The richest man in India spent $120 million on a wedding. I agree with you that we should stop spending money on useless shit and taxing billionaires will help achieve our goal of not spending money on useless shit.
$120m, how much is that? Wouldn't that be roughly as much as Canadians spent on single-use coffee cups, styrofoam burger boxes etc in the last week or two?
Yes, well, but is it the money you're concerned about? If so, you should just as concerned when twenty million people spending $6 each on silly things as when one person spends $120m. Or are you concerned more with aberrant behaviour — "people shouldn't be as extravagant as that guy"?
I saw we first take the small step and prevent people from having $120 million to spend on a wedding. Perhaps that step will suffice. Maybe not. One can analyze the situation as needed to see or adjustments in either direction need to be made.
We should stop spending tax payer money on useless shit and being wasteful with it. People are free to spend their own money however they wish.
You seem to not like the idea that a rich person spent money, but that’s the way for the money to get out to other people who are not billionaires. Some of that $120m undoubtedly went to pay musicians, chefs, cooks, florists, security guards, waitstaff, custodians, etc, etc, etc. If that wedding didn’t happen, those people probably would have missed out on their biggest pay day of the year.
Anyone who think billionaires have too much, should be happy when they see billionaires spend excessively, as it means that wealth is getting spread around. People who want some of it can start, or work for, businesses that billionaires would want to spend money with.
This assumes government spending is responsible and just. Taking someone's money to line the pockets of bureaucrats and paying inflated prices to government contractors isn't going to make me happy. There is too much corruption. If I felt tax money was being spent well, I might feel differently. Until the government can show they can be trusted with money, I don't see why they should be trusted with any more of it.
I'm not going to apply any morality to an individual spending money they earned. I am going to apply it to a government taking money through taxes. The government has a responsibility to do right by the citizens paying the taxes.
From what I've seen, most of the "tax the rich" people are assuming the government is going to spend the money to help the poor, or support whatever other causes they want... or more transparently, the money taken from the rich will go to them in some way. The reality is that probably won't happen. Even when the government does give out cash, like we saw during the pandemic in the US, look at what happened. A significant percentage of people ran out and bought stuff, costing more than what they were given. A concerning number took on significant debt (like a new car), as if those checks would keep coming. So the money went right back to people who own the companies, raising their wealth by billions, and the people ended up in worse debt than before the wealth was distributed. We see a similar pattern with lotto winners. It doesn't work. A government functioning like Robin Hood isn't the solution, we need education on saving vs spending, living within one's means, and being content with what one has. But these things are all bad for the economy, so there is little incentive for those in power to do it, so it falls on individuals.
This assumes government spending is responsible and just.
No it doesn't for the same reason the statements you made that I replied to don't. I used your same reasoning and applied it to government. Are you going to be consistent or not?