Don't Look Down

[Seeking Hobbes]

... or why the poor like taxing the rich less than you would think.

An interesting article from the Economist...

Economics focus: Don't Look Down

 

[Mulligan]

... or why the poor like taxing the rich less than you would think.

An interesting article from the Economist...

Economics focus: Don't Look Down

Doesn't surprise me at all. I don't think the working poor, middle class, or rich are really that different in they generally don't want other people's money, they just don't want people getting something for nothing without having to do honest work for it. Of course I'm speaking in generalities and excluding the Madoff's , thieves, and lazy bums of the country

 

[plex]

Bad title, it isn't related to the article and hints at a politically charged topic. But, an interesting article, last place aversion makes sense to me.

 

[chinaco]

I thought it was a good article.

It brings to the surface some of the real reasons people (Americans) get upset about the topic.

But I think some of the racial and ethnic links are not so much the reason now days.... at least for most people. It was more so in the past perhaps

Americans, in general, disdain anyone they think is freeloading.... especially if they think they are paying for it. (talking hand out.... not hand up).

But the immigrant link was over done. And the comparison to Europe was a little off (by way of comparison).

America never had kings (monarchs), noble class, feudal systems where there are a very few extremely wealthy and all powerful people and many others were serfs or served at the pleasure of a few.

(unless of course you work for a fortune 500 company )

Europeans and their systems evolved from a different starting point. They come from a system where wealth and power was often not acquired through some level of effort.... but inherited and sometimes passed along across centuries... a caste system.


I believe their system is heavily influenced by, what they believe, was a past gross imbalance of power and wealth with no chance of escaping it.

 

[Huston55]

Good article. I believe in last place aversion. I've seen it with mine and my wife's friends and families, who are mostly living in small towns. They Are people of modest means and frequently point out the little (and I mean very little) things that make them "better" than the next person, also of modest means.

You also see this mechanism in the corporate world. I work for a megacorp, and our HR folks are always quick to point out (in private) that employees actually care as much, or more, about how much they make compared to peers versus how much they make period.

 

[old woman]

Not just money but personal issues too.

At my grandmother's funeral I was thanking my cousin's wife for taking care of here when nobody else could. She said she didn't mind doing it but grandma always told her she was fat. I told her grandma had to be better than her at something. Grandma was 82lbs and 96 years old when she went to assisted living. She saw the young women with a husband and two kids and needed to see herself as better so she picked on her weight. I told cousin's wife that and she said she hadn't thought of that but we all need to be better than others in some ways.