Individual Responsibility is acceptable, but there also needs to be Social Responsibility.
If people are not paid living wages, they end up needing government assistance. That means taxpayer funds are subsidizing wages. And that is corporate welfare.
Infrastructure is a Social Responsibility.
Companies don't like paying an equal portion of Social Security because they think it is their money. In reality, it is the cost of employing someone. Social Security taxes are 12.4%, whether paid by the self-employed or by splitting costs between employees and employers. Splitting means employees have other taxes taken only on half the 12.4%. Do you think if companies did not have to pay ½, employees' pay would increase so they could pay the 12.4%?
How about universal healthcare? The US system is third-world and profit-driven. A deductible of $6,000? 20-50% co-pays? How many have insurance they can't afford to use? Single-payer is not socializing healthcare. Hospitals, clinics, and labs wouldn't be nationalized. It's like car insurance—spreading the costs by having a bigger pool paying in.
40 years of trickle-down and a refusal to adjust rates have left Social Security with a 10-year solvency instead of 75 years. It's a manufactured crisis.
Greed—the refusal of people to give employees any of the rewards for productivity increases. It's class warfare on the middle- and lower-classes by the wealthy and their corporations.
People are not asking to take money out of your pockets. They are asking for their fair share up front so they don't have to beg for assistance.
