Entitlements - what's so bad about them?

I think you oversimplified a little too much. Let me simplify in a different direction and see how you like it.There are those who, out of habit or disposition, feel they should work for a living and pay their own way.There are also those who think someone else should support them. "You owes me!" is a good description for this type. The reasons for the "owes" are many and often meaningless.As I have quoted in my signature, "If I am entitled to something, someone else is obliged to pay"--Jerry Pournelle.Those who are "obliged to pay" might, if the burden placed on them is too great, just give up and join the other side. "Going Galt" is one phrase that describes it.Another way of looking at it is: "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money [to spend]." That was from Margaret Thatcher.As you noted above, "rising tides lift all boats." But falling tides lower all boats and pretty soon they are all sitting in the mud. If you look at the societies who tried to practice extreme forms of socialism or communism, you'll see this. North Korea is a prime example. Just compare with South Korea. Compare East and West Germany.You can only bleed the productive to give to the unproductive to a certain point, and then the productive will say "Hell with it."This is a lesson communists, the more extreme socialists, and other lefties simply can't learn. When they have run societies they have increasingly turned to authoritarian governments in an attempt to get more production from those who could produce, while removing all the incentives for them to do so. Didn't work, and never will.So, your #1 above is totally wrong. It is not "what is given to others implies less for them" but "if you take virtually all I have, why should I keep working?" It is hard to change human nature, although lefties of all stripes have been trying for decades--without success.And, your #2 would be valid if greedy leftists would quit trying to get more from the "golden goose," and work with human nature rather than against it. The progressive income tax is one example. If the tax rate was reduced as people earned more, almost everyone would earn more! The total tax base would be increased overall. People would work to have more income, rather than less. This is an entirely different way of looking at things, and unfortunately lefties simply can't see it.If you want less of something, just tax it. Lefties should learn from this, but they haven't yet and I doubt they ever will.So, go ahead and flame. Flames from lefties are as meaningless as the collective outrage they hurl at anyone who disagrees with them.

With all the comments and all the "likes" to those comments, I am really getting the impression that many of you folks feel you have a right to commandeer assets from anyone you choose "for the public good."Is there no limit to your greed for seizing the assets of others?Are there no limits to the excuses you can come up with to justify seizing the assets of others?But you should ask yourselves, "What happens when there are no more assets to seize?"Your whole system of existence requires someone who is productive from whom you can expropriate wealth. What happens when those productive individuals decide not to play your game any longer? What do you do then?Remember the tale of the Golden Goose?

What I'm missing is the progressive's mindset.I was raised out in the hills, where people tended to take care of themselves. Many who are criticizing me were raised in cities and expect others to take care of them.I believe in working and paying my own way. Many who are criticizing me believe they are entitled to take from me and give to others.And if I simplify these comments it is to make a point. Of course there are shades of gray. But the bottom line is that progressives and other socialists feel that they are justified in expropriating wealth from the productive to give to others--its only fair, they say. But where do they draw the line? Where does their envy--and often outright hatred--of the productive stop?Just look at the comments above. They are going to "allow" the rich to keep a small part of their wealth--those folks don't need it all anyway! What nerve!As I noted above, a rising tide lifts all boats, but that's not what communism and the extreme forms of socialism do. They end up lowering all boats until they are all mired in the mud. Everybody except the rulers is dirt poor.If you make it harder and harder to be productive, what do you think will happen? Human nature kicks in. All the progressives and their wishful thinking can't repeal the laws of human nature, although they try to convince themselves that they can. If you make it too hard to be productive, people will stop being productive. Then from whom will you expropriate the wealth you are so eager to take so you can give it away?