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0 pointsMulpze155y ago0 comments

If you did not need to pay when you need healthcare, if education was free with equal opportunity, and everybody had enough to eat and a half decent place to live, I would entertain discussing this.

You could have this today in the US, it exists elsewhere. Yes, it would probably cost a bit more for the wealthiest people.

Until then, I believe we should not try to justify inequality based on irrealistic theoretical arguments. I see just a ploy to preserve the current situation by people in a good situation.

Because inequality and poverty is all too real. It hurts real people, unfairly. In the US. And it could change.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

jiriknesl5y ago· 2 in thread

When you are building wealth, you are likely to be young (so often healthy) and there is so much information online, libraries cost nothing. So I don't think this is a valid argument.

roytries5y ago

Note that when you're poor your surroundings are usually also poor. So even if you are young and not yet burdened by health care costs and maybe even have free/good education you might need to drop out or at least spend a lot of your time and money to take care for your relatives.

Only when everybody you care about has a stable health/housing/food/(work) situation you get a chance to do something for yourself. Only if people around you are privileged enough to they have time to invest in you. You can start to build wealth. I don't mean with investing money. Maybe just by

- Lending you their garage - Allowing you to work without income for a few months - Taking care of your kids while you work a few times a week - etc...

TDLR: if all you and your surrounding is doing is directly aimed at surviving you cannot build wealth.

haskellandchill5y ago

The majority here don’t understand the downward pull of poverty. Entrepreneurship could work with UBI or a similar solution where those at the bottom are allowed stakes. Currently they are not. They are exhausted working 40 hour weeks on ten dollars with no healthcare.

arcturus175y ago

> Yes, it would probably cost a bit more for the wealthiest people.

No, at least in those places you mention, it costs more for the middle class. And I'm not sure it's just "a bit" - the difference in taxes between the US and the multiple European countries I've lived in is quite significant.

It's fine if you believe that's part of a fair social contract. I'm European and I do, mostly - I certainly want everyone to have access to quality education and healthcare. (It's some of the other public expenditure I despise... Public TV in this day and age, seriously?)

At any rate let's not pretend Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Bezos can shoulder everyone's education in the US.

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