Re:We shouldn’t push a positive mindset on those in poverty
by umanwizard on Saturday February 19, 2022 @12:09PM
(#30398594)
> there is no way in which a worker can make a contribution to society that is literally billions of times greater than another.
First of all, nobody makes billions of times more than anybody else. Bezos doesn’t even make a million times more than the average earner.
Second, sure it’s possible for one person’s impact to be thousands or tens of thousands of times higher than someone else’s.
Third, the point of taxes is not to change people’s income to better match the magnitude of their contribution to society.
Re:We shouldn’t push a positive mindset on those in poverty
by iso1210 on Saturday February 19, 2022 @01:17PM
(#30399164)
> Third, the point of taxes is not to change people’s income to better match the magnitude of their contribution to society.
The point of taxes is to provide a society where the guillotine doesn't come out. When it does it won't be the Musks and Bezos' of the world that the masses stop at.
Re:We shouldn’t push a positive mindset on those in poverty
by inglor_cz on Saturday February 19, 2022 @04:33PM
(#30400721)
This is a popular idea, but guillotine-heavy revolutions were pretty rare in the Western world, and modern revolutions in general, successful or not, were often a consequence of a lost war, not of usual misery in peace. Losing a war is dangerous for survival of any regime.
Peasants' revolts are another story, but too far back in history to be an useful analogy for today. They were also beaten to bloody pulp most of the time.
Not to mention, there is no way in which a worker can make a contribution to society that is literally billions of times greater than another. So, the fact the someone like Jeff Bezos can literally earn billions while others make pennies needs to be corrected theough a progressive tax rate - probably close to 95 cents on the dollar for every dollar over a few tens of million per year, like it used to be in America's golden age.