[quote=paramount][quote=briansd1]Not to say that there wasn’t waste, but at least government spending on salaries and pensions went to millions of ordinary people so their lives could be more enjoyable. [/quote]
Is this a sarcastic comment? All that spending on salaries and pensions has to come from somewhere.
And I’ll tell you where it comes from: people who produce.
For their lives to become more enjoyable someone else’s had to become inordinately less enjoyable.[/quote]
All of the wealth amassed by the very rich comes from somewhere as well — it comes from workers, customers, and others who are captive to the financial system that is created by and for those with tremendous wealth.
At least if the money goes to the many, it will be cycled back through the economy without any debt offset; whereas when it goes to the very wealthy who tend to “invest” this money rather than spend it into the economy (no guarantee these “investments” are spent here, or that they benefit our society in any way), they not only expect to get that money back, then intend to get it back *with interest* that also comes from productive people.
There is no way you can argue that putting money into the hands of a concentrated few is better than putting it into the hands of the many — who tend to be far more productive than the very wealthy.
There is no correlation between great wealth and productivity. The very wealthy tend to insert themselves in the middle of other, legitimate transactions and skim a portion from each of those transactions.
