Quote:
Originally posted by lurkette
Why does it seem to bother people less to give money to people who don't need it (e.g., through tax breaks to the wealthy, corporate welfare) than giving food and resources to people who haven't earned them? The first seems to me to be the greater outrage.
Why do people seem to resent anybody getting something for free?
|
First, I think that this comment reflects the problem with people's view on welfare in general. Tax breaks to the wealthy and "corporate welfare" is not "giving" money to these individuals. Rather, it is not taking it from them in the first place. The question is better posed as, "why don't people feel it is okay to forcibly redistribute wealth to those who are in need?"
Many feel that this redistribution of wealth should be left to charity. After all, just because some one is rich does not mean they did not earn that money. If I have worked hard for my money by spending 10 years in post high-school education, I would be justifiably irritated to have to give up 40-50% of my income so some poor SOB who was out partying in those 10 years can live off of me.
I am not saying that I might not give to causes that I feel are worthy of donation, but I should at least be able to choose what I give my money to.
"Corporate Tax" is another issue entirely. The problem with corporate tax if you study economics is that corporations DO NOT pay tax. Period. Any cost of taxation will be passed directly to the consumer. This is not to say necessarily that certain corporate taxes are bad since it allows the government to target tax consumers of certain products while not taxing everyone in the country.
Finally, despite my general rant about this issue, redistribution of wealth is an unfortunate necessity to generate overall wealth in a society. Dollars chasing goods is I believe what it is called. You need a strong middle class which is willing to spend the majority of its income on goods. This allows everybody to get richer as dollars change hands. Otherwise, the divide between rich and poor grows. Eventually, the rich are so rich they can't spend enough money and the poor are so poor they can't spend anything. Then nobody gets richer.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy getting something for free as much as the next guy. I just realize that nothing is free, ever, and some poor SOB has paid the bill for my free lunch. Everybody should study a bit of economic theory as it is quite interesting and also generally useful in day to day living.