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Iron sharpens iron
Feb. 6th, 2019 04:50 amIt really is true, nothing sharpens like another person, especially someone who disagrees with you on just about everything. I am a, I don't know exactly a specific term but, constitutionalistic conservative, I guess I would say. One of my housemates is, on the other hand, so far left as to be an admitted socialist, at least in part. He and I can agree on a few things, but we absolutely do not on many other things. Thankfully, we both seem to be of the type where we can sit and argue passionately, but then put it aside and go back to normal after. I don't know anybody who likes being contradicted, but I do like how it forces me to confirm my beliefs, to back up my statistics and facts, to be more precise in my thoughts and words, and to overall confirm (positive and negative both) what I think.
I do have to say how frustrating certain key beliefs that underlie his arguments leave me when arguing. We both have the ideal of fairness, but what that looks like is so very different on such a basic level that I really don't know how to argue why it's wrong. The argument tonight came down to his belief that people who make more money need to pay more, on a percentage scale, than those who make less. I am poor as shit, but I vehemently reject the notion that just because someone made a million dollars more than me, that I should pay only like 10% taxes, but that person should pay more even than 40% taxes? How is it fair, or just, that because someone is more successful that they need to be penalized for it? Yes, people who make more should probably give more, to charity, or the community, or whatever, but that's on them; it is simply not right to steal from them. Wealth is not inherently evil, nor is it good. It simply is. But to assign some sort of moral to one person having more than another, and forcing them to give what they have to others is wrong. Period.
Even if someone is wealthy due to greed or some underhanded means, so what? Two wrongs do not make a right. A person with $10 and a person with $100 aren't different, nor should they be treated so. It's so, so...childish. Like a child screaming "MINE!" when someone has something they don't have, but want. I can't think of anything more unfair than if I did more chores than my brother, got more money, then had the extra taken away because it wasn't "fair" that we were different. Bah.
I do have to say how frustrating certain key beliefs that underlie his arguments leave me when arguing. We both have the ideal of fairness, but what that looks like is so very different on such a basic level that I really don't know how to argue why it's wrong. The argument tonight came down to his belief that people who make more money need to pay more, on a percentage scale, than those who make less. I am poor as shit, but I vehemently reject the notion that just because someone made a million dollars more than me, that I should pay only like 10% taxes, but that person should pay more even than 40% taxes? How is it fair, or just, that because someone is more successful that they need to be penalized for it? Yes, people who make more should probably give more, to charity, or the community, or whatever, but that's on them; it is simply not right to steal from them. Wealth is not inherently evil, nor is it good. It simply is. But to assign some sort of moral to one person having more than another, and forcing them to give what they have to others is wrong. Period.
Even if someone is wealthy due to greed or some underhanded means, so what? Two wrongs do not make a right. A person with $10 and a person with $100 aren't different, nor should they be treated so. It's so, so...childish. Like a child screaming "MINE!" when someone has something they don't have, but want. I can't think of anything more unfair than if I did more chores than my brother, got more money, then had the extra taken away because it wasn't "fair" that we were different. Bah.
