This is why people don't like having their wealth confiscated

This was inspired by another thread in another section of the forum about something completely unrelated. But I thought it provided a great illustration for why wealth redistribution is so vexing to the people that work for their money. And I just got back from the gym, so it was fresh on my mind.

Anybody that thinks wealth redistribution is good, I want you to do me a favor. Start working out regularly. After a few months, you'll start to notice yourself looking and feeling differently. You'll be healthier and you'll probably look a lot better. And you'll start to view your body as an investment. You'll recognize that the more you put in, the more you get back. So you'll have a lot of incentive to keep going. And you will take pride in your work.

Now after you've worked your ass off to become this amazing adonis, imagine that through some magical power, the government decided to redistribute your health because it had been deemed "unfair" that you looked and felt so good while other people were fat and unattractive. And so a percentage of your muscles and fitness were now garnished from you and distributed evenly among all of your lazy and unmotivated neighbors who sat around on their couches, watching television, and eating junk food. And the harder you worked to keep yourself looking and feeling good, the higher percentage you were "taxed." Would this not infuriate you?

If you'll notice, it's always the people who do not have the discipline to do what you did that demand the redistribution of your things. Of course they want redistribution. They have everything to gain and nothing to lose. But as Smokey from Friday said, "You didn't put in on this, maaaaaaaaan!" And to the people who bust their asses to build the best lives they can for themselves, taking those things away from them is criminally unfair. It is selfish and it's wrong.

 

Bravo sir, very well put that even a caveman could understand

Not sure if it'll get through to the leftists though. They'll say something like, "you don't NEED all those muscles and stamina"

 

I'm married to a Jewish woman and funny enough, my Father never liked Jews. Not because they killed Christ, I don't know to this day if my Father was an atheist or not. But he hated Jews because they seem to control most everything. Many are lawyers, shop owners, they control much of the media and etc. I think Hitler hated them for the same reasons. But I have come to realize they own and control so much because they are willing to put in the time to get a good education, save their money and invest it. Then they try and buy businesses. Jews aren't much with doing manual labor. They will put in years learning and going to school to be doctors, scientist and etc. Most of us aren't like that. We constantly buy to keep up with the Jones and Goldberg's. We don't save or invest. In short, we don't do what is needed to get ahead like Jews will. Then when we are constantly fighting to keep our head above water, we look over at the rich Jews and say it isn't right they have so much. They control so much. That's our fault. I'm a prime example of that. I quit school to go into the Marines and only have a GED education. I've worked hard all my life and wouldn't have anything, except I learned some things from my Jewish in-laws. Things like to have anything, you must pay yourself like you pay all your bills every month. I consider myself a bill and I pay myself something each month. If I can't put something away, I can't afford to eat out, go to the movies or bowling. I carried my lunch to work every day, only buying my drinks. outside of my house and vehicles, I don't charge more than I can pay off at the end of the month. After putting away so much, I invest it and it's paid off for me. Not that I'm rich, I never will be. But we have saved and invested enough we have been able to help all three of our children big time.

I don't envy anyone their money and I ask for nothing from anyone. Most of the time your in the position your in because of the decisions you make in life. That isn't always true, but most of the time it is. My kids have made some very bad decisions, as I did when I was much younger. But you can change. You can make your life better if your willing to work at it.

 

I myself have been a health work out running/ weight lifting fanatic in my day. And I can tell you without reservation the two are not even close to being related. For the simple reason that you have a skewed vision of how you think the other guy thinks. Most people with any sense are not looking for what you believe they are looking for. The very ones you believe are looking for wealth redistribution are just looking for fairness in reality. Case in point; the wealthy right now as we speak have in the neighborhood of 2.1 trillion dollars of our hard earned tax dollars of the middle and poor incomes stashed away overseas in tax shelters benefiting only them. That money was taken directly out of our economy only doing a precious few some good. The Bush tax cuts were designed for the business community to take those tax breaks and invest in businesses and jobs in America. You want to talk wealth redistribution. Yea, the redistribution went to those who conned the rest of us out of wealth fairness. And by the way, no matter how many times you show up to the gym, nothing is going to change the reality of what actually happened to wealth fairness.

 

What about if 1% of the people controlled 75% of the health?

And no matter how hard you worked, you could never be as healthy as them, and they just gave all that health to their kids, who never worked out a day in their lives......

 

Amazing. Nobody can ever become wealthy without stealing it from somebody else. What a convenient excuse to be poor. I'd have a little more money, but somebody stole it from me. It has nothing to do with my choices and it's not fair that somebody else has my money.

No wonder you guys can't be honest about who you really are. None of you would ever be elected.

 

Funny many who complain about our wealth going over seas, don't think twice when they go out and buy something. They don't look for American made where the profits stay here and creates more jobs for Americans. They don't think when they buy that VW Beatle made in Germany, that it takes money away from America and American workers. That the profit from that car goes back to Germany and helps create jobs for Germans.

In the last year, Whirlpool moved three plants to Mexico to try and compete with LG and Samsung who makes their appliances in S. Korea and Mexico. One plant in Indiana had been there since the 1950's. Over 5,000 good paying jobs were lost. Go into Sears, Home Depot or any appliance store and they will be loaded with LG and Samsung appliances. Even most of Sears's Kenmore appliances are either Samsung or LG.

We are our own worst enemy. We won't buy what we make here and when we don't, factories move out to compete and more good jobs are lost. Then we cuss these companies out for leaving and taking those good paying jobs with them and keeping their profit over seas.

 

There is nothing wrong with being a marine or being a Jewish doctor. And, it is no one's fault. People choose what they want to be out of choice and interest most of the time. If you enjoyed being a marine, that was what you liked. I have friends who like being mechanics, contractors, computer guru's, whatever. We are all different. It does not mean just because we didn't study to be a doctor, that we were not successful. We all have different interests. That's what makes us all a success in our own field. Some people are just not interested in going to college. It doesn't mean they weren't successful being something else. Our success in society is not a reflection of us all wanting to be doctors. Our success is that we are all different with different goals and interests and that we pursue those interests. Never be ashamed of being a marine. Without marines and service people protecting us, quite likely there wouldn't be many doctors around either.

 

Taxcutter says:
Very good analogy.

 

Come again? That's not what I said. That's what you said. Just so we understand each other.

Again, this twisted view is what gets folks like you in trouble with this issue. How is it I'm making an excuse to be poor by allowing well off people to use my tax dollars for their benefit alone, when that was not the original intention of the tax breaks they were given by those who are not so well off? Your analogy doesn't make much sense, because I never said it was stolen. What happened was, it was given by Bush to the well off to use for investment here, but wasn't. It was at that time when the money was stolen. If you can explain justification for that maneuver, boy do you have my attention. I can't wait for your excuse for that one.

What a ridiculous comment!

 

No but our success in life often means what we do with our life. I'm not sorry I went into the Marines. I am sorry I didn't wait and finish school before joining, but three other friends of mine talked me into going in with them. I got my GED in the military, that's the only way my Mom would approve of me going. But I screwed up. I was a jet mechanic in the Marines and I could have followed that trade and made big money. I would have to go back to school to get a license, but it would have been easy to do. I had all the experience. But instead I got out, met this girl who was a 9 in my mind and got married instead. Had kids right away and never did follow my trade and I paid for it. I had a hard life worked hard, but that was my choice. I wasn't willing to do what I should have done to make a good living and worked harder. But I made it. It only took a lot longer and I had to work a lot harder. But I never took anything from anyone. I never envied the rich. I made my choices and I was willing to live by them.

 

That just sounds like jealousy to me.

 

The above is pure, unadulterated horsesh-t.

 

If America was more concerned on what we buy, I think many of those good paying jobs would still be here and when your making decent money, you don't care what the rich make.

 

Damn, if that ain't stretching an analogy to the point of snapping, I don't know what is.

 

I don't envy the rich either. Good for them. I have several rich friends. But there is a thing called fairness, and there is nothing anyone can do to argue their way around that. What happened with those tax cuts was not fair and it was not about people wanting wealth redistribution from the wealthy. It was about gaining more opportunity for all of us, when those tax cuts were awarded. But it didn't happen.

As to you being a failure, I disagree 100%. Which I understand we disagree on about everything. You would have given your life to us all if you had to and without getting paid well to do it too. Being a hero by protecting, getting hurt, and dying for others in the eyes of us all is deserving of the distinction of the highest order of success known to civilization in my opinion. Not everyone is willing to do what you have done. You were willing to sacrifice your life and monetary security for the well being of others. I know of no other success that will ever match that. I hope you never forget that. To us all, you own the word "success".

 

I thought it was pithy and sniper accurate.

 

Do you have a link that proves that figure is inaccurate? I know I may be off by a few bucks, so if you could just give us an exact figure I'd appreciate it.

 

The issue is not how "healthy" they are, its how healthy you are. Are you as healthy as you can be, does your health correlate to your ability and effort? Its not a zero sum game, because they are healthy does not mean you cannot be healthy. And because they are healthy, it does not mean that it was at your expense.

 

They're not related. It was an analogy to prove a point. One that you should thoroughly be able to relate to if you were as much of a "weight lifting fanatic" as you say you were. So let's assume you're telling the truth here about your fitness habits. Now let's take you at your physical prime and deduct half of your muscle mass / body fat percentage / stamina / etc. and give it to Michael Moore. Now the two of you are equal. Everything is fair, correct? Neither of you is good looking and healthy but neither of you is obese and ugly either. You're both just kind of slightly chubby and average looking now. And as long as you continue to work out, this will remain the end result. The only way to make yourself healthier and better looking is now by working twice as hard to pull Michael Moore's lazy ass up with you while he never sets foot in a gym. In fact, while you're hitting the weights, he's actually busy making movies about how he believes that gyms don't work and they are rigged to take people's money and keep them fat.

Are you okay with this? Because this is what redistribution looks like. Whether it's health, wealth, or whatever variable you want to use here.

Why do you care what other people have? Why are you comparing yourself to others? Why don't you just work your hardest to be the best you can be? You people are so stuck in this ridiculous zero-sum scarcity paradigm where you believe that someone else's success always equals your failure. This illustrates perfectly why you guys suck at generating prosperity. Because prosperity comes from an abundance mentality. Prosperity is generated when you exult in other people's success. Not try to sabotage it. You're going about it completely backwards. You're trying to take instead of give. Trying to hate instead of celebrate. And this only creates a downward spiral of more scarcity. Because you become an energy vampire that drains on the people around you which causes them to distance themselves from you. Which only makes you feel like you have fewer resources. And the fewer resources you feel like you have, the more desperate you get. If you ever want to get out of this destructive cycle, you have to learn to stop being so needy. Needy people only get needier because they don't understand how to appreciate what they already have which is what enables them to productively contribute to the environment around them. You can't generate anything but more lack from a position of lack.

 

Maybe if americans knew how to make a proper car i wouldnt be supporting the japanese, or germans.

 

If you believe that laws come from "some magical power", all I have to say is that you need to spend at least as much time in school as you do in the gym.

 

Thanks for sharing that. It takes a real man to admit he screwed up. You have my respect for that.

One thing that came to me was the unofficial Marine motto: "Improvise, Adapt and Overcome". That's great, but no substitute for planning. So the Scouting motto "Be Prepared" came to mind.

That's it, I'm afraid. A little late now, but what if you had been a Boy Scout first?

 

Up until the bailout, the American manufactures were under an enormous disadvantage to the foreign makes. Since then the playing field is more level. Not all the way, the imports still have an advantage. But it's not like it was and since the bailout, the American manufactures have put out some real nice cars and trucks.

 

I look for reliability in a vehicle. It has not been the time required for a full length of a vehicle to know the quality of american manufacture vehicles after the bailout.