missfrillypants
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Termyn8or
What's more, many see the redisbribution [SIC] of wealth as punishing success and rewarding failure, which is pretty hard to deny at best.
the redistribution of wealth is a touchy subject if someone is planning on taking everything you've earned or a large portion of it, but most socialist programs similar to the ones operating in europe don't do that. they're run off of taxes, which are a little bit higher than they are here, and most of all, are used in more efficient ways. the pork in this country is amazingly high, and if we just cut ridiculous, unnecessary programs and used our money more wisely, that would go a long way.
and no one complains normally that the rich must pay higher taxes than the poor because they have a greater income to take a percentage out of... if the money was used to build a bunch of public parks that help the community they live in much less than making sure that the people who make their food at restaurants, for example, can afford to go and visit the doctor when they need to and still take a day or so off to get better instead of what many people HAVE to do, which is work while they are very ill and contagious and do their best not to infect you with whatever they have because they cannot afford the doctor's visit, medication, or missed time from work. that's one example of why public healthcare would benefit you even if you do not need it yourself... less sick people having to go untreated and having to go about their normal business day while sick means you will not catch as much from them.
americans have this very limited idea of the world of finance, and if you're poor, even if you are young and just starting out and did not have the advantage of being born into a family who could give you help starting out or with school and things like that, it's obviously because you're lazy and didn't work hard enough. that's simply not true. i have that dirty, terrible thing called credit card debt. most of it was incurred because of medical expenses, although some of it was used to pay for extremely necessary things for moving into my first apartment such as dishes to eat off of or a warm blanket to cover myself with. a very small amount was used for buying a few tops from one of my previous jobs which had an extremely strict dress code i had nothing that complied with at the time. this is not terribly irresponsible of me, to want to be warm while i sleep, not have ear and sinus infections, and be able to wear clothes to work. and i will pay it off, eventually, but it's very difficult paying it off at the interest rates i can afford with my mother's credit history, which tanked after her husband died of a rare disease usually only seen in third world countries and she was trying to keep her house and her two children but could only work a certain amount of time because otherwise she would lose disability and be unable to qualify for help paying for the medicine she cannot work, or indeed, function, if she does not have. neither she nor i is "irresponsible." we're just poor. i am not ashamed of any of this, and it and things like it happen to millions of americans. there are people out there losing their jobs right now because even though they have worked hard and done everything they were supposed to, people who they will never meet made bad decisions, and most of those people, like the auto industry executives, are not suffering from it because they already have enough. and what the already haves forget is that their livelihood depends on the have nots... if enough people are starving, they will commit more crimes and take more drugs and make the lives of the haves more dangerous. they will go to work when contagious, they will stop buying the products that the already have's sell. some of them may even die or have sick family members and be unable to work, which means that the already haves will not need to pay them, but also that the already haves will have trouble finding someone to do the work they are unwilling or unable to do, and if they get a bad enough reputation, it is possible people will not wish to work for them. and of course, every few hundred years in some part of the world where the lives of the have nots are bad enough and firearms are protected under the second amend... oops, sorry, readily available, sometimes people get angry enough that the already haves refuse to allow them even the tiniest portion of what they have in abundance and go and shoot a bunch of the already haves, and if that happens, we will not have socialist programs but probably actual communism, actual scary redistribution of wealth where everyone who's worked hard to gain things lose everything.
i am not a failure, and so i am not asking you for a reward for failing. although there are a few people who are born in the higher classes who i think waste the oppurtunity given to them, i am not asking for those who suceed to be punished. i'm saying that the percentage taken out of my wages might be better used helping the people in my community have a chance to succeed, and i am not offended, scared shitless, or sure it's their fault in the first place, and i'd like to see what the world would look like if they DID succeed, and that i'm willing to give them that chance.
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Why is Socialist a 4-letter word in the US? - 
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) needs to stay in place because without it the original 'principles' and 'beliefs' of the founding fathers are meaningless. Eh? Excuse me? Who *cares*, I would rather have a fairer system of electing someone, thank you very much (like, you know, everyone's vote counting as one), in a day and age where a majority of people are educated and have access to materials to educate themselves on their candidates. The electoral college was created because these two things were NOT the norm, and you'd actually elect your *electorate*, not your candidate (which, technically, you still do, it just says exactly who the electorate will vote for on the ballot), who would then decide for you who you (and all the other people that elected him) wanted for president. 
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