We live in a society that is more free then in days past, yet remnants of the old Feudalism system still remain today.
Nonsense - people come to the US with nothing but the shirt on their back and become millionaires. That is nothing like life in a feudal system.
A very small percent of the population still owns a disproportionate amount of both wealth and power, and their children inherit a disproportionate amount of that wealth and power.
Wrong again and on the most fundamental level. There is no such thing as "the wealth." Such a belief is fictional. Wealth is something that is created by people. A teenage kid with nothing but a can of car wax, a shamy and ambition can create wealth.
The facts of the matter are this: poor people become poorer over time, because the cost of their lifestyle is greater then their value, or the potential of their earnings. In other words, this Feudalism derived system makes it hard for poor people to create wealth because they are constantly in debt to their own survival.
Woe! Feudalism or their own choices? People can live off of very little money if they choose. Immigrants come here by the thousands and live 3 families in a two bedroom apartment while building business'. I know because I do business with such people.
Most of the poor in the US are very wasteful and do a horrible job of managing their money - I see this every day in Detroit. See my thread "my ghetto gas station."
Your suggestion that this is the fault of a feudal system and not the bad choices of the poor is just plain fiction.
These are the class of people who must first WORK TO SURVIVE and who have little or nothing left over to invest afterward. It's not just the poor, most middle class in this country are victims to this trap as well, they don't realize it but generation after generation they are becoming poorer.
The problem is not that some have more then others. The problem is the de-stabilizing effect of an ever increasing debt of existence.
Not "existence" - irresponsible spending in most cases. People don't NEED smart phones and LCD TVs.
What happens when poor people suffer a hardship, like being fired? They struggle to get back into the position they were in before (all work until death, no gain in wealth) or are forced to go without food, clothing, shelter and access to medical care; as a result, their value in society only remains stagnant or goes down (hungry/injured/tired workers are less productive) until the debt/survival ratio becomes un-sustainable. At which point, any number of bad things tends happens, both to the individual and to the rest of society.
People who wake up early and work hard rarely wind up in this situation. There is help for those who really come upon hard times. Nobody starves in the US unless they want to.
What happens when rich people suffer a similar hardship? Very very few will drop down a rung in society; most will stimulate the economy with increased consumption of expensive luxuries to get over it, OR they make relationships with other rich people as part of the recovery process and get access to even more opportunities. This stimulates the economy in the short term, and effectively amounts to no net loss of personal wealth and sometimes acts as a catalyst for net gain of personal wealth.
Do you see the difference wealth creates? Wealth is a buffer, a stabilizer, that affords greater wealth.
Of course the wealthy have greater wealth building resources. But, a lot of times, the bigger they are the harder they fall. Try having a $20,000 per week payroll and having your business tank.
On the other hand, look at how many poor people have won the lottery or become flash in the pan rappers. A huge portion of these people make millions only to blow it all and wind up right back where they started. It all comes down to the decisions people make.
100% access to little things, like electricity, housing, food, clothing, and medicine, is what allows rich people the time to make investments in themselves, and thus become richer. Poor people struggle to meet these basic necessities, and where they fall short they loose access to opportunity and thus can never become rich as long as they are vulnerable to the very things rich people are immune.
There is truth to what you are saying. Want to know how to overcome this. The trick is a large close knit family - that is how the immigrants are able to do it. That is how the immigrants go from rags to riches. They pool their resources and provide a support structure.
Ah, but that family stuff sounds too much like on of those stuffy Conservative value judgments. A word to the wise - a strong family is the single most powerful builder of wealth known to man. It goes back to the caveman days and it still works.
The point of "redistribution" is to create opportunities for the majority that are otherwise only available to the rich; feudal lords kept their peasants poor and ignorant, much as the rich of today keep the middle and lower classes in ignorance of even their own value in the jobs they work and the economy as a whole.
This is just nonsense. Education is free and available to everyone and we all have the same opportunity. Sure, some of us are more likely to encounter given opportunities, but opportunity is available for everyone. There are no feudal lords oppressing anyone. Absolute nonsense. How does one person keep another ignorant in the US?
The truth is, there is enough wealth in this country that everyone can be rich, no one needs to be in poverty. Poverty serves no purpose in society, neither for the rich nor for the majority.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. In fact, that is an ignorant statement. Someone needs to flip hamburgers or they would be $30. Someone needs to mow lawns and clean toilets. No matter how much you pay a burger flipper, they will still be poor as long as their wealth is proportionately less than that of others. $100,000 per year is poverty when everyone else makes $1,000,000.
When all the basic needs of survival are met only then can individuals evolve, and by doing so they naturally tend to create wealth for themselves; they educate themselves, start businesses, invest in retirement plans.
By virtue of creating opportunity through wealth redistribution, a significantly larger portion of the population can lift themselves out of serfdom (lower/middle class) by creating wealth for themselves as individuals.
You are referring to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. While this theory is correct, you are missing something important. All of nature is laziness. When you subsidize people's existence, you remove the incentive for them to build wealth.
This has a profoundly positive effect on the economy not only because of reduced crime and more individuals have access to more wealth and thus spend more, but because whole industries can be created practically over night as more valued workers enter the market place.
Poverty doesn't cause crime but crime causes poverty. many poor do not steal and many wealthy do.
The point is not to pay for poor peoples existence outright generation after generation, the point is to extend the same leverage of existence the rich have so poor people can rise out of serfdom.
What aside from your imagination makes you think this would happen when all reasonable indications suggest it would not? Google Dave Chapel's "reparations" skit. This is nothing more than blind Left wing religion.
The way to help the poor is to teach them how to make the right choices, how to manage their money and how to work hard and be responsible. When people earn something they tend to value it, when they are given something, they only feel entitled to more. This is just life 101.
No one benefits by allowing poor people to continue to fall victim to helplessness, addiction and crime, the same as it's been for thousands of years. However, even the already rich can benefit from a flood of educated workers, workers who can afford to invest in themselves by making themselves more valuable rather then be criticized for failing to meet the basic needs of survival.
