But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory...
Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea -God bless! keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along"
-I think it's far too easy for successful people to forget this. -I see it all the time. I also think it's where the old saying, "young and liberal, you have no heart. Old and conservative, you have no brain", comes from. As a person gets older and becomes more successful, it can seem counter intuitive to willingly volunteer more of your riches away. But in the long run, if those riches are given back in to the system that helped you to become successful and they are properly allocated, it is good.
This should be the mantra of the occupation.
Here's a critique on why this is just the newest in the emotionally-laden salvo against conventional property rights: http://mises.org/daily/5699/Elizabeth-Warrens-Blank-Check And FYI, this: "young and liberal, you have no heart. Old and conservative, you have no brain" comes from Winston Churchill, where the terms liberal and conservative carried much different connotations. In the words of Inigo Montoya, that phrase, "I do not think it means what you think it means."
I did. It's the same simplistic bullshit you always see from conservative "think tanks" (lobbying firms) whenever someone makes the point that libertarianism and feudalism are essentially the same. The article you link isn't quite "I want to shrink the government down to the point where I can drown it in the bathtub" but it's damn close. Let's cut through the bullshit and get to the grit, shall we? Because let's be honest - you linked to a 600 word essay that's a mealy-mouthed refutation of 100 words of purity. A little flencing is in order. "Warren argues that it is only fair that the rich give back to the community...Warren's argument is wrong both on principle and in practical application." There's exactly one sentence in the middle there. It doesn't alter the basic premise: "Arguing that it's fair for the rich to give back to the community is wrong on principle and in practice." That, right there, is "I me mine." "Warren alludes to an "underlying social contract." Well it's very convenient for her to discuss this contract, which none of us has ever seen but apparently she can interpret." Did you see this part? This is the part where the author says "Since Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau didn't write specific, legally-binding terms in their philosophy, their entire thinking is invalid." "Even on Warren's own terms, we would have to say that the community collectively decides how much it will tax people in order to provide goods that benefit the community (such as roads, national defense, etc.)." Here's the part where we argue that if the public asks for something, the public always gets it... therefore, wait for it.... "So when the George W. Bush administration "cut taxes on the rich"...that was just as valid an exercise of the public's will as it will be if and when the Obama administration raises tax rates." Did you like how we started out by arguing "the public" and immediately jumping to "two presidents?" I'll bet you missed that. "Warren is right: there is a widespread view that really wealthy people are very fortunate — that they have been blessed. And that's precisely why so many wealthy people give very large amounts of their fortunes to charitable causes." The rich shouldn't have to pay more in taxes, you see, because they might always give to charity. Charities like the PRC or, oh, I don't know, the Von Mises Institute. Or maybe, here, you can't make this shit up: "Besides philanthropy, another social practice is that parents take care of their children. Then, when the children become adults, they in turn take care of their offspring." That's right - the rich shouldn't have to pay more in taxes because, you see, they have kids. "The final major principled problem with Warren's position is that the government gives the rich little choice in accepting the alleged benefits of its activities." Did you see that? We're now arguing that the rich shouldn't have to pay for infrastructure because they were never given the option of TURNING THAT INFRASTRUCTURE DOWN. No shit. Here's the elaboration: "And CEOs in Boise — who don't think they are at serious risk of an al Qaeda attack — don't have the option of rejecting the US government's "helpful" foreign policy with its tremendous price tag." That's right - if you don't agree with a government policy, you shouldn't have to fund it. The whole pathetic argument is a thinly-argued screed for oligarchy. Warren didn't attribute the quote to Churchill, by the way, because it ISN'T CHURCHILL: "According to research by Mark T. Shirey, citing Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations by Ralph Keyes, 1992, this quote was first uttered by mid-nineteenth century French historian and statesman François Guizot when he observed, Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head. (N'être pas républicain à vingt ans est preuve d'un manque de cœur ; l'être après trente ans est preuve d'un manque de tête.) This quote has been attributed variously to George Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Disraeli, Otto von Bismarck, and others. "Furthermore, the Churchill Centre, on its Falsely Attributed Quotations page, states "there is no record of anyone hearing Churchill say this." Paul Addison of Edinburgh University is quoted as stating: "Surely Churchill can't have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal at 35! And would he have talked so disrespectfully of Clemmie, who is generally thought to have been a lifelong Liberal?" http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill "Guizot's influence was critical in expanding public education, which under his ministry saw the creation of primary schools in every French commune. But as a leader of the "Doctrinaires", committed to supporting the policies of Louis Phillipe and limitations on further expansion of the political franchise, he earned the hatred of more left-leaning liberals and republicans through his unswerving support for restricting suffrage to propertied men, advising those who wanted the vote to "enrich yourselves" (enrichissez-vous) through hard work and thrift." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Guizot TL;DR - STFU & GTFO.
You are not offering up your own ideas, you are parroting the ideas of those you presume have done your thinking for you. Further, you offer them up offensively: "When, exactly, did doing good for society come to equal paying off a gigantic, intrusive, abusive global empire?" You really think that's not inflammatory, offensive language? You wanna be a "different person" online? Offer up your own ideas. Defend your own ideas. Don't just fish around for websites to defend your pet theories for you. And if you're going to correct the attribution and meaning of a quote, you damn well better be right. "Civil" does not mean "willing to permit grievous logical errors and inflammatory canards in the spirit of camaraderie." "Civil" means "don't shoot first."
But this is a common practice in online forums. Why go to great lengths to say what has already been said well enough? Don't tell me you've never linked to an article you've felt is relevant to a discussion you've had in the past; I won't believe you. Besides that, artifex went on to defend his stance throughout the rest of the discussion without referring to any other texts; it is clear that he has an understanding of the topic he is debating. This forgives whatever shortcut he took in raising the argument in the first place. > Further, you offer them up offensively That is completely your subjective response. Personally I found nothing inflammatory or offensive about that rhetorical question. It does not insult the proponents of said stance but rather the subject around which it revolves. Why do you feel offended by it? > "Civil" does not mean "willing to permit grievous logical errors and inflammatory canards in the spirit of camaraderie." "Civil" means "don't shoot first." In which case you are completely out of line. Your response to the article in question is so weakly constructed and your manner so abrasive that I did not think it worthy of any serious critical response when I first read it earlier today. I was seriously disappointed because I thought hubski was better than that.
Because if you're going to hitch your wagon to someone else's thinking, you'd better be able to defend it. If you choose a champion, that champion fights for you. And if you're going to pick 600 carefully-crafted words that attempt to diffuse an off-the-cuff 100-word statement, they better be the most incontrovertible 600 words in the history of the English language - not "rich people have kids, therefore they shouldn't pay taxes." >Besides that, artifex went on to defend his stance throughout the rest of the discussion without referring to any other texts; it is clear that he has an understanding of the topic he is debating. Artifex went on to play fisticuffs with other people who don't understand either. I've seen better debate at Free Republic. >That is completely your subjective response. As is his notion that he deserves "an apology" from me. Personally, you found him to be just hunky-dory and me to be offensive. That's subjective, too. >In which case you are completely out of line. Your response to the article in question is so weakly constructed and your manner so abrasive that I did not think it worthy of any serious critical response when I first read it earlier today. Typical Conservative response - "you're not being civil, therefore your argument is invalid." > I was seriously disappointed because I thought hubski was better than that. Hubski is Reddit without the crowds. You come in here trashing progressive tax and you will find my boot up your ass. I do not suffer libertarians, butt-hurt or not.
> Besides philanthropy, another social practice is that parents take care of their children. Then, when the children become adults, they in turn take care of their offspring. This is exactly what Warren has in mind with her talk of "pay forward for the next kid who comes along." That's exactly what society expects of people, and that's what most of us do. Here again, we see Warren injecting the government into the mix, without any justification. It is an analogy, you see -- a structural comparison of two like systems. When a parent bequeaths wealth to his child, there is no external entity which forces the hand of the parent to do so. It is merely a social practice. So to invoke the government in the role of "paying forward" wealth to future benefactors is an act which must be justified -- something Warren failed to do in the cited clip. The rest of your rant is full of similar straw man attacks against an argument no one is making. Then you end it with a childish "STFU & GTFO" with full expectation to be taken seriously. > Typical Conservative response - "you're not being civil, therefore your argument is invalid." You come in here trashing progressive tax and you will find my boot up your ass. I do not suffer libertarians, butt-hurt or not. I am neither a Conservative nor a Libertarian. I am in fact a Liberal who supports progressive tax rates, but cannot stand willful ignorance, strawman attacks, over-simplified bullshit arguments, "Us versus Them" mentality or childish internet rants from holier-than-thou asshats with inflated egos. I prefer to defend my arguments on their own merits instead of misrepresenting the opposing argument in a desperate effort to further some political agenda at any cost. Furthermore, I refuse to automatically align myself with people I agree with just because they're "on my side" even if they use deceptive and illogical tactics. > Hubski is Reddit without the crowds. Fuck that shit. If you want reddit, go back to reddit. Obviously the hive mind there is more suited to your purposes.
"Besides philanthropy, another social practice is that parents take care of their children. Then, when the children become adults, they in turn take care of their offspring. This is exactly what Warren has in mind with her talk of "pay forward for the next kid who comes along." That's exactly what society expects of people, and that's what most of us do. Here again, we see Warren injecting the government into the mix, without any justification." Now let's look at what Elizabeth Warren said: "Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea -God bless! keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along" Are you really trying to argue that Elizabeth Warren, Consumer Advocate, professor of Commercial Law, Special Advisor to the Federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, meant "your biological children?" Do you really believe this woman, who helped her parents pay the bills in High School by waitressing because her father couldn't meet ends meet because of a heart attack, who went to Northwestern on an academic scholarship, is making a de-facto argument against the Estate Tax? Really? That's not an analogy. That's a "rich people have kids, therefore they shouldn't have to pay taxes" argument. Which is exactly what I said it was. It goes along quite nicely with the "rich people might give money to charity, therefore they shouldn't have to pay taxes" argument and the "rich people were never given the choice to forego the roads, therefore they shouldn't have to pay taxes" argument that are quite clearly and quite lucidly (if quite idiotically) put forth in the response piece. If you really stretch to make it an analogy, the analogy is "rich people have a paternal relationship with poor people, and without government intervention rich people have a history and tendency of promoting poor people to positions of power out of altruism." Which is a silly analogy to make. Because they don't. And never have, and never will. Unless there's a tax break in it for them, of course. As to "STFU & GTFO" - that's the exact same thing as saying "lemme invoke Princess Bride in order to misattribute a quote to someone in order to dismiss the whole argument." It just uses ruder language. Know how to discern whether the person you're talking to has the intellectual rigor to merit talking to? See if they can tell the difference between rude statements and rude language. Know who fails the test? >I am neither a Conservative nor a Libertarian. No, but you sure are butt-hurt. And devoid of intellectual rigor. And, I might add, unskilled at rhetoric - I have yet to insult you personally, yet so far you've accused me of straw-man arguments (without pointing out how or why they're straw man arguments), and called me a "holier-than-thou asshat." Mostly what you've proven is that you're so offended by coarse language that you'll sling it willfully at anyone who dares to cross you. I like it here just fine. And I will stick around, and I will continue to call a spade a spade, and I will continue to recognize that an attack against an idea is not the same as an attack against a person, even if everyone else has an extreme, pants-soiling inability to do the same.
No, of course not. That's what makes it an analogy. > If you really stretch to make it an analogy, the analogy is "rich people have a paternal relationship with poor people, and without government intervention rich people have a history and tendency of promoting poor people to positions of power out of altruism." Which is a silly analogy to make. Because they don't. And never have, and never will. Unless there's a tax break in it for them, of course. Of course not, and I agree. But now you're working outside of the analogy. Maintain the scope of the argument you'r making. > No, but you sure are butt-hurt. If by "butthurt" you mean "frustrated," then yes, I am. So? How is that relevant to anything? That's just you invoking the mentality of "u mad bro" in order to provoke an emotional response. Moving over the baseless feeding of your ego, there's this: > I have yet to insult you personally, yet so far you've accused me of straw-man arguments (without pointing out how or why they're straw man arguments), and called me a "holier-than-thou asshat." So? What's your point? Did your high school English teacher tell you that an ad hominem is any attack against the speaker? In your own words, I am no less willing to "call a spade a spade." If you make a straw man argument, I will point it out. If you're an asshat, I will point it out. You made straw man arguments and you were kind of a dick about it. I am not ashamed to say that. > Mostly what you've proven is that you're so offended by coarse language that you'll sling it willfully at anyone who dares to cross you. Mostly what you've proven is that only you can use course language and that anyone else must be condescendingly scolded for it -- according to your egocentric "logic." > I like it here just fine. And I will stick around, and I will continue to call a spade a spade, and I will continue to recognize that an attack against an idea is not the same as an attack against a person, even if everyone else has an extreme, pants-soiling inability to do the same. And hopefully you will continue to accept that everyone else is also entitled to do the same, asshat.
You say I've only made straw-man arguments. Illuminate them. You say I'm "outside the scope of my argument." Demonstrate why. Really, what you've said, in 1000 words or more, is "You're wrong, but you're too offensive for me to bother explaining why." That's not debate, that's not even invective. It's this: Abusive ad hominem (also called personal abuse or personal attacks) usually involves insulting or belittling one's opponent in order to attack his claim or invalidate his argument, but can also involve pointing out factual but apparent character flaws or actions that are irrelevant to the opponent's argument. This tactic is logically fallacious because insults and negative facts about the opponent's personal character have nothing to do with the logical merits of the opponent's arguments or assertions. Say what you will about my language, I'm the only person in this discussion that has actually talked about facts. Unless that changes, I don't really see the point in continuing. Making people mad is easy - as you're clearly demonstrating. I can do that anywhere. If you actually have an argument, make it. Otherwise, run along.
Am I mad? Fuck yes! Anger is a completely valid human emotion, and it is my personal natural response to your particular brand of asshole. I'm annoyed by your dismissive and patronizing tone -- I'll admit that. That does not, however, justify your attitude. There is a reason why it's customary to hold a certain standard of decorum in public debates -- to avoid needless banter like this. That's all I'm going to say about that. Now, moving on: > You say I've only made straw-man arguments. Illuminate them. Again, we'll revisit the charity example: > That's not an analogy. That's a "rich people have kids, therefore they shouldn't have to pay taxes" argument. You have not explained why this is so. You took an analogy which mentioned children and somehow transformed it into that simple mantra which you keep repeating. There were no actual children being discussed, not even in the sense that the "poor" are the metaphorical "children". However you have taken this redefined version of the argument and attacked it. That is a straw man fallacy. > You say I'm "outside the scope of my argument." Demonstrate why. I was referring to the fact that you were leaving the boundaries of the proposed analogy. Here, you said: > If you really stretch to make it an analogy, the analogy is "rich people have a paternal relationship with poor people, and without government intervention rich people have a history and tendency of promoting poor people to positions of power out of altruism." Which is a silly analogy to make. Because they don't. And never have, and never will. Unless there's a tax break in it for them, of course. The analogy was only meant to demonstrate the role of coercion within the two models of wealth transfer. If, as Warren states, the wealthy are meant to "pay it forward" to the community which supports them, it is because it is a generally accepted social practice and not because it is federally mandated (as in the example of hereditary wealth between family members). You exceeded the scope of the analogy when you made the quoted argument because you made an observation which, although true, does not actually break the parallels made in the analogy. One could also point to examples wherein the parents do not transfer wealth to their children. The point still remains: there is no coercion involved. Now I'll go back to your initial reply to artifex to highlight more of what I'm talking about. > "The final major principled problem with Warren's position is that the government gives the rich little choice in accepting the alleged benefits of its activities." Did you see that? We're now arguing that the rich shouldn't have to pay for infrastructure because they were never given the option of TURNING THAT INFRASTRUCTURE DOWN. No shit. Here's the elaboration: "And CEOs in Boise — who don't think they are at serious risk of an al Qaeda attack — don't have the option of rejecting the US government's "helpful" foreign policy with its tremendous price tag." That's right - if you don't agree with a government policy, you shouldn't have to fund it. You didn't actually address this argument, you just ridiculed it. Then there is this significant chunk of the article sub-titled "Practical Problems with Warren's Stance" which you didn't not address at all -- and it's no small piece, either. It is a central point which holds tremendous weight in the article in that it address Warren's quote directly.
Really. It seems to me that I'm the one who's trying to bring this back to the issues. Veiled insults? You've called me an asshat three times. DId I call your anger invalid? No, I didn't. I called your anger non-responsive. I further pointed out that your anger with me had absolutely nothing to do with the discussion, yet you persist in making it central. Don't want me to be dismissive and patronizing? Don't make facile and infantile arguments. "You have not explained why this is so." I explained it at length. Again - the argument from the Mises.org article is "rich people have children, therefore they shouldn't have to pay taxes." You keep calling it a metaphor, when the actual phrasing was "parents take care of their children." If that's a metaphor, then the only way it works is if the parents are the rich and the children are the poor. It isn't a metaphor, though, because for four sentences the author continues in the same vein. I don't know which interpretation is more offensive: not-metaphor, as in "don't tax us, we have kids" or metaphor, as in "don't tax us, we're paternalistic towards the proles whose well-being we manage." Either way, it's not an argument of social mobility. >If, as Warren states, the wealthy are meant to "pay it forward" to the community which supports them, it is because it is a generally accepted social practice and not because it is federally mandated (as in the example of hereditary wealth between family members). The reason Warren was prompted to make her statement is that "wealth concentration" has become a hot-button issue. Clearly, "pay it forward" has not happened. The core of Warren's statement is that wealth is not an individualist accomplishment, it is the outcome of a social contract. Further, that social contract is being shirked by those with wealth. "There is no coercion involved' is the direct cause of the wealth concentration we currently experience. Warren, I surmise, would encourage further coercion because the system as currently implemented does not "pay it forward." >You didn't actually address this argument, you just ridiculed it. So I write a thousand words and I'm criticized for not writing more? Okay, I'll write more: A factory in Boise may not appear to have as likely a risk of a terrorist attack as a factory in Newark. However, the entity targeted by "terrorism" is likely to be "weak factories" and if the factory does not have the same intelligence about terrorism as a central authority, the factory is addressing issues of terrorism in an inferior fashion compared to that central authority. Further, a central authority is the most efficient way to deal with central problems - if one does business on a national basis, one should accept the input of a national authority rather than a state or local authority because knowledge can never be perfect. Further, if one practices business on a national level, one must necessarily use infrastructure provided on a national level unless one wishes to build a parallel infrastructure from the ground up. Simply put, unless you're building your own UPS fleet to run on your own roads to deliver your goods and services to everyone, you owe taxes on the highways between you and your customers. And if Al Qaeda intends to attack "the united states" as a resident of "the united states" you share the burden of paying to protect "the united states." >Then there is this significant chunk of the article sub-titled "Practical Problems with Warren's Stance" which you didn't not address at all -- and it's no small piece, either Would you like me to address it? I can. Or would you rather call me "asshat" again? Perhaps "provocateur" and "egoist." Maybe "smug" and "annoying" would suit you better. How 'bout "asshole?" This can go one of two ways. You can actually try and have a civil discussion, or you can continue hurling insults. Let's be clear about one thing, though - YOU brought us here.
I'm calling it an analogy. It does not have to be clearly labeled as an analogy to actually be an analogy. The author does not have to have to explicitly say "To make an analogy . . ." or "Consider the following analogy . . ." or so on for us to make the logical conclusion that it is, in fact, an analogy. Why else would the author all of a sudden start talking about children in a political article? The fact that she continues the analogy for several sentences just means that it's an extended analogy -- call it an allegory then; that's probably a more suitable term anyway. > If that's a metaphor, then the only way it works is if the parents are the rich and the children are the poor. I don't know which interpretation is more offensive: not-metaphor, as in "don't tax us, we have kids" or metaphor, as in "don't tax us, we're paternalistic towards the proles whose well-being we manage." Either way, it's not an argument of social mobility. The purpose is to demonstrate the role of coercion in both models, not to provide an insulting metaphor of relations between the rich and non-rich. We both agree that the assumptions it makes are unrealistic, but that is beside the point. > The reason Warren was prompted to make her statement is that "wealth concentration" has become a hot-button issue. Clearly, "pay it forward" has not happened. The core of Warren's statement is that wealth is not an individualist accomplishment, it is the outcome of a social contract. Further, that social contract is being shirked by those with wealth. "There is no coercion involved' is the direct cause of the wealth concentration we currently experience. Warren, I surmise, would encourage further coercion because the system as currently implemented does not "pay it forward." We both agree on this. Had you written this to begin with instead of the inflammatory rant you did, this discussion wouldn't be happening. > Would you like me to address it? Preferably, yes. That would be useful in perpetuating discussion.
- If it weren't for the prior existence of language (not to mention the discovery of mathematics and electricity), then the current members of the Forbes 400 list would be living like savages. - Yet for some reason, Warren acts as if the "social contract" always means we can take more from rich people, regardless of how much we're currently taking. - Warren simply asserts that the government should be the recipient of this understandable urge for the wealthy to share. - Here again, we see Warren injecting the government into the mix, without any justification. - It's not as if a factory has a choice between getting products via government highways or privately run highways. These are not valid points of discussion. These are the rants of a Libertarian mindset so far removed from logic that they see "big government" in every statement. The idea that taxes should be optional because public roads are not is preposterous on the face of it - yet this idea, and ones like it, are typical of mises.org. And that's why I gutted the article and walked away, rather than bludgeoning through the whole "the rich pay more taxes so pay no attention to the fact that as a measure of wealth they pay less" aspect of the part you want me to discuss. So if you would really like me to talk about that more, apologize, asshat.
Parents == the wealthy Child == the tax-funded community (roads, libraries, USPS, Welfare, SS, etc) The central point here is that when a wealthy parent bequeaths money to his children, it is a voluntary action. Warren probably would not advocate a law which automatically took a portion of a parents' wealth and distributed to his children. Therefore, the author requests justification for Warren's claim that the wealthy should be forced to give back to the community. That force, in the form of a law, is (from a libertarian standpoint) undue coercion. The analogy obviously falls apart under scrutiny (parents do not rely on their children, wealth will not be efficiently distributed, etc). However the basic principle is that this form of coercion is wrong. That is the point, and that is the assertion worth debating. Not the straw man you've been suggesting. It has nothing to do with wealthy people having actual children and therefore being exempt from taxes. That doesn't even make sense on a superficial level, because poor people have kids, too. > But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along" - nowhere does she say "the government is entitled to your wealth" I thought that is was a given that we were talking about a progressive income tax code, in which case, the government would be entitled to a fraction of a person's income. > nor does she say "you need to pay for a welfare state so that the indolent can continue to suck off the public teat." This, too, is a straw man because the article doesn't argue that, either. It simply contests the idea that the wealthy are due a debt to the community which supported them. > So if you would really like me to talk about that more, apologize, asshat. This is what I don't understand about you. Before you were adamant that I return to the actual discussion at hand and stop making this about you. Now you want an apology. To be completely honest I did actually considering adding an apology to the end of my previous message, but decided against it because I thought (1) you would think I was being insincere, (2) if I attempted to justify the purpose of the insults in any way we'd get tied up in more pointless bickering, and (3) I didn't think you wanted one. So, although I risk violating my second point in saying this (and possibly the first), I do apologize for calling you an asshat or an asshole -- but not for calling you smug or intentionally provocative because I honestly believe you were. It didn't call for the harsh language I used, but let's not pretend that it was unprovoked. But I don't like resorting to personal insults, and I don't like making people feel like shit. I truly am sorry.
>Child == the tax-funded community (roads, libraries, USPS, Welfare, SS, etc) >The central point here is that when a wealthy parent bequeaths money to his children, it is a voluntary action. So. By your own read, of this interpretation of a 3rd party article, the author of the 3rd party article is saying "the rich should not be forced to pay for roads, libraries, USPS, Welfare, SS, etc. because they're as naturally inclined to pay for these things as parents are naturally inclined to give their children money." Not only is that insultingly paternalistic, as I've said for hours, it's also laughable. The notion that public works would be kept alive by charity in the absence of taxes is fallacious by inspection; people donating money to "the government" is a rare enough occasion that it usually makes the news. Never in the history of mankind have taxes been voluntary, and never in the history of mankind has a culture flourished on charity. Charity has always been the discretionary largesse of a populace that has already supported its infrastructure based on compulsory taxation; compulsory taxation dates beyond the Code of Hammurabi. Here's a bunch of ancient Egyptian tax cheats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wells_egyptian_peasants_ta... Now - you can make the argument that in Rand's magic valley, everyone will pay their own way and bootstrap themselves to success. But we don't live there and neither did Ayn. Elizabeth Warren is simply pointing this out. >I thought that is was a given that we were talking about a progressive income tax code, in which case, the government would be entitled to a fraction of a person's income. So now you're arguing against taxes? >This, too, is a straw man because the article doesn't argue that, either. It simply contests the idea that the wealthy are due a debt to the community which supported them. The article argues that the wealthy do not owe anything to the community from whence they sprang. It does not argue it successfully. >This is what I don't understand about you. Before you were adamant that I return to the actual discussion at hand and stop making this about you. Now you want an apology. Before you were busy calling me six different names and refusing to have any sort of discussion. Now you're continuing to call me names and wanting to hear me elaborate on the stupidity of the article. The only consistent part is you calling me names, while also insisting I'm the rude one. I'm just rubbing your nose in your hypocrisy. >To be completely honest I did actually considering adding an apology to the end of my previous message, but decided against it because I thought (1) you would think I was being insincere, (2) if I attempted to justify the purpose of the insults in any way we'd get tied up in more pointless bickering, and (3) I didn't think you wanted one. I pointed out no less than three times that you're the one being uncivil. It took demonstrating just how childish and uncivil you were being before you even considered attempting to be civil. Again, I didn't start this fracas by attacking anyone - I attacked an article. Meanwhile, I've been called an asshole, an asshat, an egoist and (most amusingly) a bigot for attacking the logic of a facile Libertarian hit-piece. And somehow, you think me attempting to bring things back to the discussion at hand is at loggerheads with me wanting things to be civil? I've said it before, and I'll say it again. My behavior is no different from anyone else's, I'm just better at it. I don't attack, I counter-attack. And I've had lots of practice. >I do apologize for calling you an asshat or an asshole -- but not for calling you smug or intentionally provocative because I honestly believe you were. It didn't call for the harsh language I used, but let's not pretend that it was unprovoked. Oh, come now. "intentionally provocative" is a bizarre read for what can only be viewed as an antagonistically dismissive comment. What I wrote was intended to shut down debate on the points under discussion - and the best you've come up with is "the rich will make up in charity what you take away in taxes" which is a laughable argument. You're only still having this discussion because of a serious case of high dudgeon - you say you're a "a Liberal who supports progressive tax rates" yet here you are saying that the idea of taxation = coercion is an "assertion worth debating." I'll say the same thing to you that I said to Artifex - if you don't want the discussion to dive into the gutter, don't steer it there. What sort of response do you expect when you write: >Your response to the article in question is so weakly constructed and your manner so abrasive that I did not think it worthy of any serious critical response when I first read it earlier today. I was seriously disappointed because I thought hubski was better than that. ? Yet I'm the smug and provocative one.
- Understanding and addressing opposing arguments as they are meant to be understood is the only way to honestly defend one's own position. Attacking straw men or being categorically dismissive of certain ideologies advances nothing. - For the very reason stated above, I played devil's advocate for an opinion with which I disagreed in order to represent it fairly (which you failed to do). That the argument falls apart is of no consequence to me, because it was never my point to militate it. - We have completely different views of what is provocative or smug if you honestly feel offended by that last quote. Criticism and disappointment =/= provocative and smug. - I called you an asshat multiple times. Well, again, sorry. Didn't think it would cut so deep with you. Unless you want to crack this wide open again, futilely chasing up all the irreconcilable loose ends, then I think we're done here. I will no longer respond to concerns which I have already addressed.
TLDR: The Internet. Srs Bsns.
"Today, unlike 1945 or 1980 or 1999, the top 400 U.S. families own more than the the bottom 50% of Americans. Please, please, please pause a minute and picture that in your mind. If you can somehow manage to shrug that off, is there some level of disparity that would worry you?" -Here in lies the reason people are up-in-arms! Should those 400 families pay a smaller amount (percentage wise) than I do? I pay around 33%. -Somehow I doubt they did.
Disclaimer: I've had a couple glasses of wine (hence the grapes) but my math may be fuzzy. -I should work for the CBO!
Always bugs me when people say the economy isn't a zero sum game when it is so blatantly wrong. Scarcity of resources is the underlying principle of economics.
You mumbled some stuff about how competition is difficult, but you didn't address the reality I pointed out to you, -that markets are finite on size and corps are competing for a percentage of that finite market. If somebody gains, someone else loses. I don't understand how competition beig difficult has any bearing whatsoever on that reality. Then you go on about choking competition etc. Can you address the point I made before you switch to a new topic (effects of gov't regulation on competition)?
And it's at these external points that brilliant people have consistently shown how they can work together to overcome the limitations imposed by them. For instance, as technology progresses, even "natural scarcity" is removed. For instance, the oil we fail to find today might one day be easily synthesized by custom-built bacteria. That's already beginning. A real example is how genetically modified crops can currently support a population of 12 billion, where before, we could only support say 6 billion. This fits in with the larger trend of the quality of life improving across the board, for every measurable metric, throughout the entire course of human history. Scarcity is not an example of zero sum in the aggregate. It's an externality that has been overcome in the past, and will be overcome even more in the future.
Sorry, of course. Markets are infinitely large, lol. Actually, they are constrained and finite. >For instance, as technology progresses, even "natural scarcity" is removed. Can you name one product/market where all natural scarcity has been removed? >For instance, the oil we fail to find today might one day be easily synthesized by custom-built bacteria. Yea maybe someday possibly. What about the market today? When one company in the energy sector makes large gains, are you saying that it is not at the expense of another company in that market? And what happens should companies derive energy from bacteria? Will they not be competing for a percentage share of the market? I feel like you are ignoring basic economic realities that actual companies have to navigate every day they are in business to talk about theoretical examples and possibilities. Yes, companies can explore new markets in a non zero-sum aggregate manner, but as I already mentioned, those are new markets (iPad is a good example) and the equilibrium state that is moved towards is one where the market demand is met, and the players serving them gain or lose at each other's expense. This isn't to say that innovation can't doesn't reap the obvious rewards (besides allowing companies to serve new markets it reduces costs to serve existing markets), but you can't ignore the larger reality. So you think that Apple's and Google's gains in the mobile market didn't absolutely obliterate Nokia Symbian's and RIM's bottom line? This is real life. Not internet forum theory.These companies are competing for a finite slice of the pie, and when one makes strides, another loses, and loses big: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/technology/round-of-layoff... To say that they could just innovate or overcome 'constraints' and keep all those workers while iOS and Android grew to the size they did is to not live in the real world. The pie is only so big, and when Apple and Google took their piece, well, no amount of overcoming 'constraints' is gonna help them. Finally: >The fact is, markets grow and shrink organically, and are not set in stone at some pre-determined, arbitrary size. Don't know what you're talking about with that 'organically' business, but nobody ever claimed that markets don't shrink and grow, but you're wrong in thinking that the are not a finite size. They are, at any given time. The challenge for businesses is to figure out what that is, and how do they serve it. Just because we don't know the value doesn't mean it doesn't exist (obviously). I also never claimed that the size of a market is 'arbitrary'. Demand determines that.
...The so-called “real” market is non-zero-sum only during expansion phases while a generation of new technologies (often birthed by war) matures. Innovation unfortunately is a punctuated equilibrium process rather than one that adds value steadily. In mature markets, leading up to the next technological paradigm shift, the market behaves more like a zero-sum game where market share is won or lost driven by fluctuations in the distribution of natural resources, random fashion trends and advertising rather than fundamental increases in value. Found in akkartik's G+ stream.
Didn't understand this question, but I'd like to so please clarify: "When, exactly, did doing good for society come to equal paying off a gigantic, intrusive, abusive global empire"? Taxes in and of themselves are a "salvo against property rights", if you look at it through your lens. I think the problem that many people have with the current tax code is that it overwhelmingly favors the wealthy via loopholes, a low capital gains tax and a complexity that only someone with means can navigate. Personally, I am all for a flat tax, so long as the wealthy have ZERO way of navigating around it. This means if its a flat 10% (for easy math), you are paying the govt 10% of ALL earnings regardless of weather they are investment driven etc. If you earn 50k a year you will pay 5k in taxes. If you earn 500k in capital gains, you will pay 50k in taxes etc. Currently capital gains are taxed at a 15% rate. This isn't right. The idea that raising this tax will "drive away investment" is false. I'm all for fair and right now, what we have isn't fair. If we must remain in a graduated tax bracket system, then the wealthy need to pay a higher percent. Otherwise, introduce a flat tax that isn't "game-able" and I'm in. (edit) This flat tax would have to be over a poverty line that is higher than what is currently in place.
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/gs6ov/people_are_...
What you're doing is saying "this class of people is treated different than that other class of people because they make less money." It doesn't matter what that number is - you're still dividing a continuum into discrete intervals. Rather than acknowledging that wealth is a spectrum, you're chopping it arbitrarily into "rich" and "poor." Know why US taxes are so retardedly complicated? Tax brackets. Know why the wealthy pay less taxes than you do? Because retardedly complicated systems favor those who can pay professionals to save them money. I don't care where you put that number. Guaranteed, the minute you institute it you'll generate an entire industry dedicated to making it look like their clients are on the shiny side of it.
"Personally, I am all for a flat tax, so long as the wealthy have ZERO way of navigating around it. This means if its a flat 10% (for easy math), you are paying the govt 10% of ALL earnings regardless of weather they are investment driven etc. If you earn 50k a year you will pay 5k in taxes. If you earn 500k in capital gains, you will pay 50k in taxes etc. Currently capital gains are taxed at a 15% rate. This isn't right. The idea that raising this tax will "drive away investment" is false. I'm all for fair and right now, what we have isn't fair. If we must remain in a graduated tax bracket system, then the wealthy need to pay a higher percent. Otherwise, introduce a flat tax that isn't "game-able" and I'm in. (edit) This flat tax would have to be over a poverty line that is higher than what is currently in place." The ONLY way I would ever support such a tax is if it were impossible for the wealthy to falsify there "shine" -as you put it. Is this naive to think it could exist. -Probably. Otherwise, I'm cool with a graduated rate that increases with earnings. I was once at a dinner party and almost everyone at the table was talking about how they wish the govt would simplify the tax code. I say "almost everyone" because the guy next to be spoke up and said, "i hope they make the tax code as complex as they possibly can". -I soon found out he owned a tax software company. Just seems to me the simpler you make it, the harder it would be to cheat it.
But with that said, taxes largely don't go to better society. They go to fund wars, bureaucracies, and into corporate welfare programs - all things which are actively making the world worse. Personally, I equate taxes with theft. It's an issue of principle with me, but I realize not many people go that far. That said, a flat tax would possibly be okay (if not more intrusive), but what would really work is to abolish the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax. But that won't happen because 1) you don't propose a new tax without first doing away with the, otherwise you're bound to end up with both and, 2) what right does the government have to be a part of every single transaction in the country? Personally, I feel we should go back to a volunteer government and no income tax. From a pragmatic POV, it genuinely worked for a long time, and quite frankly, we wouldn't be seeing the amount of corruption we're seeing today.
I don't really have anything substantial to add here; I just wanted to emphasize this point. It is common knowledge that a pathetically small fraction of government money funds education or infrastructure, especially when compared to the amount spent on military. With this understood, I find it unjustifiable to advocate a tax code which aims to funnel even more money (and thus, power) into a system which works against common interest. That said, this whole arguments rests on the premise that a money market economy is necessary or desirable. I disagree with that premise, but that is another argument entirely.
It seems to be any organization, or even agreed lack of organization could fall under this. That said, a flat tax would possibly be okay (if not more intrusive), but what would really work is to abolish the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax. Is there any example of a country that has done this? I personally lean towards a progressive income tax, and that is it. No write-offs, no tax breaks. Just a tax on all income that begins at 0% at the poverty-line, and climbs at the rate of a single order exponential. Government is there because we put it there. However, complexity can lead to autonomous government power through obfuscation. I think libertarian-minded folk would probably find real advances if they attacked government complexity in lieu of government reach. I say this, because ultimately, I think that which makes our government not our own, is primarily rooted in bureaucracy. Personally, I feel we should go back to a volunteer government and no income tax. The US started the income tax in 1812. What would suggest that the first 36 years of US history can be effectively and advantageously applied now? Are there any modern examples? I do think that a limited number of terms in the House and Senate might reduce corruption, however. Also, I don't think that anyone but a citizen should be able to donate to a campaign, and donations can only be made personally, and directly. Campaign funding is elective power. If our government is to serve the citizens, the citizens must control elective power.
How so? Is there any example of a country that has done this? I Not sure, and I can't look it up at the moment. Government is there because we put it there. Well, at least I was born into it. *The US started the income tax in 1812. Not sure where you're getting this date from. 1913 is the date. Which would mean we've had no income tax longer than we've had income tax.
I just meant that you are born into any social situation without choice, whether it is a highly structured government, or an agreed lack of government. Not sure where you're getting this date from. 1913 is the date. Which would mean we've had no income tax longer than we've had income tax. Sorry, I was wrong. This first time a Federal income tax was proposed was during the war of 1812, but it wasn't enacted. The first time it was levied was in 1861 during the Civil War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1861 (signed by the first Republican President, no less!) it expired in 1873. Another income tax was introduced in 1864, but was struck down by the Supreme Court the next year. Then yes, it returned again in 1913.
But given that we're a nation that's in perpetual war (in order to maintain a global empire), I wonder how feasible getting rid of the income tax would be.
I'm not sure when this volunteer government you speak of existed. The tax is theft, libertarian, we should only give what we want to give argument would be threatening to any kind of healthy society if it was any way sustainable, but it's not. As old folks starved to death, disease spread from the break down of public health provisions, poor kids took to the streets committing crimes instead of being in school learning skills to become productive adults, the sky and land became mires of filth, and food became unreliably safe to consume, I feel assured that the decent people of the nation would rise up and kill the anti-social bastards that imposed such a living hell. I think you casually discount all the really fantastic services which the government provides, because you have an over inflated sense of your own value (you don't realize how much of who and what you are is because you have lived in a basically secure and healthy environment). I could be wrong, I don't know you, maybe you are living in Somalia and living it up in libertarian heaven, where you have carved out every good bit of your life by the sweat of your brow.