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Billionaires are Immoral Debate

March 3, 2020
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Billionaires are Immoral Debate

Be it resolved, a society that allows billionaires to exist is immoral

Income inequality in the US is at an all-time high. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett now own as much wealth as the bottom half of all US households combined. Bernie Sanders and his growing political movement believe that billionaires should be taxed out of existence. That the uber-rich are part of a new oligarchical system that grows its wealth at the expense of everyone else and which wields too much power over politics and democratic institutions.

Defenders of billionaires argue that penalizing the wealthy is bad public policy – the super rich are innovators and wealth creators who produce widespread employment and economic growth. Billionaires are also living proof that the long-cherished American dream is alive and well. We need to reward entrepreneurial vision and drive, and not demonize the rich.

“Billionaires are a product of a society that has given a tremendous power and wealth to a few while giving declining shares of this great socially-created wealth to many.”

– BHASKAR SUNKARA

“If you want to have more opportunities for your children, if you want higher standards of living, it’s going to come from a dynamic, capitalist economy where people innovate, partially, because they can become rich.”

– JAMES PETHOKOUKIS

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