DIYbanter - View Single Post - OT-Taxing the rich

Hawke[_3_]

On 3/31/2011 2:20 PM, wrote:
On Mar 31, 2:34 pm, wrote:

It's not that. I just don't understand the need for 100 million dollars.
Maybe it was my Christian upbringing, but in the first place I was
taught that greed is wrong. Then my life experience has taught me that
no one has any need for 100 million dollars, let alone billions. I think
any society that allows some of its members to accumulate that kind of
wealth, regardless of how they come by it, is making a big mistake. Once
a person has their basic material needs taken care of then what's left
is just what one wants. If you want so much and you need the luxury of a
pharaoh I think you have a screw loose. It's just not rational to desire
so much. Not only that, allowing a handful of people that kind of money
gives them way too much power, and they often abuse it. So for many
reasons I don't like the idea of a few people accumulating vast sums of
money. It's not good for anyone in my book. Just my opinion but that's
what I think. Would I like to have more wealth than I do? Sure. But do I
want to be grossly rich? No. Do I envy those people? No, because like I
said, I don't want that much. Besides that, I think it's a sign of
weakness to be that needy.

Hawke

Howard Hughes accumulated vast sums of money. Andrew Carnegie
accumulated vast sums of money. So take a look at what they did with
the money. You can do a lot of good things if you have a lot of
money.

Dan

I won't argue that having huge sums of money doesn't give one the
ability to do a lot of good things with it. But I would argue that the
facts show that rather than doing that with their riches most act rather
differently. Most act like greedy hogs. Both spending lavishly on luxury
and totally unnecessary things and in continuing on a quest to gain ever
more wealth. Someone not doing this is Bill Gates. He's finished trying
to maximize his wealth and is looking how to give it away. Which is my
point to begin with. You can't actually use billions of dollars so why
let any one person even accumulate that much? It's better to tax that
money from the individual and use it for the common good. After all,
isn't that exactly what Gates is doing in his own way? And if he is
doesn't that prove my point?

I'm not against people being successful or in making a lot of money. I
just see that there's a point where it is too much. I would think a net
worth of 50 million would be plenty for anyone. Why someone would need a
billion makes no sense to me. I know others think the opposite though.
But I think history shows it's actually harmful when a country allows a
few to have so much of it's wealth. Like when John D. Rockefeller was at
his peak of wealth it was said that out of every eight dollars in
America one of them belonged to him.

The same thing is going on right now. I think it's wrong. But that's a
philosophical idea.

Hawke