The government eyes our wealth

[SteelCityDem]

P-G columnist Reg Henry blogs about life as he sees it.

My subject today touches upon an idea central to most current political arguments — the alleged redistribution of wealth. This is a theme that stalks extending the Bush tax cuts and the deal worked out for the so-called death tax.

A letter to the editor today frames the argument quite well. It is titled “Sick Liberals.” It is not my intention to pick on this letter writer; I merely cite him as expressing the views of many conservatives. Here are some points the writer made:

“Redistribution of wealth helps neither the rich nor the poor, because the poor have no incentive to improve their position, and the wealthy grow tired of having the fruits of their labor stolen from them.”

Read more: http://blogs.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/opinion/reg-on-wry/23841-the-government-eyes-our-wealth?cmpid=bcpanel2

[rucky]

1. I would also like to add that corporations are by far the largest welfare recepients.

K&R - even if you may be a Steeler's fan :evilgrin:

[applegrove]

2. Oh no! The assholes (some of whom are rich) are tired. Help!!!

:sarcasm:

[KimFongToy]

3. Who makes up such stories?

When has a poor or middle class person ever stolen from the rich and powerful? Do these people live in some alternate universe? Any theft from people, in my experience, has been the rich and powerful stealing from the poor and middle class. Outsourcing of jobs? The rich and powerful do this so....they are stealing jobs....sitting on trillions of dollars and not hiring, the rich and powerful do this so they are again stealing jobs by not creating jobs. The poor and middle class pay most of the taxes while the rich and corporations have all kinds of ways to avoid paying, so the rich and powerful are stealing money through taxes. Wars, the rich and powerful start wars and wars cost trillions, so the rich and powerful are stealing more money with their war machine. I could sit here all day showing how the rich and powerful steal from the poor and middle class, but can find no examples of the poor and middle class stealing from the rich. I think the rich and powerful just make up stories to confuse everyone especially those who may not have a good education that was probably also stolen by the rich and powerful to dumb down the people. What a joke...poor and middle class stealing from the rich. Now that's rich.

[TomClash]

4. Is this a joke?

Even if the phony last paragraph were true, wealthy and poor represent a small portion of the population. What about everyone else?

There is a redistribution of wealth occurring - it is being redistributed upward. It is more unequal than ever. What incentives are there now for the poor to improve their position. And by the way, what "labor" does a wealthy man do? It's really tough sledding running that hedge fund eh?

If you believe this nonsense, you would be much better off at Free Republic where you can worship Richard Mellon Scaife amongst friends.

[SteelCityDem]

6. Not a joke

The point he was getting to was this:

"My point, of course, is that for all the talk about wealth distribution, most of what the federal does is good for everybody. Moreover, the days of wide-scale welfare freeloading is largely a relic of the past, thanks to welfare reform passed during the Clinton presidency. The way conservatives talk, it is always 1970, or whatever the golden age of wealth distribution was. Maybe those who are well off should invest in a current calendar."

[TomClash]

8. Ok, fair enough

Welcome to DU and the fight for liberty, democracy and justice. I hope you stay awhile.

[katty]

5. 'Stolen' from them?! Somehow their riches NEVER seem to

deplete and 'get stolen' from those in perpetual survival mode beneath them - they have managed through centuries of rampant greed to stay atop the heap of humanity and continue to indulge themselves on the backs of others.

[Harry Monroe]

7. What wealth? If they're eyeing MY "wealth", they're wasting their time!!

[handmade34]

9. hmmmm....

"...and the wealthy grow tired of having the fruits of their labor stolen from them.”????? "Fruits of their labor"????

*****and the poor grow tired of having the fruits of their labor stolen from them (by the wealthy and powerful)****

[bhikkhu]

10. Wealth has only two primary sources

Natural resources, and labor.

In the case of natural resources, it is quite democratic to believe that we as a nation hold these in common, particularly mineral wealth, timber, water, soil and so forth. Redistributing to some extent the wealth generated from the natural resources of the land we live in is inherently a matter of fairness.

In the case of labor, it is manifestly true that the physical work of the majority creates the profits of the minority. As a general rule, the wealthy position themselves to collect the difference between the value of labor and the compensation for that labor. The goal of wealth is to labor not at all, so speaking of them having the fruits of labor stolen from them is absurd, as they don't create wealth but skim as they can from those who do.

Other forms of wealth are not so much sources as swapping around what has already been created by labor and natural resources - taking banking, for example, which creates nothing.