Chriskmee

Others aren't using taxes on wealth though. Should the middle class be taxed on the amount in their retirement funds also? Or the amount in their bank accounts?

10% of Amazon is still a lot, it's still a lot of power.

You think Amazon doesn't pay for any of that? They pay for their use of such things like we all do. They do get some discounts thanks to scale, but they are paying way more than you or me.

If employees are treated so poorly they would leave, it's not like we force people to keep their job. If you prefer to pay more, it's your choice to buy from smaller companies.

So everything is free and we just trust people will put in their fair share?

I don't think the government would ban the practice, since the middle class uses the same thing for stuff like reverse mortgages. I can see them limiting the amount though.

If they did ban it though, billionaires would still be billionaires, they probably don't need much of an actual salary when most of their stuff is paid for.

Maybe a workplace and a government are different and shouldn't be run the same way? Just a thought.

Ummm... most companies are like that, it's very rare to have no startup costs and profits immediately. I would hate to think the options we would be stuck with if food and drinks were only what the government decided to support.

Is it someone you knew or just a random person off the street?

I'm not licking any boots either. Are you projecting your desires onto me or something?

The owner at the very least risked a lot of time and money to get the business going, and it would have been a while before they hired someone else to do the job. It's not like they just sat back and did nothing.

The owner took on 100x+ the risk any employee is, should they not get rewarded for taking that risk?

I mean, co-ops and governments all over the world already do it, so yes, I don't see why it would suddenly stop working.

On a very small scale they sometimes work, when they get larger scale they usually have a CEO and upper management like any other business. In the end it's really not that different. Look at REI for example, it's a co-op, has a CEO, and at least in my area has pretty average pay and benefits. They have laid off people recently due to profit concerns, and have ok ratings on job sites. What is the advantage to these exactly?

These ideas not untested, however - many countries implement some component of worker ownership and state planning into their economy at all kinds of different scales

Can you give me the best example of a current city, country, or whatever that is closest to what you think is best for the US to change to?

I hope you can realize this is a false equivalency, but maybe you can't?

So it doesn't matter to you that you had to spend millions on startup costs, and that the business probably won't make money for a year or two, you keep that all to yourself, continue to pay employees, and give employees equal ownership?

Yeah, let me know how that works out for you.

So in the moral system you're proposing, it would be an offense to use those buildings without their owner's permission. The fact that people denied access to those buildings will die as a result, though, is just a part of nature

Well, yes. Do you donate every least penny you have to the homeless, since it would save lives? Or do you instead spend your money on luxuries for yourself? There are right and wrong ways to go about helping people like the homeless, stealing and ruining property isn't one of those ways.

So, why would you expect a perspective which values property more than people to stir anyone's moral feeling? If you don't expect that, then why are you bothering to frame it in terms of right and wrong?

I assume you have some property, right? If you are an adult you are probably at least renting an apartment and have some basic stuff like a TV. Why don't you let a homeless person sleep on your couch every night? If you don't have your own place yet, would you allow some random homeless person access to your couch for free every night?

It's much easier when it isn't your property in question, but when it's your place you might start to care about random people living rent free in your place.