How America does, and does not, redistribute income

James972 · Feb 2, 2018

can2man said:
Oh - it wasn't meant to be a personal attack. Your opening salvo was so stupid I thought we were trading jokes!

if conservatism is stupid why not tell us why? how will you learn if you are afraid to try?

can2man · Feb 2, 2018

James972 said:
if conservatism is stupid why not tell us why? how will you learn if you are afraid to try?

I do not think conservatism is stupid. Never said it was.
Watch the video. Or not, then comment.

James972 · Feb 2, 2018

can2man said:
I do not think conservatism is stupid. Never said it was.
Watch the video. Or not, then comment.

why not tell us a significant conclusion from the video if it had one??

can2man · Feb 2, 2018

James972 said:
why not tell us a significant conclusion from the video if it had one??

One conclusion is that income inequality is a necessary component to a capitalist system. However, too much inequality will lead to communism or some other reactionary system. To combat this they propose trying to find a way to create equal opportunity but not equal outcome. I don't know what you mean from post 22, maybe try saying it a different way and maybe I can understand better.

James972 · Feb 2, 2018

can2man said:
One conclusion is that income inequality is a necessary component to a capitalist system. However, too much inequality will lead to communism or some other reactionary system.

absurd since China now has capitalism, new and massive inequality, and 700 million just moved into the middle class rather than starve to death under communism. Do you understand?

can2man · Feb 2, 2018

James972 said:
absurd since China now has capitalism, new and massive inequality, and 700 million just moved into the middle class rather than starve to death under communism. Do you understand?[/QUOTE

Why did China become communist?

James972 · Feb 2, 2018

can2man said:
James972 said:

absurd since China now has capitalism, new and massive inequality, and 700 million just moved into the middle class rather than starve to death under communism. Do you understand?[/QUOTE

Why did China become communist?

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became communist in 1948 because leaders were very very stupid

can2man · Feb 2, 2018

James972 said:
can2man said:

became communist in 1948 because leaders were very very stupid

Click to expand...

I guess what I am trying to say is - if capitalism moves through its phase of building a middle class and then the elite start to take a larger and larger percentage of profits and the middle class shrinks and people become less prosperous - a tipping point can come and you get chaos or collapse. Income gap is necessary - but too much and it won't work for long.
Ask the Romanovs.

Lafayette · Feb 3, 2018

Mircea said:
And France has had an average unemployment rate of Unemployment Rate of 9.28 percent from 1996 until 2017.

According to Eurostat, the French youth unemployment rate in 2016 was indeed 24.6 per cent, or around one in four.

Are one in four young French people really unemployed? | The Independent

You're right, but so what. Said rates were comparable up to the 1990s before which Europe was incomparable with the US. It was historically an agglomeration of states without a common currency and without common governance.

Even today the US and the EU have aspects that are both comparable and incomparable:
*Comparable because the population size of both is sufficient to qualify their market-economies as significantly large. (US population, 320M vs EU population of 510M.) Also, all the nations are independent per se; that is, they maintain their own national identities and political structure.
*Incomparable because not all nations share the same currency, nor is there one common language; so manpower resources do not effectively respond to market-economy variations amongst the countries. (If you lose your job in France, you don't typically go looking for one in Slovakia. If you market a product in Germany, it is not automatic that it is licensed to sell in the rest of the EU.)

The two entities are nonetheless "common" in the sense that both are market-economies, and both have similar (but not the same) sets of rules/laws that govern commerce. This makes both the US and the EU comparable economically. But the comparisons end there.

Obviously, the political comparison is far more different. The EU takes pride in the fact that it is a Social Democracy:

Social democracy is a political, social and economic ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal-democratic polity and capitalist economy, as well as a policy regime involving a commitment to representative and participatory democracy, measures for income redistribution and regulation of the economy in the general interest and welfare state provisions.

Social democracy thus aims to create the conditions for capitalism to lead to greater democratic, egalitarian and solidaristic outcomes; and is often associated with the set of socioeconomic policies that became prominent in Northern and Western Europe.

When Americans will adhere to similar principles as enunciated above only God knows ...

Lafayette · Feb 3, 2018

Mircea said:
And France has had an average unemployment rate of Unemployment Rate of 9.28 percent from 1996 until 2017.

According to Eurostat, the French youth unemployment rate in 2016 was indeed 24.6 per cent, or around one in four.

Are one in four young French people really unemployed? | The Independent

I will say it once again s-l-o-w-l-y: You are comparing Apples and Oranges. Both are fruit, but not nearly the same!

The two entities are similar but very different, and the difference that you SEEM INCAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING ARE THESE TWO KEY FEATURES OF ANY DEMOCRACY:
*If you take sick in any European country, the fact that you are citizen allows you National Healthcare that is far less costly than the US. See that stark difference here.)
*Which ipso-facto gives far different life-expectancies. See that stark difference here!
*The percentage of the population that are obtaining the educational credentials that have become exclusively important to lifestyle are about the same. But, the cost of obtaining these credentials are far more important in the US than in Europe (where they are - for the most part - fully subsidized by national governments). See that here.

Now, try to understand the key-importance of both in terms of national well-being. Try hard ...

James972 · Feb 3, 2018

Lafayette said:
Now, try to understand the key-importance of both in terms of national well-being. Try hard ...

France is a poor impotent little country like Arkansas about our poorest state. And unhappy to boot

These are the 15 happiest countries in the world - CNBC.com
https://www.cnbc.com/.../norway-ranked-worlds-happiest-country-as-the-us-gets-sadd...
Mar 20, 2017 - Norwegians are a whole lot happier than Americans, according to a new report 10:49 AM ET Thu, 20 April 2017 | 00:42. Forget buying that new car, ... The U.S. ranked just ahead of Ireland, which took 15th place, and was followed by Germany in 16th, the U.K. in 19th and France in 31st. However, economic ...

James972 · Feb 3, 2018

can2man said:
Ask the Romanovs.

totally absurd since the Romanovs did not have capitalism

James972 · Feb 3, 2018

can2man said:
James972 said:

the elite start to take a larger and larger percentage of profits and the middle class shrinks and people become less prosperous - a tipping point can come and you get chaos or collapse. Income gap is necessary - but too much and it won't work for long.
.

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cant happen under capitalism since to make $1billion selling iphones you have to distribute $200 billion in iphone wealth. America has many poor not because of capitalism but because liberal govt invited in 30 million poor illegals in and crippled 30 million more with welfare programs. Liberal communists have tricked you into blaming it on capitalism. Do you understand?