Are the rich paying their 'fair' share?

[Al B. Sure!]

Let's summarize...

In absolute dollars, 20151 residents pay an extra $1000 on property taxes compared to 19133 residents who pay nearly THREE TIMES the tax rate!

19133 residents pay city wage tax of ~4% and sales tax of 8%; Fairfax has no city wage tax (???) and a sales tax of 5%.

19133 residents live in an area with SIX TIMES the crime rate 20151 residents experience.

Median household income in 19133 is 15% that of 20151. Fairfax residents make OVER SIX TIMES as much money.

YET, non-housing costs in Philly are HIGHER than in Fairfax...

and you're saying what now about consumption and saving?


I'm pretty sure I've just demonstrated that the advantages associated with living in a wealthy neighborhood (namely low crime exposure) are NOT paid for through taxation or anything else.

Ergo, a non-monetary, non-taxable privilege of being wealthy!

[giblets]

Al, you don't have to convince us that Philly is a terrible place to live. We didn't choose to live there. And the government is never going to tax the intangible benefits of being middle class instead of broke, even if you consider that unfair.

[Hauldren Collider]

I recently got offered a job paying $30 an hour fixing computers for a law firm. I wouldn't have gotten the job if my dad hadn't been (very) loosely connected to the guy who runs the company. That said, I also wouldn't have gotten the job offer if I didn't have almost a decade of experience fixing computers either.

But no, says Jon. Daddy's money is everything. Never mind the fact that my dad paid his way through college and didn't start out rich. Let's just gloss over those inconvenient details.

[Al B. Sure!]

Al, you don't have to convince us that Philly is a terrible place to live. We didn't choose to live there.

NON-MONETARY, NON-TAXABLE PRIVILEGE OF BEING WEALTHY!!!!

it exists

admit it.

[giblets]

NON-MONETARY, NON-TAXABLE PRIVILEGE OF BEING WEALTHY!!!!

it exists

admit it.

You don't have to be very "wealthy" to not live in a crime-ridden cesspool. It has nothing at all to do with the Buffet rule, in fact.

[Hauldren Collider]

I wouldn't describe most of my neighbors as being "very wealthy". Most are middle-class government workers, plus a couple of retirees (who probably are really rich).

[BlackCat]

Privilege represents the intangible social benefits of possessing high social standing.

I'm not saying such privilege is significant (although it can be; for example, networking) but I assume that's where Jon Miller was going with this.

Wonder if someone would care to explain Al why there once was a revolution ?

Though, it's quite curious that you yanks had that revolution that should make everyone equal and then accept that there are an "aristocracy" that can control society as they want.

[Al B. Sure!]

I wouldn't describe most of my neighbors as being "very wealthy". Most are middle-class government workers.

Median household income 20151: $103,899

National median household income is less than half that.

Privilege of being middle-class then if that is middle-class

[Hauldren Collider]

Hey, it's not over $250k/year, so Obama says it's middle class

[Al B. Sure!]

Wonder if someone would care to explain Al why there once was a revolution ?

Though, it's quite curious that you yanks had that revolution that should make everyone equal and then accept that there are an "aristocracy" that can control society as they want.

Equality is the enemy of liberty

[Hauldren Collider]

Harrison Bergeron

Also that equality revolution was the French Revolution, not the American Revolution. Observe the difference in results..

[Al B. Sure!]

Harrison Bergeron

Will Durant.

[Hauldren Collider]

Will Durant. Who the **** is Harrison Bergeron?

A short story about equality by Kurt Vonnegut.

[giblets]

Wonder if someone would care to explain Al why there once was a revolution ?

Though, it's quite curious that you yanks had that revolution that should make everyone equal and then accept that there are an "aristocracy" that can control society as they want.

We were pretty slow in taking the "all men are created equal" business seriously.

[Al B. Sure!]

A short story about equality by Kurt Vonnegut.

Yeah I figured that out when I looked it up. We read it in high school. I remember the story, but not the name.

It was historian Will Durant who said that, though. I'm paraphrasing a bit.

"Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias.
For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and
when one prevails the other dies. Leave men free, and their natural
inequalities will multiply almost geometrically, as in England and
America in the nineteenth century under laissez-faire.
To check the growth of inequality, liberty must be sacrificed,
as in Russia after 1917. Even when repressed, inequality grows; only
the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality;
those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom,
and in the end superior ability has its way."