A couple of related thoughts and questions.
1) I grew up, to put it one way, not at all rich. Can you articulate at which point in my life I became the purveyor of oppression and deserving not only of scorn but of aggressive redistributive efforts?
2) If folks wish to distinguish wealth that is deserved versus that which is not (such as through inheritance), can someone tell me where the movement to prevent the rich to have kids in the first place will begin? If such rich folks do decide to not have children does that mean that the world will be richer because of it?
Wintercow deserves all he has worked for, and does not deserve the calumny heaped upon him as we can imagine from the academically orthodox. WC is an original thinker, a family man, and because of his virtue deserves our respect and admiration.
Wintercow, however, is not deserving of free greens fees, free golf balls or free condoms to fit over the old grips of his clubs, and if he gets his shoes shined, he had better give a proper tip.
Same thing goes for Sandra Fluke.
Deserved wealth is the proceeds of a winning lottery ticket. The hefty tax levy and chicken payment schemes are a further enhancement. I’ve instructed my local representative to introduce legislation that makes both ends of the deal more symmetrical. For instance, when you purchase a $2 lottery ticket, you pay 5 cents a year for it for 40 years.
The moment you use a road ‘you didn’t build’ to get to work, you are eternally indebted to the collective.
Right on, Scott. I cannot say I spent every dime wisely, but I did earn every dime, although under Jimmy Carter the Feds took seven cents and left me three. As long as we are discussing what is fair, let’s open the ethical discussion.
This evening on Greta there was a piece about the government condemning someone’s house in the mountains, and their property, under eminent domain, to make the area open space. Allegedly the neighbors (who did not use their own money to buy the house) complained about the noise from the SUV going up to the house, so BAM, the local government screwed the owners to please the connected folks, who may have had innocent motives, or other desires and appetites.
I find myself in the corner of the screwees, the people who lost their dream house. How is that fair by any standard? And who are we, all or any of us to decide?
So let us continue discussing what is justice, an unsettled question for as long as the question has been asked.