Message from @Benjamin Henry
Discord ID: 650787567230255114
The Eu is a big meanie pants
@Brue that, plus the fact that you'd have to take the money from the most productive members of society in order to give it to the least productive
@Benjamin Henry im fine with helping the poor in society, i am not okay with an income tax, a consumption tax would work alot better, and then you can still help the poor with the revenue generated there.
you have to have something created by the government to allow for social mobility of those who do work hard and were just so happen to be born poor
sales tax, no income tax
I agree about the consumption tax, but mobility is already pretty good
yea im not saying improve anything
income tax is immoral
It's also explicitly prohibited in the Constitution, if I remember correctly
not 100% sure on that one, but there was an amendment, which nullifies the prior
so it technically is constitutional now
sadly
16th so sad
Shit, you're right
Oh, well
Anyway, though, I think it would be a lot more helpful for poor people if we 1. Cut social programs en masse, and simultaneously 2. heavily promoted charitable giving
@Benjamin Henry what do you think makes individuals who have money give charity to those in their community
Familiarity
@Benjamin Henry that may be one part of it
there are others
Yeah, there are things. Altruism, vanity, guilt, etc. But motivation isn't the thing I'm most worried about. It's inefficiency
everything is about incentives
I know, for me personally, I'm far more likely to donate to charity if I just know where the money is actually going
i would go to say in the function of chance to give charity, social value would be one of the biggest factors
people want to be acknowledged of their good deeds, if we start to praise those who give, they will give, for there is value in being known as a 'good' person
I agree
the reason charity used to be so more common was that it was actively praised
Exactly, and that was likely before there were so many social programs, so much FORCED charity
And also, there was a motivational stigma to receiving social assistance through the government
bingo, a negative incentive
one that would destory your social value
My parents used food stamps, and it was obvious to anyone else at the supermarket if you had them
They looked like Monopoly money
the country has shifted though, it is now good social value to talk about how the rich are evil and hoarding wealth, that there is justice is taking their wealth and giving it to the less wealthy
one only needs to look at twitter
its a virtue signal circle jerk
Things certainly have changed
It's now the government wards browbeating the productive people into accepting them
i would rather have yangs universal basic income than food stamps, it atleast increases freedom so that the people can choose what they want to spend their money on
ideally neither
but in reality, i dont see welfare or UBI going away without large systematic failure