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Originally posted by DivineOb
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LPoT,
I thought about it and I think you deserve a better answer than I gave yesterday.
I don't know how to define those things. I'm a computer scientist not a politician or an economist. But I think I can still comment more generally. Are you familiar with the "line drawing fallacy"? It says that just because we can't clearly define where the line on something is that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Let me illustrate with the not at all incendiary topic of abortion (but which I think illustrates things clearly). I believe it is permissible to get an abortion one nanosecond after the egg is fertilized. I also believe it is wrong to get an abortion one nanosecond before the baby is born. Where is the line at which it goes from right to wrong? I don't know. But we can still debate and help shrink the range within which we think that line exists. Make sense?
From the animation I posted you can see that the richest 400 individuals are paying *less* in taxes than at any time in the last 70 years. Bezos made $215 million per day last year! Surely you agree that the more money you make the more you should pay, right? Both because it "hurts" less when you have more (If you gave me a $1000 tax cut / increase it would not impact my standard of living at all) and because they benefit more from the society than those with less (I own real estate. Surely you agree I benefit more from the police than someone who only rents a room). Do we agree on these things?
I thought about it and I think you deserve a better answer than I gave yesterday.
I don't know how to define those things. I'm a computer scientist not a politician or an economist. But I think I can still comment more generally. Are you familiar with the "line drawing fallacy"? It says that just because we can't clearly define where the line on something is that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Let me illustrate with the not at all incendiary topic of abortion (but which I think illustrates things clearly). I believe it is permissible to get an abortion one nanosecond after the egg is fertilized. I also believe it is wrong to get an abortion one nanosecond before the baby is born. Where is the line at which it goes from right to wrong? I don't know. But we can still debate and help shrink the range within which we think that line exists. Make sense?
From the animation I posted you can see that the richest 400 individuals are paying *less* in taxes than at any time in the last 70 years. Bezos made $215 million per day last year! Surely you agree that the more money you make the more you should pay, right? Both because it "hurts" less when you have more (If you gave me a $1000 tax cut / increase it would not impact my standard of living at all) and because they benefit more from the society than those with less (I own real estate. Surely you agree I benefit more from the police than someone who only rents a room). Do we agree on these things?
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