Is It Moral to Punish the 1%? Alex Epstein Visits Orange County.

[Taylorhoogie]

Obviously the occupy crowd is not well educated, if they were educated they would be working instead of camping. That being said, this is like a high-schooler debating a toddler. It simply is neither impressive nor difficult to debate someone who is not well-educated. Debate someone intelligent and well-informed over taxation issues and maybe a more constructive argument will take place.

[clemonsx90]

Excellent

[grantsinmypants2]

I'm 4 minutes into this.... do I really have to watch all 13 before I laugh at the curly haired guy?

[TenaciouslyWinning]

Dear Alex,

Please run for office.

[TenaciouslyWinning]

I think we should actually establish a totalitarian government; just for the purposes of extinguishing these types of leeching ignorant morons.

[ayeck2k9]

Wait so they're against Apple for the child labor and all that hoopla, yet the guy with the flag has an iPAD?

[Cogitatio023]

I wish that girl would shut up. She has nothing of importance to say.

[InternetPeacemaker]

I think the kid would have come up with a proper answer if he was given time to prepair. Remember, you're the one asking the questions, that's the easy part. I leave this video thinking there is some truth in that income disparity in our world is too big, the kid has a perfect right to say so, dispite him having a hard time to answer the questions. Here in Holland the income taxes are up to 52% for our elites, the highest in Europe I believe.

[jackieblum14]

I have never been able to get someone with this man's viewpoint to properly address this question: Are human rights dependent on how much money you make? Do they diminish as you make more money or are they constant principles?

[InternetPeacemaker]

@jackieblum14 Let me try. I´m no socialist, but ill give it a shot. There are human right and human rights. I think there´s a distinction to be made between higher taxes and taking away someone´s human rights. Human rights where set up so people could survive, that the environement would be made less harsh through laws that protect them. There´s no question about Steve Jobs surviving if you tax him a lot. Identifying higher income taxes for the rich with human rights violation..they are seperate

[normativeRandroid]

@4:10 excellent point Alex. All force used against innocent individ is evil

[TeenageCapitalist]

You can see that guy just start to crack when Alex ensures he knows that taking 70% of someone's income is pointing a gun at their head and demanding that they work two out of every three days for you. The truth hurts. Especially these educationally doped up socialists.  Generations of mental obliteration is finally paying off methinks. Good thing people like Alex are here to stop it.

[normativeRandroid]

@12:00 Communism is not good on paper. It is evil on principle and as a result evil in practice. Capitalism is good on principle and good in practice. Watching these videos I've noticed a serious lack of history comprehension.

[scepticsteve]

You CAN tax the rich with the tax rates before Reagan, but even if you are a crazy socialist you don't want to. Reagan's tax policy lead to MORE revenue from the top tax brackets than before because the growth of the economy more then compensated for the lower marginal rates. The revenue percentages got more progressive.

Top tax rate 1981: 70%, '88: 28%

% revenue of top 10% earners 1981: 48% (!!! alrdy progressive), '88: 57%!!!!

It's like solar panels, leftists offer an ideological non-solution

[scepticsteve]

Look closely into that argument. You don't necessarily make a profit because you serve others by providing something valuable to them. Therefore ALL people with high income should be punished. Some people a murderers. Should therefore ALL people go to prison for not playing by the rules?

It's an inherent fascist attitude to punish profits just because they are there.

Being for "social justice", i.e. injust treatment of people who are "lucky" or "productive" or "talented" you must be a fascist.

[TheRationalAnimal1]

Very well articulated Alex. It's amusing that the person you were debating with continually used examples of a foreign communist market to demonstrate the evil's of American Capitalism.

[mkloppel]

HAHA! "Take care of the little guys, Steve jobs can take care of himself."

IE. Don't be productive or else what was once a right now becomes some "little guys" entitlement.

Also, if you think the progressive era was a "capitalist dream" your either ignorant or lying to yourself. Last I checked we just got the 16th amendment, Prohibition, the federal reserve, trust busting was still in vague, labor was making disgusting strides defining a fake distinction between the employee/employer...

[TeenageCapitalist]

Wow. It's amazing what actually understanding your statements can do to help an argument.

[anti0918]

The one dislike was Jason Garshfield.

[GooeytheBlueBlob]

You have such great patience, being able to explain the same thing over three times to that kid. Some people are just hopeless.

Great work. Thank you.

[StudentOfObjectivism]

That kid you're talking to is a jerk. He also looks very shifty... like he is finding his evasion uncomfortable.

[TheRationalAnimal1]

@StudentOfObjectivism He is finding his evasions uncomfortable, which is a completely natural occurrence. Most do not enjoy being faced with the logical refutation of their entire system of beliefs. I wouldn't label him a jerk but would fittingly call him a fool who could use a history, economics and philosophy lesson.

[WarVideo]

When you get into a debate you should probably ask the people to walk away from the music before you start talking to them. How can anybody think with all that god damn noise?