Our elders have paid in their hard work, their talent and their intelligence. They have given all that to society, of which we are all part. Society owes them.
Perhaps we should follow the example of the ancient Norse. When they died, everything they owned, except what they specified would go to someone, was piled on the bier and set afire, so they could enjoy it in Valhalla or any of the other Norse kingdoms of the afterlife. Have a house? It doesn't belong to the community, set it on fire. Have a handful of bonds? Cash 'em in and set the cash on fire. Anything you own, you keep: set it on fire.
If people actually took back the value of the things they have done in life rather than merely the money they were paid to do them, because it belonged to them, we would have no problem with inheritance tax because there wouldn't be much of anything inherited to tax. We also wouldn't have an urban renewal problem.
The issue that I have with conservatives is their attempt to redefine what the value of society is. Society's purpose is to protect all its members, not only those with money. The way we talk about "me" and "mine", you would think that the only purpose of society is to create and protect fences and vaults.
Do you forget the reason why the government ensures some minimal retirement? It's because so many of the people who were young in the 1930s remembered the stock market crash and the bank failures, and refused to put their faith in institutions they saw to be fragile. Just because we have forgotten about that doesn't mean it won't happen again. And then, believe me, we will have to tapdance pretty fast to put out the fires that are lit in its wake.
Current Events » in reply to re: "Wealth redistribution"
Money isn't everything.
The whole thread (75 posts)
- Serious Insecurities concerning Social Security 'Reform'
- My plan to reform Social Security
- Thats actually a pretty good idea, IMO
- If it "over-funds" the system, just cut the tax rate. Simple. (n/t)
- The system is currently overfunded as it is
- Not if it is to become a VESTED system with assets backing liabilities.
- re: The system is currently overfunded as it is
- I could live with that.
- Thats actually a pretty good idea, IMO
- Not to mention the dark secret that people are only just realizing..
- The only true fix for SS
- More to the point
- re: No big secret.
- Tom hit the BS buzzer
- So the fix is to simply confiscate more and more money?
- Further, they always claim that it must get worse and worse
- Bartleby the Scrivener
- Does anyone else see the political weirdness here?
- Not my problem, Tom, that you have a propensity for strawman arguments and distorting positions you disagree with
- More on the Amazing Vanishing Social Security Crisis
- The DNC choice to take the position that after all the years of claiming there was a crisis, now there isn't one, will not hold up. (n/t)
- again
- correction, misread something Tom said
- More on the Amazing Vanishing Social Security Crisis
- Not my problem, Tom, that you have a propensity for strawman arguments and distorting positions you disagree with
- Tom hit the BS buzzer
- What Ed said.
- Very good points
- My plan to reform Social Security