this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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Why on earth would taking wealth from everyone (and it turns into everyone -- There are non-executive wage earners working mundane jobs who pay 50% taxes on their last bit of income and basically pay that on any overtime they work) and concentrating it in the hands of a few insanely powerful government workers ever result in less inequality? You're literally making an overclass of super-powerful people a little bit stronger.

We've done that before -- we gave all the power to people based not on their amount of money but instead their ownership and effective use of horsies and horsie accessories, hard clothing, and pokey sticks of varying descriptions and materials. It wasn't a more equal society back then. The pokey stick hard clothing horsie people still got the nicest houses and could get a bunch of slaves to build big pointy buildings for them.

You're just taking money from the super powerful (and everyone else) and giving it to the ultra mega powerful.

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[–] Pechente@feddit.de 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The difference is that feudalism wasn‘t a democracy. In a democracy you can change what your tax income is spent on and you can decide whether or not you want it to go to welfare programs or whatever else. The money is not in the hands of government workers. Your taxes don’t go to the bank account of the head of state.

This is a bit oversimplified since there can of course be corruption inside of the government but in a functioning democracy, you are in a different position than what you describe here.

[–] SJ0@lemmy.fbxl.net -3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's not really true though. You can choose between the blue uniparty and the red uniparty (and occasionally an orange or light blue or purple uniparty)

Its a false choice. You get to choose between different colors of corrupt establishment who become rich off of their time in government because it turns out when you give someone that level of money and power they'll definitely find ways to get some of it for themselves.

[–] Pechente@feddit.de 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah but the two-party system is a US thing which is ranking relatively poorly when it comes to democracies and is classified as a flawed democracy according to the Economist Democracy Index.

Your post makes it sound like increasing taxes for the rich will never lead to better circumstances for poor people but it absolutely does.

[–] Nobug404@geddit.social 1 points 1 year ago

In a real democracy you can run to be elected. And if enough people like your policies you will be able to enact them.