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Joe Biden beats Donald Trump, officially making Trump a one-term twice impeached, twice popular-vote losing president


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3 hours ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

 

The personal wealth of a politician is irrelevant unless it was gotten in less than ethical or in an illegal manner.

 

Of course there are questions about his and his wife's finances after his first Senate run which is by pure coincidence just outside of the ten year release (after delaying by almost four years). Total coincidence. 

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18 hours ago, Chris- said:

 

Does that matter? I pay a lot of attention to leftist-oriented publications (Splinter, Jacobin, etc.) and organizations (like the local DSA chapter). The rhetoric expressed is always that wealth and capitalism are unequivocally bad; whether you are talking about $2 million, $20 million, or $200 million, that rhetoric is incompatible with the notion that someone can make that much money in one year without any ethical misgivings. 

 

To be fair their heart is in the right place - they are just massively over-correcting because wealth has, almost synonymously become associated with being bad because, generally speaking, wealthy people have shown they are bad with their wealth. 

 

Now, to your earlier point about it being unobjectionable in the absence of exploitation, I absolutely agree. Are you suggesting that leftists wouldn't understand that? I still think "wealth is bad" is a good short hand because generally speaking it's true - Bernie Sanders being the exception (and there are other exceptions of course) only proves the rule. 

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On 4/12/2019 at 10:03 AM, Greatoneshere said:

 

To be fair their heart is in the right place - they are just massively over-correcting because wealth has, almost synonymously become associated with being bad because, generally speaking, wealthy people have shown they are bad with their wealth. 

 

Now, to your earlier point about it being unobjectionable in the absence of exploitation, I absolutely agree. Are you suggesting that leftists wouldn't understand that? I still think "wealth is bad" is a good short hand because generally speaking it's true - Bernie Sanders being the exception (and there are other exceptions of course) only proves the rule. 

It’s not true. It’s absurd. There are plenty of unethical rich people, but it doesn’t follow that wealth itself is bad. 

 

Have you ever spent a meaningful amount of time in a developing nation? This whole notion that wealth is bad has been tested and the results are in. I strongly prefer being in rich countries where there are a lot of millionaires and a lot of wealth. 

 

How do you help the poor with redistribution if you don’t have wealth to tax?

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1 minute ago, Massdriver said:

It’s not true. It’s absurd. There are plenty of unethical rich people, but it doesn’t follow that wealth itself is bad. 

 

Have you ever spent a meaningful amount of time in a developing nation? This whole nation that wealth is bad has been tested and the results are in. I strongly prefer being in rich countries where there are a lot of millionaires and a lot of wealth. 

 

How do you help the poor with redistribution if you don’t have wealth to tax?

 

I would say you are fundamentally misunderstanding what people mean when they use the shorthand "wealth is bad" which was entirely my point. The argument I'm making is that wealth isn't bad. 

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6 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I would say you are fundamentally misunderstanding what people mean when they use the shorthand "wealth is bad" which was entirely my point. The argument I'm making is that wealth isn't bad. 

You said it was good short hand. Wealth is good is good short hand. 

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25 minutes ago, Massdriver said:

It’s not true. It’s absurd. There are plenty of unethical rich people, but it doesn’t follow that wealth itself is bad. 

 

Have you ever spent a meaningful amount of time in a developing nation? This whole nation that wealth is bad has been tested and the results are in. I strongly prefer being in rich countries where there are a lot of millionaires and a lot of wealth. 

 

How do you help the poor with redistribution if you don’t have wealth to tax?

 

Perhaps developing nations are poor precisely because they’ve been exploited by wealthier nations. 

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18 minutes ago, SilentWorld said:

 

Perhaps developing nations are poor precisely because they’ve been exploited by wealthier nations. 

That’s true for many poor countries, but not all of them. However  it doesn’t follow that wealth is bad. Every nation on earth could be wealthy. It isn’t a zero sum game. 

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I wouldn't mind having fewer obscenely wealthy people if it meant they don't control as much compared to poorer people, and poorer/middle-class people have more spending power. We live in a nation where a not insignificant amount of people are scared of a sudden $500 medical bill; that's hardly a resounding "results are in and fuck yeah."

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1 hour ago, Massdriver said:

You said it was good short hand. Wealth is good is good short hand. 

 

Except . . . 

 

1 hour ago, Anathema- said:

Wealth isn't bad, the wealthy using their political power to keep people poor and refuse to help them are bad and thinking that poor people don't have a voice in that discussion is also bad.

 

This.

 

I'm saying it has become synonymous with bad. I'm wealthy, grew up wealthy, I can tell you that the wealthy are disingenuous and work in bad faith generally speaking. The broader evidence exhibited by the country bears this out. Wealth is inherently good but since wealth also corrupts there's a cognitive dissonance there.

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