no sane person entertains a 90 percent wealth tax if they believe it will one day touch them. so for the left to convince us these taxes are necessary, they must also convince us we will never be wealthy. the problem: such truth is effective. what you believe is what you become.
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class mobility is already difficult. my mother ran away from the projects at 16 with *nothing* but the belief, enshrined in our american story — the american dream — that if she worked hard she would rise. and she did.
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without the belief that one is master of her own life, the wealthy mostly just become annoying to talk to — trust fund babies forever apologizing for their meaningless existence. but the poor are doomed.
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the american dream must be fought for. it must be argued, expanded, amplified. but first, we must acknowledge it’s under attack. i’m here to tell you: it’s under attack.
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Perhaps there is a middle ground. The tax rates could rise somewhat and help fund important infrastructure & educational programs. My dad was a WW II vet. He grew up poor. He became a dentist w. free education on GI Bill If you don't know much about it, it's worth checking out.
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my dad fought in vietnam. my parents managed the downpayment on the house i grew up in with the assistance of veteran services. i agree there’s a healthy middle path!
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Worse, the sense of inevitable personal stagnation must defend itself: enter tall poppy syndrome. Only bad people are successful, and success only makes them worse. You don’t just take what’s necessary, you take to punish. Really easy to enter a cultural death spiral from there
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A really sad thing is that there are many hands reaching out & a tremendous amount of free/cheap info on developing one’s skills/thinking for the period of rocky growth ahead, but if you hate the entire class of people who’ve walked the path, that benefit is unavailable to you
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So there are no rich people in the Nordics? This whole line of argument is specious. The idea that the drive to achieve is only about money and magically deflated by tax policy is weird and ahistorical. Americans hustled hard in the first half of 20th c w similar rates. No?
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