As teachers I and my son spend our time developing skills, imparting knowledge, giving direction, encouragement and self-esteem to my students.
As a nurse my son saves lives regularly and makes people better.
There are millions of support staff in the social services, police, fire service, refuse workers, sewage workers, road sweepers, dentists, construction workers, road maintenance, telephone servicers, doctors, and thousands of other roles – whose function is not to create wealth but to support those who do. Without them the country does not function.
No creator of wealth can function on their own. They require the support of the rest of society – whether that be directly or indirectly.
Society provides the infrastructure that is required for wealth creators to operate.
I changed lives for the better. The millions like me who work in society are indirectly responsible for all the creation of wealth. It’s called teamwork.
To use an analogy from soccer – it is not just the striker who scores the goal, neither is it just his teammates on the field, nor just the manager, physio and coaches, nor the groundsmen, ticket sellers and security or the atmosphere generated by the fans – it is the sum total of all of them – every last one.
By suggesting that the wealth creators are more important and deserve to keep all their wealth you downgrade the value of the bulk of people in society who might not directly create wealth but provide the whole means for its creation.
The wealth creators need to pay, through taxes, for the support structure on which they depend – that is the society they are part of.
That is why tax evasion is despicable. It is an abuse of all the people that directly and indirectly supported them.
Excellent argument, Opher. Those creators of wealth also depend heavily on the millions of underpaid workers who ACTUALLY create the wealth these parasites hoard.
Good point John. There is no fairness or justice in this system. It is openly exploitative.
This is why unregulated capitalism does not benefit society as a whole. It was the greed of the parasites that created the union movement and the socialist ideology.
It was indeed – and that greed has become ever more extant.
From cursory research, the UK National debt stands around £1.56 trillion. A mere pittance compared to to the US debt, $20 Trillion and growing. As long as you are in the minor leagues, I say kick that Keynesian can down the road. After all, it’s just fiat and nobody will ever expect any renumeration.
Jack – I believe that the debt was used as an excuse to bring in a decade of austerity for the poor on the back of political dogma.
I have done well for myself through a lot of hard work. I grew up in a very low income family, studied enough to get a college scholarship, got some good jobs that put me in position to start a business that has been successful. Sure glad my hard work has paid off enough to be called a wealthy parasite. Of course the rich should pay more, but the current tax cut doesn’t change that…the rich are still paying more…..sad days in our country when success puts a target on your chest to be called names and demonized.
I too followed that path. I grew up in a low income family, studied through college and worked hard to gain a position as a Headteacher. It was hard work but it paid well.
I do not think that anyone who has worked hard and taken risks to set up a business should be castigated for their efforts, demonized or called names. All I am suggesting is that neither you, I or anyone else got to that position without the support system put in place by society and that we need to pay in to that system through a fair progressive tax system that is not too draconian but does address the huge inequalities that are opening up through globalisation, automation and tax evasion.
Absolutely agree….the frustrating narrative out there is that somehow the new tax legislation is not a progressive tax plan…it absolutely remains that way. The fact remains that when you have a progressive tax system and you cut taxes….the ones paying in the most money will receive the most benefit. It is mathematically impossible for that not to happen. We somehow turned a tax cut into an attack on the wealthy (with people calling successful people horrific names)…I am honestly just waiting for a day where we can have some honest discussions on topics without it turning into a name calling, mud slinging argument. (current administration certainly not setting a great example). 🙂
Well I do not condone name-calling and demonising and would thoroughly enjoy entering into an adult discussion.
My contention is that there has been a real change in wealth distribution. Too much has been concentrated into an elite. Too many people are finding themselves living in poverty or struggling to get by in poorly paid jobs with no prospects and nobody seems to care.
It has led to Trump and Brexit.
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
It seems Boris thinks they should pay less!!