The thing is that the middle class and those who aren’t poor, think there are the character defects with the poor so they have to be babysat to make sure they aren’t lazy.

I would add here, that what you see above is found with the Earned Income Tax Credit, meaning working poor get additional money from the government to make up shortcomings in what they earn.

the fact that 1% of Americans own 40% of all wealth in the US (according to a Harvard study) is despicable in my mind. There are many barriers to entry for young entrepreneurs impeding their financial independence. Also, autonomous robots are replacing humans in many labor sectors and future trends show that over 70% of all jobs today will be replaced by automation. My issue is thinking about how the wealthy view this scenario and how they will deal with it.

This would only be a band-aid solution. The system needs a complete re-design. An economy that relies on infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is scientifically destined for failure. I don’t know the solution.

The Venus Project suggests a solution, I’m not saying that I agree or disagree, but it is better than anything I could suggest, we will never see it in our lifetime though. This video starts out slow but then hammers you with some cold hard facts.

FreeGhost wrote:

There are many barriers to entry for young entrepreneurs impeding their financial independence.

There are barriers, true – but the SUCCESSFUL entrepreneurs figure out a way to overcome them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacque_Fresco#The_Venus_Project_and_later_career

Human beings are just too unpredictable to be able to end up forecasting properly.

Here is one take on this debate:

The idea of expanding welfare and raising the minimum wage serves two basic purposes:

a. Small businesses will be unable to compete with large corporations once they’re required to double whatever they have budgeted for labor. Thus, the soulless ‘Wal*Mart’ type corporations will successfully have established a full monopoly via the dissolution of any potential local competition.

And b. Many white collar workers who (will most likely have squandered the bulk of their youth attempting to establish a specialized skill in order to escape the despair of menial jobs) will become resentful of the pimply faced fry cook f~~~tards who’ve suddenly acquired a competitive salary after a lifetime of bong rips and hot pockets, and their desire to advance will dissipate. Some of them might even quit their crappy office jobs in order to dawn paper hats themselves. (At least now they can escape occasionally to drown out the monotony of the work with some whip its in the walk-in fridge.)

The “Powers that be” will now have officially accomplished what it is that they’ve always wanted. An unarguably apathetic public that could give a f~~~ less about their own ability, because “what difference does it make?”, zero competition, and a truly impenetrable income gap that allows them to literally make ALL of the decisions that affect the condition of the national economy. F~~~ income equality. Let the rich guys have their riches, and let me have my pathetic dreams. We’ll all be dead soon anyways. A man is happiest when he has goals.