Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:28 pm
Thomas Cappleman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 22, 2021 1:13 pm
Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑Tue Jun 22, 2021 1:03 pm
I believe in a hand up, not a hand out.
What do you mean by this (in particular, what do you mean by a hand up)? Genuinely interested.
Social security programs should not just be quote-unquote "free money", they should be helping people back into financial self-sustainability.
Therefore, simply doing a Robin Hood that Mark seemingly advocates for is not the right way to solve inequalities.
I would have thought you'd be pro Robin Hood? Wasn't he anti tax and stole the tax money people were forced to pay?
Anyway. I agree, social security programs should be helping people back into self sustainability. I actually work for one. I help administer a scheme which provides the long term unemployed with a part time job, usually work within a nonprofit organisation which benefits disadvantaged members of society (in my case, our staff work for the NCBI, a blindness charity), as well as offering training opportunities to up-skill and we help our participants to eventually find full time employment.
I'm not for "free money". I'm for redistribution of wealth to pay for a society which benefits the most amount of people.
I'm for a progressive tax system for all who benefit from living and operating in a society, so everyone can pay their fair share for the costs of said society. That includes for education, a health service, municipal utilities such as providing water, sanitation and sewerage, fire brigades, the post office, policing and defense (admittedly some of those budgets could be cut or redistributed), infrastructure etc. I am for subsidising green energy to reduce carbon emissions, you know, to keep us alive, as well as for funding arts programs and sports programs that keep us all entertained and make life worth being alive for in the first place. And lots more besides. It's not about free stuff. It's about providing the most amount of good for the most amount of people.
The profit motive uber alles dynamic of laissez-faire capitalism cannot do this as it is forced to ignore externalities and is ultimately unsustainable, causes massive harm and inequality and disrupts the functioning of the system that even pro laissez-faire corporations or individuals have to operate in. Thatcher was wrong. Society does exist.
You say taxes should be as low as possible. Any idea how low that should be? What do you think should be the minimum funded by taxation?