Still in capitalism it is very very hard (if not impossible without a great deal of luck) to get much higher when you start at the bottom. And the people that are a the top today have probably never even seen the bottom. A common concept in capitalism; the poor stay poor and the rich get richer.
The people that complain they're paying for the poor have never really understood the concept of socialism. The idea of it is that everyone is equal, no matter what. I can't see what's wrong with that really, so I don't understand why there is so much anti-socialism here. While I don't believe in 100% state-controlled business and therefore am not a full socialist, I do believe that it is the task and duty of the government to keep things equal. Impose taxes on the rich, and help the poor with the money gained from those taxes. It is a very social thing to do, hence the name. A saying which could be the whole basis of socialism goes as follows:
'De sterkste schouders zullen de zwaarste lasten moeten dragen.'
(The strongest shoulders will carry the heaviest loads)
Just a few weeks ago there was a big scandal here as it became known that the directors of NUON and Essent (electricity companies) were making over €800 000 a year, even more than the prime minister. In that case I would say, true to socialism, that they hand out over 50% of that, and that it be used to help people who are unemployed, unable to work or in other problematic situations. I'm sure that if someone makes such a large sum of money they can survive with less than half of it. People can survive with €10 000 a year, so I'm sure €400 000 won't be a problem.
Socialism does not inherently believe in a privilege to certain groups. As the whole concept of socialism is equal rights, chances and pay, there should be no real 'groups'. The Netherlands is one of the most tolerant countries in the world, and even then it gets abused by people who feel like stirring up trouble. I believe that if everyone would be smart enough to just stick to the rules and be nice, share, do as much as you can for society, there would be no problems at all. Unfortunately it is sad that it is usually political and religious extremists that mess it up. But I do not make any distinction between these groups, I consider them all a bunch of idiots.
Another sad thing is that it is always certain people that mess it up for a much larger group. Extremist muslims in Afghanistan, Iran and Palestine attract attention, and suddenly everyone thinks that Islam is evil. Even ACK said it, so that proves my point. But there is a big difference between the Qur'an's islam and the islam of modern day muslims. ACK quoted some sentences from the Qur'an, which I unfortunately can't verify since I lack a copy of the book myself, in which certain aspects come forward that would show the modern islam to be agressive and stupid. However, I would argue that the vast majority of muslims do not follow the Qur'an to the letter. Just like christians do not follow the bible word for word. If they did, then we would still live in the early first millennium, and a post like this would have resulted in getting my head chopped off, getting hung, stoned or crucified by either a muslim or a christian for supporting another religion. Or they would do it if they found out I was an atheist. So we can only be glad that the religion has evolved. America has its own share of extremist christians (see
http://www.mk-magazi...ives/001567.php for a humourous yet frightening example), just like the middle east has its own share of religious fanatics. The only difference is that in one place the fanatics turn militant and in the other they don't. But to use that as an argument that the religion itself is hateful and destructive, in this light would be ignorant, shallow and short-sighted.
This basically sums up what I think of, as a socialist. It seems that there is a lot of misconception regarding the ideology here so I thought I'd explain it a bit more, and I hope this helped.
