Not Yours to Give

[SwissMercenary]

Now lets add Bob to the mix. He doesn't like to work and has no education. So the government gives him 15 apples. Where does this leave Joe? Hes working 40+ hours a week to make ends meet, and Bob (who also has trouble making ends meet) gets to sleep in every day and enjoy his favorite hobbies instead of working. Sure he could get a job, but he would probably only make 15-20 apples and he would lose the free ones from the government, so he just collects the free ones and slides by.

I think I've outlined the part wherein living purely on the dole should leave you with only enough to keep your body temperature about 36.7 degrees. State shelters, pots of slop, etc. Joe with his 20-5=15 apples should still be better off then Bob, if we only provide him with 7. After all, if the government were to act as the middle man in the distribution of welfare, then, theoretically, it could keep Bob up for less money then it would cost to pay Joe's rent. To put it simply, state-ran shelters should be cheaper to operate, per person, then the cost of private rental units, as there's no middle-men to take a cut. That's of course, assuming the government is fiscally responsible.

Joe works 40/week, and gets enough to rent a place, and feed himself on his remaining 15 apples. Bob, on the other hand, should only get a bunk, and a 6x8 foot room for the night, while sitting on welfare. Enough to keep him going, but not preferable to Joe's situation.

You are attacking the flaws in the current welfare system. You are right to do so. The system is flawed. However, the optimal solution would not be to toss the entire system out, but rather cut it down to size.

Also just because someone can afford to give up 50 apples, why should they?

Because like it or not, we all need the apples to keep the country running, and higher taxes for higher income brackets cause less relative harm to that minority people, then equalised taxes across the board would to a much larger group.

They went to school, got an education, and worked to earn those (entertainment industry would be the exception).

And the 100 apple guy who is taxed for half of them will still be bringing home more then the guy with 60 apples, who is taxed for 24 of them. There's incentive to work, and there's icentive to do more valuable work.