OrangeRKN wrote:Agreeing with people is more effective at reinforcing and strengthening their beliefs than arguing against them (which will often just strengthen the position you are arguing against). Ignore that opening line about putting more in to get more out or where they think the earning lines for higher taxation should fool. The bulk of their post is actually pretty good - identifying the ultra wealthy as the class enemy. Agree with them on that specifically. Something like "I think you're right, the ultra rich are hoarding wealth that is so desperately needed to help the poorest in society. People are struggling with losing their jobs because of coronavirus but the world's billionaires have actually just got richer. No one needs that much money and coorporations like Amazon need to pay their fair share."
I jumped a little bit ahead. Here's what happened:
Maybe I am misinterpreting what you mean, but if I have it correctly then I don't agree. Public services are for the public (i.e. everyone) and they should be funded to a sufficient standard so that they are good enough no matter how rich or poor you are. Are you saying that, for example, higher tax payers should receive a better standard of healthcare so, I don't know, there would be a 'higher rate tax payers only' wing in NHS hospitals?
I started a different post about this a while back. I am no economist or expert on politics or anything but from what I have read there are a small minority of people who have a ridiculous amount of wealth. Like far too much to spend. And if we just took a harder stance on tax evasion and put a cap on how much you could hoard... and I still mean you can be a multimillionaire! Just not a billionaire - then apparently we would be able to support our state services. Surely that is the real problem? I will see if I cam find the post. This is very interesting.
I'm not saying I'm right! I just think the solution appears obvious to me. I don't know why more people aren't cross about it? I do also think people shouldn't create life they can't protect economically or otherwise. And I think jail should be awful so people would try to avoid it more but there you go.
yes definitely, I agree completely. I'm sure we've all read the snazzy headlines about the top 1% hoarding 95% of all wealth etc. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to be a billionaire. People will suggest that billionaires have earned their money, why should they share their wealth, we're all just jealous proles annoyed that we didn't think of Google first etc. Okay, let's just allow billions of people to suffer in chronic poverty because it might upset billionaires to pay fractionally more tax than they do at the moment.
Completely disagree on your point about prisons, by the way... maybe we should stick to economics for the time being!
Well I spent 7 years locking up the baddies so I am gonna stick to my views on criminal justice. I keep thinking lockdown is changing the way people see things. Extra time to think? I keep seeing news that makes me hopeful... So, here's hoping.
(It was after that post that I popped back in here to say "I think it was even longer than five years ago"... I should have just said "Turns out it was actually seven..."
It's hard to be hopeful when things have clearly been getting so much worse for a long time now and we just handed the Conservatives a huge majority in parliament. Far too many people have been hoodwinked and they're too far down the rabbit hole to ever come back out.
Edit - response just in:
I actually travelled to another city to canvass for labour in a blue seat area and cried my eyes out at the election results but I will never lose hope.