How much do extremely wealthy people owe to the society that gave them the chance to prosper so much?

[Blues Man]

it would be exactly what the people want it to be and not a penny more

How much do you think is necessary to run this nation?

not as much as you do obviously.

 

[progressive hunter]

Everyone who wants a say in the spending (a vote in the elections) should pay the exact same amount, maybe $100 per year. Let the government operate within its means and if you choose not to pay the $100, you get no vote on how it's eventually spent.

And what do you suppose would be the spending capability of the government in that scenario?

its in the constitution,, try reading it sometimes,,

 

[Flash]

The wrong question.

The right question is how much does society owe to the billionaires that create needed goods and services and created thousands of jobs?

Like Bill Gates. From nothing he created the software empire that enabled the computer age and in the process employed many thousands of people.

We owe him a lot more than he owes us.

 

[bripat9643]

Exactly how did they allow the super rich to prosper?

By creating the environment that allowed them to grow so well. Do you think Bill Gates would be where he is today if he had been born in some isolated African tribe where he didn't have the opportunity to learn how to read?

That isn’t an answer. Exactly how did they create that environment?

Gates benefited because of DARPA investments that created microprocessors, the internet, etc.
Gates could not have made a cent if not for investments, research, and improvements payed for by taxes.

ROFL! If developing a particular technology requires steps A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J and K. and government performs step 'E', then turds like you give it all the credit.

 

[Anomalism]

not as much as you do obviously.

You fight real hard to not answer questions.

 

[Rigby5]

Surely something, right? I see a lot of people talk like taxes are theft. Is it not just our obligation?

The distribution of wealth is ultimately determined by the dominant military force.

The economic system is created by the government according to the laws of that government.

Without the U.S. government there would be nothing to protect the wealthy and guarantee their wealth.

So the more you have, the more you are obliged to contribute to the existence of the U.S. government.

I don't really disagree, but the founders never wanted a mercenary military force because people working for pay can never be trusted.
They wanted a volunteer military only, and that does not have to cost anything.

And when you write, "The economic system is created by the government according to the laws of that government", you have to be careful, and remember that WE are supposed to be the government, and laws are only supposed to be according to what is necessary to defend individual rights, or popularly agreed upon to enhance the lives of all.
There is not supposed to be a separate party that is government, and it certainly is not supposed to be above us.
Of, by, and for the People.

 

[Blues Man]

not as much as you do obviously.

You fight real hard to not answer questions.

you ask vague questions you get vague answers.

 

[Rigby5]

Nope. Government is a parasite. Nothing more.

I don't think it's necessary to characterize it so negatively. More importantly, government is the "servant" of society. We don't owe it anything more than a paycheck for services rendered.

But those services rendered also has to include things like supporting widows and orphans.
Historically that was a purpose of government going back 10,000 years or more.

 

[Anomalism]

you ask vague questions you get vague answers.

My question wasn't vague.

 

[Thinker101]

The wrong question.

The right question is how much does society owe to the billionaires that create needed goods and services and created thousands of jobs?

Like Bill Gates. From nothing he created the software empire that enabled the computer age and in the process employed many thousands of people.

We owe him a lot more than he owes us.

True, although he should have given a few bucks to Steve Jobs.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Surely something, right? I see a lot of people talk like taxes are theft. Is it not just our obligation?

.
^ Why every single city, State or nation run by Progressives is a guaranteed to end with only a wealthy political class and slaves

 

[bripat9643]

I dont think people should be punished because they are more successful. IE much higher tax burden. They already pay most of the taxes anyway.
They also give a lot of money and time, to charity.

That is silly because taxes are not punishment in any way.
Taxes are the overhead of what the benefits of society costs.
Like roads, schools, defense, fire fighting, etc.
It is the wealthy who benefit from these improvements the most, so they have the greatest responsibility to pay for it.
A poor person who has no car, children, or house, isn't getting anything from these investments.

As I said previously, theft is not punishment either. That doesn't make it justified.

That isn't what "society" costs. That is what government costs. We don't need government providing most of the items on your list. It's actually the poor who benefit the most. Furthermore, when did some arbitrary determination of how much you benefit determine how much you pay? I benefit enormously from the grocery store down the street. Does that mean Meijers is entitled to 50% of my income?

Your notions of justice are utterly nonsensical.

BTW, in this country, most poor people have a car, children and a house.

You realize, of course, that you're a fucking Marxist.

 

[bripat9643]

Nothing, earn your own wealth you mooching deadbeat losers. I already pay multiple times my equal share of the Federal spending.

If people owe nothing we can't have a government.

True, so lets get rid of it.

 

[Anomalism]

True, so lets get rid of it.

You want to get rid of the government?

 

[AMart]

Exactly how did they allow the super rich to prosper?

By creating the environment that allowed them to grow so well. Do you think Bill Gates would be where he is today if he had been born in some isolated African tribe where he didn't have the opportunity to learn how to read?

Africans are going to wish that Gates was born in chithole village. He has grand plans for Africans, Indians etc.

 

[Cecilie1200]

But most of what the government does is done badly and ineffectively. Take your example of public schools. I certainly agree that a nation is better off having an educated populace. But public schools are a lot more than simply "not perfect"; they, like all bloated government bureaucracies, are serving every goal and interest EXCEPT the education of the students. The United States spends on average $12,800 per student for education. Our annual education spending is higher than the GDP of many countries. Do we have the best-educated students in the world? Does anyone really think having the best-educated students in the world is the primary goal of public school systems?

How do we make public schools better? I rarely hear anything but vague or ridiculous answers to that question.

Possibly that's because there is no simple, one-size-fits-all answer to that question. The closest I can come to such a thing is what I've already covered: make having the best-educated students in the world the primary goal of US education. Right now, education is an accidental by-product of public schools in many areas.

To be more specific, I think primary education would benefit greatly from a healthy dose of free market competition. You know why private sector, for-profit businesses provide better customer service and more innovation? Because they don't have a captive audience. The people consuming their goods and services are also the people making the financial decisions, and they always have the option to take their dollars elsewhere. The same is not true of public education.

I am a big believer in school choice. Let parents take their children - and the tax dollars attached to them - to schools which provide the results they want, and you'll see a marked improvement in the education offered.

Beyond that, the problems that need addressing depend on the area and the schools in question, and the answers are going to be specific to those problems.

 

[bripat9643]

Surely something, right? I see a lot of people talk like taxes are theft. Is it not just our obligation?

They owe nothing. Take Steve Jobs, for instance. He created a product that improved the lives of billions of people. Furthermore he provided jobs for hundreds of thousands of people. If anything, society owed him, not the other way around.

Not really.
All the work was done under DARPA grants.
And Steve Jobs in particular, has no technical skills at all.
He was mostly the talker who got banks to front money.
He actually really screwed up several times, like killed the Macintosh in favor of the Lisa.
The Lisa totally bombed, and if not for other employee secretly retaining the Mac, Apple would have gone under.
Jobs is also the one who screwed up the mouse for Apple, and insisted on it only having ONE button.
That was really dumb since the industry norm was already a 3 button mouse.

Apple products are always very marginal. They are way more expensive than they should be. There was never anything groundbreaking or particularly good about Apple products.
If they had any skills, it was really just in marketing.

What a dumbass. Tell me, Einstein, how many iPhones are there in the world?

 

[Rigby5]

Exactly how did they allow the super rich to prosper?

By creating the environment that allowed them to grow so well. Do you think Bill Gates would be where he is today if he had been born in some isolated African tribe where he didn't have the opportunity to learn how to read?

That isn’t an answer. Exactly how did they create that environment?

Gates benefited because of DARPA investments that created microprocessors, the internet, etc.
Gates could not have made a cent if not for investments, research, and improvements payed for by taxes.

ROFL! If developing a particular technology requires steps A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J and K. and government performs step 'E', then turds like you give it all the credit.

Gates did not invent any steps at all.
He was a follower, not a leader.
He destroyed far more than he created.

You may not remember the 1980s very well, but that was when there were some really great computers.
Atari and Commodore were using great Motorola processors, to build fantastic computers like the Atari 1000, and the Amiga 500. Then IBM, Microsoft, and Intel took over, built total garbage, (PC Jr., XT and AT), and ruined computers completely. They cheated by doing illegal things like "buying shelf space" to deny the ability of others to sell computers.
Windows was so really bad, that it could not even support preemptive multi tasking until about 1996, with Windows 3.0. Before that is was total garbage, and it still is awful and full of security holes due to COM, (Common Object Model).

 

[bripat9643]

it would be exactly what the people want it to be and not a penny more

How much do you think is necessary to run this nation?

Zero

 

[easyt65]

H.How

Surely something, right? I see a lot of people talk like taxes are theft. Is it not just our obligation?

How much do the American people owe self-enriching, elitist, criminal, treasonous Socialist Marxist Democrats who have kept many Americans poor through the policies of 'e'economic slavery', who have kept the nation divided through propaganda, race baiting, class warfare, & fear-mongering?

How much do the American people owe self-enriching, elitist, criminal, treasonous Socialist Marxist Democrats who have erased the economic progress and success of millions of Americans through oppressive edicts that have destroyed dreams, small business ownership, and the ability to provide for their businesses, hypocritical tyrannical edicts they do not obey themselves, edicts that have forced Americans back to dependency on govt and that violate both Constitutional and Civil Rights....

...IN THE BS NAME OF COVID-19?!

Liberal Progressive Socialist Marxist Democrats have used a virus that is less deadly than the seasonal flu as a weapon against the economy and personal economic success to return American to economic slavery and as a tool to commit the largest election fraud in US history to, after 4 years of failed attempts to do so, steal / take the WH from the American people they have victimized through illegal spying, FISA Court crimes, a weaponized IRS, election fraud, destroying between a 3rd and a half of all minority-owned small businesses, and oppression of Un-Constitutional and Civil rights...