1016 Shadow Revolt

[Martin Hash]

Fascists & Marxists both resent their authoritarianism being questioned.

[DBTrek]

I can't see liberty being served by empowering the state to seize assets in excess of $10million USD at the time of a citizens death.
Think how that would play out if we started the policy right now.
We have a government that's $28Trillion in debt.

We institute your idea - the millionaires and billionaires alive today die, and the Federal government takes everything they own in excess of $10million
Now remember, these cats already spent $28Trillion they don't have.

How much can revenue they harvest through your policy?
Well, only 1% of millionaires have over $10million, so 99% of millionaires will give nothing up for "liberty".
All the billionaires in the USA, at death, could give you about $4.6Trillion.

So your policy would end all billionaires. It also strips the 1% of millionaires with over $10million down to the new max limit. That might net you what ... half a trillion if we're being really generous?

So maybe you walk from the plan with $5.1trillion USD. Paid over decades to an institution currently $28Trillion in debt.
If the government dropped all this new revenue on the debt (something they would never do) - the USA is now only $22.9Trillion underwater.

Also - no one will ever pass more than $10million to their heirs to continue their business legacy, or fund new ventures, or develop new real estate, or do anything that costs more than $10million. People will just die, and hand everything over to an institution holding multiple trillions of dollars in debt.

That equals more liberty for the little people how?
The only entity that policy benefits is a government who can't cover a fifth of their current debt load by liquidating the billionaire class.

How am I enjoying more liberty under this system?
I see how it helps feed government graft and corruption, which will find a way to make their windfall $5trillion vanish as they have with the trillions before.

But I sure don't see how it helps me.

[Martin Hash]

Taxes are NOT for revenue: they are to prevent the rise of an aristocracy.

Unfortunately, the argument is now between Fascists and Marxists: liberty already lost.

My dad is a Fascist: he believes in nepotism. I told him just last week that if I’d depended on his connections for my success, I wouldn’t have had any. Luckily the State was there to enforce meritocracy.

p.s. Most women and many men think they could have accomplished what I did if they just had the time, money, inclination & luck, but that’s (true) narcissistic thinking.

[StCapps]

won't work

the elites will either find a loophole to the confiscation

or they will leave America and take their wealth with them

to leave their inheritance to whoever they please

[Martin Hash]

I don’t care if the listless children of the hyper-successful move to the Caribbean, and American can print more money.

[DrYouth]

The listless children of the aristocracy have always defeated themselves and ruined themselves without any help from the state.
It's the silk slipper syndrome of every generation.

The state needs to do no more than to make it possible for the wooden shoes to climb the ladder, without being stomped down too easily along the way.

And that's what's coming apart lately.... the institutions that used to be available to allow meritocracy to work are failing.

[DBTrek]

The listless children of the aristocracy have always defeated themselves and ruined themselves without any help from the state.
It's the silk slipper syndrome of every generation.

The state needs to do no more than to make it possible for the wooden shoes to climb the ladder, without being stomped down too easily along the way.

And that's what's coming apart lately.... the institutions that used to be available to allow meritocracy to work are failing.

Indeed.

One of the paradoxes of this view lay in MH's correct identification of "egalitarianism" being the opiate by which trianed Marxist lull fools into their fold. "Equal outcomes trump equal opportunity". Yet, when it comes to finances, the aspect which Marxism and Communism BOTH aim to effect most drastically, Martin is firmly on board the "equal outcome" train. Everyone starts at a prescribed level or below, "yay equality". He's not just on board, but would let the government harvest and keep that excess wealth, and use its monopoly on force to ensure compliance.

That's about as Marxist as you can get - "I'd use government force to ensure no citizens start out or wind up too far ahead of other citizens".

The very philosophy that has racked up the largest death tolls in human history.

And here's Martin, rolling out his lipstick-pig version of it and claiming it's for "liberty".

Truly baffling - until you realize all Marxists are like this. They all delude themselves into justifying the seizure of private wealth because "this time it's for a good cause".
/shrug

Lame.

[Martin Hash]

Dead people don’t have any liberty. The law specifically prevents the “dead hand reaching out from the grave,” except with inheritance that is: the hypocrisy must be lost on rich jurists.

[DBTrek]

It robs families of motivation to create great enterprises for themselves and their heirs. Why the fuck would anyone waste time investing their lives in an endeavor that might create over $10 million? So they can make the rapacious government bureaucrats more wealthy when they die? Nah.

May as well just be China - sit back and pirate shit. Let Russia, India, and the EU become the innovators. We'll pirate $10million of their advancements when the time comes, but there's absolutely nothing motivating Americans to innovate another Amazon or FaceBook under those rules. In fact, the closer you get to $10 million the more you need to stop innovating, or start changing your citizenship.

As Capps aptly pointed out, the billionaires will move away, with their billionaire ideas and their billions.
Everyone left behind can only make the government richer by striving to achieve their maximum, so the potential billionaires will simply slack off or find a way to leave.

But hey, you solved the wealth gap - with the exception of enshrining the government permanently as the wealthiest organization in the nation. At least layabout complainers can only point to $10millionaires now when they burn down the Autozone, I guess. But then, will Autozones even be around? I imagine owning one involves more than $10million in assets - and if you have that much why waste it making more money you can only give to government? Shutter it, go enjoy your life.

Sounds like a liberty-packed dream.

[Martin Hash]

Rich people didn't build America, and they aren't more capable than people who aren't rich. Winning the lottery is NOT an accomplishment.

I really have to question your judgment if you would chase money over accomplishments? And why would you want to instill listlessness in your heirs? It's like you've never thought this through?