The third Republican debate yet again turned into a dramatic forum, where the candidates took the opportunity to take stabs at each other rather than focusing on issues, often incorporating their morally driven rhetoric. One of the moral issues that rose to the top was fairness and what fairness really means to the rich and the poor. The Republicans believe essentially that we need to treat the wealthy and the poor equally in order to ensure the American dream. The American dream is the idea that everyone has the ability to achieve prosperity and success no matter their starting point in society. Whether you start from a rich family where college is a given or the slums with little education, according to the Republican version of the American dream, we all have an equal opportunity to succeed as American citizens. It makes sense that fairness would be a large moral foundation theme as fairness is viewed by Republicans in a much more “every man for himself” manner as opposed to Democrats who believe that the gap between wealthy and poor has to be closed and the wealthy need to pay through taxes to change this system.
Fairness as a moral foundation was addressed in a debate about our country’s taxation code/policies. Carly Florina’s idea of fair taxation policies is simplifying the tax code in order to level the playing fields between people who can not afford accountants to assist them with the taxes and America’s wealthy populous for whom accountants are a given. As Carly stated, "Three pages is about the maximum that a single business owner or a farmer or just a couple can understand without hiring someone." She didn’t address what is fair taxation at all levels. Ted Cruz supports a flat tax of 10% for every citizen regardless of their income which places more burden on lower income citizens and lets richer ones off the hook. Both candidates had different ideas but a similar moral foundation to one another as they had no interest in redistributing wealth in this country. What’s interesting is both parties use the word fair to describe most taxation systems that they see to be ideal. While both are strongly rooted in moral foundations, the conservative and liberal parties have completely separate ideas of what fairness entails for the American people.
Fairness as a moral foundation was addressed in a debate about our country’s taxation code/policies. Carly Florina’s idea of fair taxation policies is simplifying the tax code in order to level the playing fields between people who can not afford accountants to assist them with the taxes and America’s wealthy populous for whom accountants are a given. As Carly stated, "Three pages is about the maximum that a single business owner or a farmer or just a couple can understand without hiring someone." She didn’t address what is fair taxation at all levels. Ted Cruz supports a flat tax of 10% for every citizen regardless of their income which places more burden on lower income citizens and lets richer ones off the hook. Both candidates had different ideas but a similar moral foundation to one another as they had no interest in redistributing wealth in this country. What’s interesting is both parties use the word fair to describe most taxation systems that they see to be ideal. While both are strongly rooted in moral foundations, the conservative and liberal parties have completely separate ideas of what fairness entails for the American people.