Socialism isn’t all bad, but generally wants to redistribute resources to people that might not necessarily deserve it.
Everyone deserves to eat, to have access to clean water, to have a roof over our heads, to have our physical and mental health needs met, and access to a quality education. All these are enablers to become what you define as “deserving” and are also good for society at large.
NO ONE has worked hard enough to deserve a billion dollars, and they certainly don’t deserve it because their parents supposedly did. The hoarding by those people (and IMO anyone in the “hundreds of millions” category) is the reason artificial scarcity of water, food, and healthcare exists, and why secondary education is unobtainable for many, and things like UBI and single-payer healthcare look unsustainable to folks who don’t want to support those measures anyway.
These are people who could continue to live fantastic amazing lifestyles that most of us can only dream about, even if they gave huge sums in taxes to help the common good.
You also seem to suggest that everyone who works hard is deserving. Plenty of hard working people live in poverty, and deserve the things I listed even by the most cold-hearted conservative standard.
Edit - I’m going to pick just ONE thing: UBI
In the past few years, aided no doubt by the economic consequences wrought by the pandemic, centuries of theory have at last been put to the test. A few dozen cities across the country have begun basic-income programs, and the early results have been overwhelmingly positive. In Denver, more than 800 of the city’s most vulnerable residents received monthly stipends of up to $1,000. So far the program has reduced homelessness, increased employment, and bolstered the mental-health outcomes of participants. A similar program in Stockton, California, had similar effects — the unemployment rate among the 125 participants was nearly halved. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studying the program concluded it could have “profound positive impacts on local public health.”
https://www.businessinsider.com/universal-basic-income-works-red-state-blue-state-2023-10?op=1
https://gizmodo.com/universal-basic-income-has-been-tried-over-and-over-aga-1851255547
The biggest problem I see - folks hung up on what people “deserve.” I got news for you - no one deserves to be a billionaire. No one.
I can see the point.
Being a billionaire is most likely morally wrong and probably exploited tons of people to reach that point. I can see why people might think it’s unjust.
But if a billionaire trully worked hard for it, than I don’t see what’s wrong. He can do what he wants with his money.
It might effectively trigger people like you. Maybe that’s a reflection of your own inability to create wealth for yourself.
Your argument that every body deserve to eat, clean water, roof, etc., it sounds good on paper.
In some cases, I’m sure it truly helps some people to get back on their feet and create a better life for themselves.
But I don’t think that’s a long term solution. Why? Because then, people can decide to be usefulness and not work. Why would they? Everything is given to them. It encourages laziness and poverty.
Why would a billionaire who worked hard to reach that point not deserve his money while a homeless person who purposely decided to not work derserve to be given anything?
It might effectively trigger people like you. Maybe that’s a reflection of your own inability to create wealth for yourself.
I had to stop when you started in with the ad hom like you did against the other guy.
My parting tip to you - if you assume that the only way people could disagree with you is if they are failures in life, that’s a fairly shallow and myopic view.
Challenge yourself to imagine what you could actually do to deserve to be one of those 8 people in the meme. (Try to think more specifically than ‘work really hard.’) You are one of 8 people who collectively hold more wealth than the next 3.6 Billion combined. Many of those 3.6 billion are suffering. What exactly could you have done that makes that a deserving position to be in? And has anyone alive done that thing?
Good day to you.
Everybody is suffering. Not only the 3.6 billions.
In your world, it seems like being a billionaire is the ultimate end of suffering. Eventually, everyone dies. Even billionaires.
I think they simply have problems that we can’t relate to. I don’t know what it’s like to be a billionaire.
Should they share that wealth? I don’t know. Maybe? Maybe not?
Now, I don’t think I’m defending them. But as a business owner, a part of me values wealth creation and capitalism.
