What is “Politics of envy”?

[popegregory]

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.

[popegregory]

ellroy said:

If it’s not envy why would you give a flying fk 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.

[popegregory]

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.

[popegregory]

Teddy Lop said:

OP look up "zero sum thinking", the idea that anothers loss is automatically your gain, it's a corrosive mindset the permeates deeper than economics.

Thanks, that’s one of those seemingly obvious things that’s interesting to read into a bit more

[popegregory]

Hol said:

the pub analogy

Isn’t the key point here that the pub took £20 less in the first place and therefore had to close - fortunately the richest guy was in a private members club so could go and use that instead?

[popegregory]

Hol said:

popegregory said:

Hol said:

the pub analogy

Isn’t the key point here that the pub took £20 less in the first place and therefore had to close - fortunately the richest guy was in a private members club so could go and use that instead?

Maybe.

But they were all entitled (the word of the day) to an equally sized beer whilst it was still open.
In the version I copied from, the strapline was that he went abroad and took his income with him.

Irrespective of the strapline the point it makes is that things only went wrong when the people paying less or no tax, became envious of the savings made by people who still supporting them and others, by paying more tax overall.

The thread title is:

What is “Politics of envy”?

That’s fair enough

[popegregory]

Isn’t the underlying issue true though that a lot of the envy stems not from some having things that others do not, but from some having opportunities provided that others did not; thus making it impossible for them to get these things?

[popegregory]

Could I now argue the “double tax” argument regarding inheritance tax. How can it be income that has been taxed twice if it’s the first time the beneficiary has received it...?