Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
What you're describing is essentially the result of largely unchecked capitalism. More capitalism, or solutions developed within a capitalist ideology are not going to fix it. You may not want to go a "socialist route" but a balance is required, which naturally means the infusion of solutions drawn from socialist ideologies. It's unavoidable.
There is no fix for this otherwise.
You can say this or that is a race to the bottom, but we're racing to the bottom as we speak.
And I would argue that your perception of a consumerist society (daily coffee, new TVs, starter homes, new vehicles) is completely from a point of privilege. The problem isn't the consumerist society, it's... sadly... that large sections of the population no longer have the option to even participate in that consumerist society. I agree that what you mentioned is a problem, but it's a very middle-upper class problem. There are people who work 40+ hours a week and cannot afford any of what you've mentioned. That's the issue.
It also seems like a constant red herring. Older generations seem fixated on consumerism as a key problem holding young people and people with lower incomes back. "Stop buying the new phone every year! Stop with the avocado toast!" It's a sign to me that someone has no clue how people are actually living and the significance of the problems they face. The issue is not that people need to be paid more because they're wasting money on a new phone every year.
Whether the solution is higher taxes across the board (I favour a flat income tax and a high sales tax that fully exempts essentials), increased subsidies, programs like UBI, better housing regulation, or whatever else, the solution is not coming from capitalism, and it is not coming from pulling up your boot straps and minding your spending.
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I think you called me old?
I'm not 50 yet but older than 40 but true enough I do have some older ideas, many of which were inherited from the parents. I was brought up without much (ie: yes I was that kid that had hand-me-down underwear), have travelled a lot and seen true true destitution where people might be "lucky" to live another day. So, to me, I see excess examples of consumerism, wastage, expectations and demands exceed potential to support them. I see far far too many failures where "the man" is to blame instead of personal accountability and self-awareness of immediate and long term decisions. For example, I have "poor" friends whose T4's are near $200k/annual who whine and moan about how they're only freedom-75 plan... yet they travel a lot, regular new cars, kids in many expensive sports that require travel, all kinds of toys, etc... and they actually feel they're hard done by. It's wrong, IMO, to expect the government to be your saviour. It's also wrong to expect any society to tax their way to prosperity, or to take from the richer and give to the poorer like we are headed towards. F that.
That said.. I support your concept of certain tax-exempt items, but lets also throw in consumption-based taxes. Even though I pay a fair bit of tax I do see some value in a graduated taxation too, however enough is enough at some point. Those that pay the least tax may be victims of their situation (earned or inherited or just crap luck) indeed, and that sucks, however it's not reasonable to expect those that scrimped and saved and worked their @$$e$ off to now be penalized.