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white_wolf
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Oh. My. God....
See this is why I'm voting for the U.S. Socialist Party. Sure they'll never get elected, but at least I'll feel like I didn't directly help cause these wars, or other messed up problems of our country.
Libertarians are just as bad as the other two parties. Why support a party which supports Ayn Rand's principles.
Me too, but I don't see the Dems as being any better.... I thought I'd go Libertarian in the recent local elections, and they had that option, but state laws are that you have to vote in your party, and there were no Libertarians to vote for... Didn't know what to do
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Occupy Buddhism: Or Why the Dalai Lama is a Marxist
I don't believe it is entirely up to him. That is where we differ, we seem to be on opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum in regards to this. It isn't entirely up to him, wealth is a creation of society as a whole and society can decide what to do with it. We already do this to an extent with taxes, and if society decides that Bill Gates's taxes should be raised to combat poverty, then Bill will have to submit to the law like anyone else. So, it is not entirely up to him.That's really not Bill Gates's problem unless he wants it to be. And that isn't cruel or harsh, it's just a fact. He can do whatever he likes with his wealth, it's one of the benefits of a free society. He can give it all away if he wants to, or he can buy sailboats. It's entirely up to him. He can be Scrooge if he feels like it. That's his problem.
It doesn't mean we can't do anything to help people, it just means we can't force others to shoulder a burden that doesn't really belong to them. It's not their fault people are poor. If you're not charitable by choice but by force, you're just doing community service - a sentence, a punishment. Does that mean we stop helping? No. It just means that we don't force anyone else to do anything.
And he's actually incredibly charitable. If I remember correctly most of his wealth has been willed to charitable causes. He knows he won't spend all of his money, and is donating it accordingly.
Granted, you might be more in line with the libertarian viewpoint that wealth is the property of the individual and he has a right to the fruit of his labor, but I've never found that argument very compelling and I think the flaws of capitalism, especially as practiced in the U.S., are becoming more and more apparent and the the system is in need of major reform, if not a complete replacement.
