[Latty]

What generalisation? The comment is they gain the most, and that they have the ability to exploit it. That's a statement of fact. You could similarly say that men are the most likely to benefit from sexism, and are positioned best ot exploit it due to the historical sexism against women. It's not saying all men are sexist, just that they are the ones likely to benefit.

The article directly talks about your 70% figure, and explains why it's misleading. I also don't get why we should care about the 'fairness' of it. We don't allow people to do anything they want for the benefit of society - that can include not allowing people to hoard money if we want.

As to your latter points, just because they pay a lot doesn't mean they pay enough, and employing people isn't a 'gift' to society - it's something they do to gain benefit themselves. Yes, it's a behaviour we should encourage, but it isn't somehow equivalent to paying tax.

[weberc2]

> just because they pay a lot doesn't mean they pay enough

So how do we fairly determine what is 'enough'?

[GunboatDiplomat]

Enough that the country isn't constantly running massive deficits, and can afford to invest properly in infrastructure and other needed areas. Which we're clearly not doing right now.

[goobsfoo]

So cut costs and your problem is solved.

[GunboatDiplomat]

That is not compatible with our necessary infrastructure investments, etc.

[weberc2]

This presupposes our existing expenses are all necessary.

[Frondo]

Through discussions. Debates. Elections. Hooray democracy!

[weberc2]

We've been discussing, debating, and voting about taxes and wealth distribution for hundreds of years. If the solution were so simple, wouldn't you expect the problem to be solved by now?

[Frondo]

Well, no. This is a problem that will never be solved, because it's not a problem with a single "correct" solution.

Each new generation has to hash it out for ourselves, the kind of society we want to build. The work is never done.

[weberc2]

So the OP says what society decides isn't fair, and you say that fairness is decided by society. It seems like there should be a less paradoxical way to reason about this.

[Latty]

Through debate, discussion, weighing up the pros and cons, and testing. We have tested our current set-up, and clearly it doesn't work for a large portion of society - now we alter it.

[LanceH]

More.

From "them."