense. (See Conrad Black)

To be fair, if a rich person becomes rich within the constraints of the law, then he is not to blame: the laws are.

To take one example. Supposing I were a rich money broker and you looked down on me for having produced nothing in my life, having done nothing more than buy and sell money, my first question to you would be if you wanted to sign my petition to adopt a common world currenxy. Should you refuse, then I'd say, in all truth and honesty, that it's your fault that I'm so rich, not mine.

Likewise, if I'm a rich oil barron. You complain that I'm too rich. I propose raising government royalties on natural resource and making clothing, bicycles, cross-country skis, snowshoes and other possible modes of environmentally-friendly transportation tax free, along with solar panels, and you refuse.

Again, my response would be, in all honesty, don't blame me.

A person who gets rich illegally is one thing. But many got rich legally. In such cases, they played by the rules. If they played by the rules, then they are not to blame. If you want to change the rules of the game, by all means. But don't hate the rich who became rich by legal means
 
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Curious Cdn

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Feb 22, 2015
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To be fair, if a rich person becomes rich within the constraints of the law, then he is not to blame: the laws are.

To take one example. Supposing I were a rich money broker and you looked down on me for having produced nothing in my life, having done nothing more than buy and sell money, my first question to you would be if you wanted to sign my petition to adopt a common world currenxy. Should you refuse, then I'd say, in all truth and honesty, that it's your fault that I'm so rich, not mine.

Likewise, if I'm a rich oil barron. You complain that I'm too rich. I propose raising government royalties on natural resource and making clothing, bicycles, cross-country skis, snowshoes and other possible modes of environmentally-friendly transportation tax free, along with solar panels, and you refuse.

Again, my response would be, in all honesty, don't blame me.

A person who gets rich illegally is one thing. But many got rich legally. In such cases, they played by the rules. If they played by the rules, then they are not to blame. If you want to change the rules of the game, by all means. But don't hate the rich who became rich by legal means

If a person amasses billions, it is doubtful that they did it without some level of thuggery.
 

Machjo

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If the problem is thuggery, then raising taxes will solve nothing sinse thugs do not pay their legal share, preferring to play outside the rules. The solution then is to enforce the already existing laws. Raising taxes without enforcement would only breed more thugs, no?
 

Curious Cdn

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If the problem is thuggwry, then raising taxes will solve nothing sinse thugs do not pay their legal share, preferring to play outside the rules. The solution then is to enforce the already existing laws. Raising taxes without enforcement would only breed more thugs, no?

Raising taxes on the thugs just drives them out to places like the Cayman Islands. Thugs will be thugs an thugs can get very rich.

The bottom half of the human race has the same net worth of the richest 85 people. Something is rather amiss.
 

Machjo

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Raising taxes on the thugs just drives them out to places like the Cayman Islands. Thugs will be thugs an thugs can get very rich.

The bottom half of the human race has the same net worth of the richest 85 people. Something is rather amiss.

Then what we would need is more international coopetation.
 

JLM

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Since when are taxes part of the economy? I've understood the economy is driven by industry. :)

Rich might be having mountains of money more than even a luxurious lifestyle requires. The World's economy is increasingly under the grip of fewer and fewer controlling more and more. Don't tell me that the Russian Oligarchs and Arab oil sheiks got RICH by hard work and industriousness. Even in Canada, there has to be some crooked business behind the very rich as the system really doesn't allow it to happen in the Horatio Alger sense. (See Conrad Black)

I suppose it evolves from various sources. Jimmy Pattison (now supposedly the richest Canadian) started out selling cars in Vancouver. Maybe hard work is a bit of a misnomer, it may have more to do with patience, determination, stubbornness and opportunity. And I forgot perseverance.
 

Walter

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Money doesn't bring you happiness. Money is the root of all evil.
You need to brush up on yer bible quotes.
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
 

Murphy

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Apr 12, 2013
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You need to brush up on yer bible quotes.
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

I do not need to brush up on anything. You are misusing what was written, in order to lessen the meaning and impact of my words. Or perhaps you simply failed to understand what I wrote. In any event, your use of a biblical quote is an extraneous misdirection.