Is helping the poorest among us a moral and religious mission?
Sure...that's called charity.
But what is not moral is stealing money from others to give to somebody else on behalf the government who is essentially pointing a gun at your head or willing to throw you in prison for not doing so.
The middle class has shrunken dramatically, wages haven't kept up with inflation, the rich keep getting richer and the gap keeps widening.
None of that is true.
Let's use 1979 as an example.
The upper middle class was about 12% of the population in 1979. By 2014 it was 30% of the American population. The disappearance of the middle class that people talk about is actually the middle class becoming upper middle class. The standard of living for everyone in the U.S. has risen dramatically since 1979.
Wage stagnation and hourly wages since 1979 adjusted for inflation? The "wage stagnation" doesn't take into account additional benefits which is 30%-40% on top of salary, the different way we count households, it also doesn't take into account that you can get more stuff for the same inflation adjusted dollar than you could in 1979.
You have a much nicer fridge now than you did in 1979 and it costs you basically half of what it would have cost in 1979 in inflation adjusted dollars. You're getting twice as much stuff for the same buck now, you're basically twice as rich as you would be in 1979.
What about increased home prices today?
A few things about this.
Homes in the US have radically increased in size/technology.
People are rushing into heavily populated cities.
The increase in home prices is really because of this massive urbanization that has happened into cities that are heavily zoned. There is an incredible shortage of houses as a result.
You're not seeing the same kind of shortages in places that don't have the same sort of zoning regulations...such as Dallas. You're seeing it in places like Seattle, SF, New York, LA...where it's difficult to build and where the government has mandated that you also build affordable housing, tax you heavily, new regulations.
Yes it is the governments fault.
The wealth gap?
The greater disparity between the top tax and bottom is true. But the bottom is dramatically richer than it used to be.
Reasons why College costs so much?
Government subsidies is what is creating upward increase in prices.
When you give a bunch of people subsidies to go to college, what you are doing is creating additional demand without additional supply. That creates upward pricing pressure: it's a simple supply/demand curve.
If you think dumping a bunch of money into free college education is somehow supposed to alleviate all of the economic woes of a society that is already absorbing the cost of a bunch of college graduates who can't get jobs because they majored in silly things...that's bewildering.
Scandinavian socialist countries?
This have become one of the favorite tools of the left in favor of socialism.
You are picking countries that have built their entire wealth based on capitalism and then have placed on top of those countries some wealth redistributing systems and called those countries socialist.
That's not a socialist country.
A socialist country is a country that uses abolishing of profit, nationalization of property and public ownership of the means of production as a tool of wealth production and distribution.
This is NOT what happens in these countries.
Even the prime minister of Denmark back in 2015, when Bernie Sanders kept claiming Denmark was socialist, went to Harvard to explain that they were not a socialist country...instead a capitalist country.
Public roads are an example of socialism?
No.
Public roads and public goods, generally, are non rivalrous and non excludable.
Everyone has access to a road and anyone can use it and I can't exclude you from using that road. In the same way that the military is non rivalrous and non excludable...it's the definition of a public good.
That's NOT the same things as alienation of my labor.
The question really is your rights: when it comes to sex you have a right to consent or not to consent, when it comes to labor you have the right to consent or not to consent...and you voting to remove my right to consent or not to, does not alienate the right, it just means you're violating it.
Sure...that's called charity.
But what is not moral is stealing money from others to give to somebody else on behalf the government who is essentially pointing a gun at your head or willing to throw you in prison for not doing so.
The middle class has shrunken dramatically, wages haven't kept up with inflation, the rich keep getting richer and the gap keeps widening.
None of that is true.
Let's use 1979 as an example.
The upper middle class was about 12% of the population in 1979. By 2014 it was 30% of the American population. The disappearance of the middle class that people talk about is actually the middle class becoming upper middle class. The standard of living for everyone in the U.S. has risen dramatically since 1979.
Wage stagnation and hourly wages since 1979 adjusted for inflation? The "wage stagnation" doesn't take into account additional benefits which is 30%-40% on top of salary, the different way we count households, it also doesn't take into account that you can get more stuff for the same inflation adjusted dollar than you could in 1979.
You have a much nicer fridge now than you did in 1979 and it costs you basically half of what it would have cost in 1979 in inflation adjusted dollars. You're getting twice as much stuff for the same buck now, you're basically twice as rich as you would be in 1979.
What about increased home prices today?
A few things about this.
Homes in the US have radically increased in size/technology.
People are rushing into heavily populated cities.
The increase in home prices is really because of this massive urbanization that has happened into cities that are heavily zoned. There is an incredible shortage of houses as a result.
You're not seeing the same kind of shortages in places that don't have the same sort of zoning regulations...such as Dallas. You're seeing it in places like Seattle, SF, New York, LA...where it's difficult to build and where the government has mandated that you also build affordable housing, tax you heavily, new regulations.
Yes it is the governments fault.
The wealth gap?
The greater disparity between the top tax and bottom is true. But the bottom is dramatically richer than it used to be.
Reasons why College costs so much?
Government subsidies is what is creating upward increase in prices.
When you give a bunch of people subsidies to go to college, what you are doing is creating additional demand without additional supply. That creates upward pricing pressure: it's a simple supply/demand curve.
If you think dumping a bunch of money into free college education is somehow supposed to alleviate all of the economic woes of a society that is already absorbing the cost of a bunch of college graduates who can't get jobs because they majored in silly things...that's bewildering.
Scandinavian socialist countries?
This have become one of the favorite tools of the left in favor of socialism.
You are picking countries that have built their entire wealth based on capitalism and then have placed on top of those countries some wealth redistributing systems and called those countries socialist.
That's not a socialist country.
A socialist country is a country that uses abolishing of profit, nationalization of property and public ownership of the means of production as a tool of wealth production and distribution.
This is NOT what happens in these countries.
Even the prime minister of Denmark back in 2015, when Bernie Sanders kept claiming Denmark was socialist, went to Harvard to explain that they were not a socialist country...instead a capitalist country.
Public roads are an example of socialism?
No.
Public roads and public goods, generally, are non rivalrous and non excludable.
Everyone has access to a road and anyone can use it and I can't exclude you from using that road. In the same way that the military is non rivalrous and non excludable...it's the definition of a public good.
That's NOT the same things as alienation of my labor.
The question really is your rights: when it comes to sex you have a right to consent or not to consent, when it comes to labor you have the right to consent or not to consent...and you voting to remove my right to consent or not to, does not alienate the right, it just means you're violating it.
