Here's an old post of mine (6/24/08) in the "race" thread that addresses my last two points above. Take a look. I know there was some more discussion on this back then, but don't want to reapeat everything that was said, only to reiterate my dislike of the "relative" rhetoric at the expense of "how do we grow the whole pie" type of thinking.
Yannis -- "I just don't want to live in a socialist society, that's all." You already do. Every society is a mix between socialism and capitalism. And yes, those that gain the most from society must pay the most into society.
You are right, I agree. It's just a question of how much. Is it right that all taxes in this country (that those ^^%%$$## politicians waste) are borne by the top 5%, more or less, of earners? And a question of getting a thank you once in a while. Society should stop and acknowledge the fact that when a doctor or an executive make $300,000 in a year and then the many arms of the government take away half of it, it is "their" money, generated through ingenuity, risk taking and hard work, that funds all these programs that "everybody" wants. Politicians should clearly acknowledge that if person A pays $150,000 per year in taxes and person B pays $1,000, person A CONTRIBUTES 150 TIMES MORE to our Treasury than person B. Not to mention the many persons C who pay even less. But, they vote and Obama knows that. One of his battlecries has been, join me and we'll take THEIR money away! It's just too similar to pure and unadulterated financial lynching, so far as I am concerned. And what bothers me the most is that the net result will be detrimental to those who vote that way: the Government will grow but the overall economy will suffer, as it does whenever you remove those most capable of growing it from power. Why is it that unemployment in Europe is double ours? In my case, I'm a white male too, and so, in this PC society "I get no respect." (Rodney Dangerfield was great, right? )
Yannis: ] Society should stop and acknowledge the fact that when a doctor or an executive make $300,000 in a year and then the many arms of the government take away half of it I didn't see the doctor complaining when the taxpayer subsidized his education.