If you feel guilty about earning money easily, feel free to give it away. Personally, after already high taxes (40%+ not counting sales tax) I feel that I would like to give what's left to my own family rather than involuntarily donating it to random people.
Are YOU going to send my kids to college? Buy them cars? A house?
It's easy for some who may feel they have enough, or "got theirs" to say that people who "earn a lot" (aka still climbing the ladder) need to give more.
Nobody is preventing you from donating your money to a nonprofit.
The research is pretty clear - the difference in happiness and stress levels between making 300k and 400k as a family is pretty much nothing on average. The difference in happiness and stress levels between a family making 20k-40k is enormous.
I'm all for designing some kind of social contract, but I would like it to consider more than just relative wealth.
Also, in general I think it's a good idea to segment the population by net worth rather than income, not that I would advocate taking from those with high net worth either...
The unfortunate fact of our world is that, statistically, very few people escape their demographic and psychographic destiny. You can predict a 6 year old kids earnings as an adult fairly well from a mix of their birth geography, parents income, an iq test, and the marshmallow test. Some level of redistribution, that still rewards capitalist endeavors, makes sense in a society as unfair as ours.
Like I said, I'd be happy to discuss some kind of social contract, but I get nervous about people saying "well he makes a lot of money, let's take it from him". That's too simplistic.
How many of us would have to chip in another $10-$20 in taxes to cover those without, so a parent and his/her children can take a shit and dispose of it in a way that meats their commitments as appropriate?
Further, where does it end?
"I want a good brand of disposable diapers, not the cheap ones" (Note: a lot of working families are buying those cheap diapers!)
"I want a $1000 stroller with an easy-collapse handle and nice tires so my kids don't get jostled as I take them over bumps in the park"
"I need a subsidy for a minivan because a small car is very inconvenient with kids"
"I need a subsidy for ORGANIC food, not just any food for my babies."
etc.
The standard could easily become more than the average US household income, without even trying hard to grow the list.
Remember, it's not about ability to have any diapers at all, they're arguing that they deserve a higher standard of convenience.
Meanwhile, I need to commute to work an obscene distance because NIMBYs won't allow more housing to be built, keeping me away from my children for many more hours than I would otherwise need to. But please, prioritize taxing me even more to pay for conveniences for people who are home with their kids while I work to feed mine.
I wouldn't mind a subsidy on cloth diapers to be honest. The landfill waste from disposables is insane.
Time spent cleaning cloth diapers is time not spent working and earning money.
Being poor is expensive. Being poor means you are on an hourly wage in shift work not a salary. That means half an hour late for work means half an hour less money.
Not saying everything is fixed with tossing more money at it, simply setting priorities and building value for more people without always looking at the short term profits. And in some countries perhaps closing questionable cash flows towards those who clearly are benefiting unnecessarily.
Then pay more taxes if you will, or donate to some charity, just don't force other people to do so.
The question is not what someone pays you but what worth do you really bring to the society that also feeds and supports you.
So while doing your wellpaid job, you probably pay only 5 or 10 an hour to the persons cleaning your toilet so you can do your „human business“ in a conveniently clean place. Don’t you think this person is responsible for a big and relevant part of your life quality?
I make a pretty fair amount of money, but unlike you, I am not a lazy person; I worked my ass off to get where I am and I made sacrifices along the way. I strongly object to paying more taxes just so you can assuage your personal guilt. Contact the reporter for the story, explain you are a guilt-ridden rich person who wants to help that woman out. Then send the woman $290 per hour of your money. Do it for a month. Until you do that, then I’ll invite you not to suggest that we should pay more taxes to support someone because you feel guilty. Taxes aren’t for solving your guilt — charity is. Forcing people to help someone because YOU feel that you don’t work hard enough? That’s ridiculous. Charities were invented for exactly that purpose — people can voluntarily give to their heart’s content.
Just imagine if every liberal person freely donated some amount that would be taken by the government in plans they can't get passed? We have the power as a people to organize, fund, etc. Maybe conservatives would see the good that these donations do and be impressed to contribute in kind.
I just think we could all do better as a people collectively in every aspect.