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Old 02-10-2009, 03:20 PM   #17 (permalink)
Asheth
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Originally Posted by semtex View Post
Thanks for the clarification. Although, I must say that you kind of hit the nail on the head as to why Obama rubs me the wrong way. I get the impression that in Obama's view, those who make a good living (be that defined at a $60k+ threshold, $90k+, $250k+ or wherever) do so simply because they are "fortunate" or "lucky." It has nothing to do with working hard, being smart, and/or making better choices in life than others. In other words, it has nothing to do with merit -- it's just luck of the draw. Hence the justification for his 'share the wealth' philosophy. After all, those of us who make good livings didn't do anything to actually deserve it; we just lucked out, thus we should redistribute our income to those who aren't as lucky. Never mind that some (not all) low-income people are lazy, dumb, and/or make really bad choices in life.

In this article from Fox News, he talks about how people making more than $250k a year can afford to pay more taxes. Well, let's just say for the sake of argument that this is true. To me, that misses the point. Regardless of whether or not I can afford to carry a larger tax burden than others, why should I? If I make more than $250k a year (which I do not, btw), I would argue that I do so because of my hard work and wise choices, not simply because I 'got lucky'. In short, I've earned it! As a matter of principle, if I earn an above average income only for someone to come snatch it away -- the key word here being "earn," then that's theft of something that's rightfully mine! Being able to afford getting robbed doesn't make it okay to rob me.

Just my
Excellent point! That is true and in a true capitalist the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and dog eat dog! Now lets say that when you started your job at the bottom or you job to make ends meet to get to where you are now. You benefited by those that are "More Fortunate" albeit maybe not with the best of benefits but still benefits nonetheless.

America really isn't capitalist anymore its more of a blend of Socialism and Capitalism. If it was Capitalist then Government Bailout wouldn't be apart of our vocabulary. Ford, GM, and Chrysler would have been allowed to burn and been bought by the highest bidder. Notably Nissan would have bought controlling shares of Chrysler they tried to purchase a large chunk recently but it didn't happen.

A Capitalist has more recently come to refer to someone who supports Capitalism or a free market ideology.
Quote:
A free market is a market that is free of government intervention and regulation, besides the minimal function of maintaining the legal system and protecting property rights[1], and is also free of private force and fraud. In a free market property rights are voluntarily exchanged at a price arranged solely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers. By definition, buyers and sellers do not coerce each other, in the sense that they obtain each other's property without the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or fraud, nor is the coerced by a third party (such as by government via transfer payments).[
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market

Quote:
Websters Definition of Capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market
None of these are apart of America anymore and haven't been for a long time
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Last edited by Asheth; 02-10-2009 at 03:29 PM.
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