Diveos wrote:
When you have such an established base of wealth you SHOULD be giving it up because wealth for wealth sake is a bad way to run a society and most of the wealth either donated should be used to bring up the rest of the country.
Is it really? Do you actually know that for a fact? Or are you just repeating something you heard? Also. What exactly is "wealth for wealth's sake"?
Quote:
There is something like 300 trillion dollars locked up in the top percentage of the U.S. right now. You don't think that that money could be better spent at the healthcare issues? So that the poor that can't afford it can, don't get sick, make more money and then put it back into the economy? Makes sence to me... but then i'd be taking some of someone elses hard earned cash...and god knows that money is all that matters.
Ok. I'll go over it again. The wealth that's "locked up" in the top percentage of the US is *not* just sitting in a vault somewhere. That's where you aren't getting it. Every single penny of "wealth" owned by those richest people is sitting in various investments. The gain on those investments primarily rolls back into more investment. That wealth, rather then just sitting somewhere, is represented in funds that are available for bank loans. Heck. That pool of wealth is where the money for loans comes from. Get rid of it and you can't buy a car, or a house, or start a business. Think about that.
That wealth helps you and I and every other US citizen every single day. It's what builds the new products that we build. How many people on this forum own a cell phone? How many owned one 10 years ago? Why do you supposed that is? It's because a portion of the "wealth" owned by that top 1% was put into researching and developing new and better cell phones. Why are we even on this forum today? Because a portion of that same wealth was invested into this newfangled thing called the internet. The computers we're all using to view this forum? Built as an investment expense from that same pool of wealth. Your TV at home? Result of investment of wealth. Your DVD player? Wealth. Your stereo? Wealth. The airbags in your car? Came from wealth. Antilock breaks? From wealth.
Every single thing you have around you in your home was designed and built and brought to market because someone who had "wealth" invested that money into building that product. At some point, that particular thing did not exist. Someone had to invent it. Someone had to research it. Someone had to develop the technology until it was a marketable product. All of that cost money. None of that will happen unless there's a large amount of "wealth" in your economy held by people who don't spend it on consumption (ie: wealthy people).
You can in fact, chart a direct relationship between the percentage of a nations money that's tied up in "wealth" held by the richest members of their economy and the rate at which that nation develops new and better products that benefit everyone.
In otherwords, the wealth that's "locked up" in the hands of the richest percent of the population continually improves your standard of living. Every single day, your life gets better because they have that money. Yes. We *could* take that money away and put it into health care. But then we'd stagnate that technological and economic growth. We'd provide more of what currently exists to the people. Consumption would increase, but you can only consume what already exists. You can consume items that have already been invented and developed and put on the shelves for you to buy. But no matter how much money we hand to "the people" to spend, that money will *never* cause a "new" product to appear on those shelves.
The thought experiment for the day is to do the following. Pretend you have a time machine. Go back 30 years in time. Change the economic system of the US in *exactly* the way you've described. Take that money away from the rich. Remove their wealth. Take away their ability to increase that wealth. Ensure that our taxes redistribute it constantly from that pool of "locked up" wealth and out to the people in the form of health benefits, education, housing, etc.
Now. Get back in your time machine and go back to the present. Will the internet exist? Will home computers exist? Will cell phones exist? Will DVDs exist? If you think they will, explain to me how. Because I'm positive that they wont.
When you tax the wealthy, you don't really tax them. You tax yourself. You tax your future. Because that's what they're doing with that money. Investing it in the future. I'm frankly amazed that so many people can't see that.