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Evidently there are some people who want the best for society
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This is where you're assuming welfare and forced wealth equality is "what's best for society".
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while others only want the best for themselves.
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Do I get any say in how many children someone can have while they're dirt poor? Do I get any say in what they spend food stamps on, or how they maintain their health before getting on Medicaid? Throwing my hard-earned money at people without having any say in what happens to it isn't what I call "only wanting what's best for myself." It's called wanting to keep my hard-earned money until I find a worthy cause to which I'd like to donate it.
But why we're on that subject, I don't completely believe in altruism for its own sake. I don't believe in pulling someone else down in order to raise someone else up. I believe in the occasional well-earned hand up, but I don't believe giving someone money qualifies as a hand up; that's a hand-out. College scholarship programs, employment security and job centers - those I can get behind. (Although those could easily be privatized and not completely cocked up with government intervention; once again, I don't assume that rich people are all just greedy assbags who never donate to charity or put their money towards good causes). Programs that force banks to lend to unqualified borrowers, pay for an endless stream of babies for as long as any one woman wants to keep popping them out, putting her even FURTHER into poverty? No. That kind of inefficient crap I do NOT support.
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I'd sooner call low wages immoral than I would taxation.
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If you have a skill that sixty million other people can do? No, it's not immoral to pay a lower wage. That's why people have incentive to develop more advanced skills, continue the learning process through life - you know, better themselves. When a monkey could do your job, be prepared to accept a monkey's pay.
Taxation - in what way is that NOT theft? You're taking someone else's money and giving it back out to people without giving the payer a choice in the matter. Theft.
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The assumption I see too often here is that poor people aren't hardworking and don't deserve what they cannot afford.
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I've been poor before. I worked hard. I don't make that assumption. But "don't deserve what they can't afford"? Where does that end? Everyone has an obligation to pay the rent. Living quarters are not a right, they're not an entitlement, they're a responsibility. In the adult world, people are obligated to secure lodgings for themselves. If you have less than what you want, that's incentive to do more, to innovate, to learn and to improve. A literal federal invitation to women to just HAVE babies they can't afford isn't incentive to improve. It's incentive to stay at a level to where they can still qualify for the free lunch.
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If one busts one's ass to make a living but, well, can't make a living out of it, while another does the same but makes several livings out of it, don't you think the system is a little broken?
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No. This assumes everyone has an obligation to be altruistic. They don't. There are ways to get out and get your hands on more money if one is so inclined. Provided people don't make stupid life decisions - the foremost being, having kids they can't afford - and then whine and cry about how their wage "can't support their family." Of course it can't, you dolt.
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I think anyone who's wealthy and knows better wouldn't want to eliminate all rebalancing methods to help the poor. What do you think would happen if you eliminated progressive taxation and social programs that help the poor? Would the country be better off?
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Immediately? No. People would flap around, freaking out that their safety net has disappeared. They'll then figure out ways to adjust. Maybe they'll have more incentive to plan their families. Private charities will still exist, giving people a voluntary option to donate.
People who can't? . . . sorry.
-----Added 2/11/2008 at 11 : 37 : 50-----
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Originally Posted by Derwood
no one is taking your money away from you
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Well, according to this FICA and Medicare line I'm looking at on my paystub, yes, they are.
-----Added 2/11/2008 at 11 : 39 : 04-----
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Originally Posted by dc_dux
Its only in this election cycle that it has been so grossly mischaracterized as wealth distribution.
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No, it's actually being called what it is. You can call a duck a dog for a hundred years, doesn't make it any less a duck.