@Paj – I agree with you that there shouldn’t be a redistribution of wealth but your statement will fall on deaf ears amongst the liberals.
The problem is one of Narrative:When conservatives talk about the wealthy and the poor they do it in the context of the protestant work ethic and point to the wealthy as hard working and the poor as lazy and profligate. This misses a minority of people who worked hard and still suffered some unrecoverable bad breaks and it also misses a few rich people who got there only by being born into the right family.
When liberals talk about the wealthy and the poor they do it in the context of the lucky and the unlucky and point to the wealthy as winners in the great life lottery. They think that those lucky winners should be held accountable to support everyone who didn’t get so lucky and they turn a blind eye to all the hard work many of today’s wealthy invested to get to where they are.
With two different narratives they talk past each other all day long.
I don’t object to taxes that fund genuine government services: Defense, Interstate commerce, infrastructure, etc.I do object to the government taking money out of my pocket to hand over to somebody else because they aren’t doing as well in this economy. Too many of them, from what I see, are in their position because THEY made choices that were foolish: bearing children out of wedlock, divorce, criminal activity, not taking advantage of the academic opportunitiies that were afforded them.
We must hold people accountable for bad choices or we perpetuate those bad choices. Without moral hazard why would anyone do the right thing like: Stay in school, staying out of trouble, supporting the children they brought into this world, supporting their community through volunteer work, etc.
@Paj – I agree with you that there shouldn’t be a redistribution of wealth but your statement will fall on deaf ears amongst the liberals.
The problem is one of Narrative:When conservatives talk about the wealthy and the poor they do it in the context of the protestant work ethic and point to the wealthy as hard working and the poor as lazy and profligate. This misses a minority of people who worked hard and still suffered some unrecoverable bad breaks and it also misses a few rich people who got there only by being born into the right family.
When liberals talk about the wealthy and the poor they do it in the context of the lucky and the unlucky and point to the wealthy as winners in the great life lottery. They think that those lucky winners should be held accountable to support everyone who didn’t get so lucky and they turn a blind eye to all the hard work many of today’s wealthy invested to get to where they are.
With two different narratives they talk past each other all day long.
I don’t object to taxes that fund genuine government services: Defense, Interstate commerce, infrastructure, etc.I do object to the government taking money out of my pocket to hand over to somebody else because they aren’t doing as well in this economy. Too many of them, from what I see, are in their position because THEY made choices that were foolish: bearing children out of wedlock, divorce, criminal activity, not taking advantage of the academic opportunitiies that were afforded them.
We must hold people accountable for bad choices or we perpetuate those bad choices. Without moral hazard why would anyone do the right thing like: Stay in school, staying out of trouble, supporting the children they brought into this world, supporting their community through volunteer work, etc.