What is “Politics of envy”?
Discussion
Please excuse my confusion but it’s pretty much that. This phrase gets thrown around quite freely and I’m not sure what it is supposed to describe. Is it just taxing the rich? They’ve got high salaries; whack the top tax rate up in the name of fairness, I see how it’s called that. But how does that Westminster boy just get to inherit £9bn and others be told that opposing this is just envy? Does it relate to people arguing for equality of outcome rather than opportunity? Be interested to hear people’s interpretations of the idea.
I can't afford the top luxury/opulence, therefore out of principle.....Others shouldn't as well. Therefore, MP, tax 'them' hard to level it out and bring 'me' up to closer their level, in the name of equality. No one needs a £150k car, so force 'them' to only afford a £100k car and hand out that tax'd £50k to me & others like me. Use taxes to do it, I'll vote for you if you do.
Layman's terms?
Layman's terms?
Edited by Andeh1 on Thursday 25th April 21:18
ellroy said:
If it’s not envy why would you give a flying f
k what someone else inherited?
Whilst I want to answer this by suggesting it’s entirely reasonable to be questioning why someone gets to be given a title and a £9bn estate, I do appreciate you’ve probably actually provided the answer and the further justification of such a viewpoint is a different question. k what someone else inherited?Johnnytheboy said:
I guess it's encapsulated in that great bar chart (someone help me out please) that showed Labour voters wanted a 50p top rate of tax brought in, even if it didn't actually raise any extra revenue.
Except the evidence you are claiming exists doesn't actually exist.Envy and resentment politics is much of Labour's output (the left and especially the far left), whereby they highlight a group of people, but won't usually be specific, eg. "the rich" so as to engender envious thoughts of anyone who has more than me; to 'solve' it, they need dragging down to my level and Labour will promise to do that. However, instead of envy politics, the opposite is to strive to bring people up by lowering taxes and creating opportunities (traditionally the Conservative way), rather than dragging down the successful. So, envy politics is seeking to drag people down.
So is it supposed to be used to dismiss the case of someone with no viable policy idea other than “take things off those with more than me”. Because coming back to the earlier idea of the Duke of Westminster; when you hear it used as a pejorative phrase by the multi-million pound trust fund brigade to dismiss people questioning seemingly entrenched inequality, it starts to lose effectiveness in my eyes.
Integroo said:
Johnnytheboy said:
I guess it's encapsulated in that great bar chart (someone help me out please) that showed Labour voters wanted a 50p top rate of tax brought in, even if it didn't actually raise any extra revenue.
Except the evidence you are claiming exists doesn't actually exist.Integroo said:
Johnnytheboy said:
I guess it's encapsulated in that great bar chart (someone help me out please) that showed Labour voters wanted a 50p top rate of tax brought in, even if it didn't actually raise any extra revenue.
Except the evidence you are claiming exists doesn't actually exist.
ETA : Curiously, Google searches yielded nothing but the above image appeared on page 1 of a DuckDuckGo search. With the same series of search parameters.........
Make of that what you will, I suppose
Edited by cherryowen on Thursday 25th April 23:07
cymatty said:
The evidence that a 50p tax rate wouldn't increase tax take.Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff