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Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

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Re: Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

#51
post #23
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are ways to making this work. Sadly, none applies to dollar. One solution. Make dollars worthless, unless they have been stamped with a stamp, for the current month. Basically force people to pay taxes on money. Say you have to pay 10% of the value. Got 2bil, congrats. You are paying $200 million each month.

A simpler way would be to print more money and cause more inflation. 10% wealth destruction per month matches the hyper inflation of Germany in the 20s.Of course the rich who store their assets in non liquid form weren't as affected as the poor who didn't know how to pay for bread.

No, that won't lead to inflation. Quite opposite, it would lead to deflation, since you have same material value, represented by a lower number of bonds/money.

The value of money, each month would go up, and printing money could be use to counter act the deflation, creating a stable currency.

Keep in mind that if you use your money before it expires each month, you get more value than if you just sit on it.

Re: Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

#52

In the past few weeks the idea of 'legitimatizing violence' has been circulating heavily. On my Facebook feed most of it has centered on the idea that it is "okay" to punch neo-nazis now. The people saying this are people I'd never expect to. Twitter is similar. I wish I had stats on whether the legitimatization meme is really rising. To me, it looks like the fake news meme. Suddenly it's everywhere.

Culturally, Americans have chosen "Nazis" and zombies as default groups on which we can assert violence without questioning our moral values or their expression. While Richard Spencer is even saying in that clip that he isn't a Neo Nazi (before getting punched) - a great deal of the American population don't draw the lines as finely as he might. He's certainly said some things that put him in that world of thought. I…

Are you seriously sympathizing with a man who called for an American ethnic cleansing?

Re: Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

#53
post #48
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is another way, without issuing money. Create a new currency, dedicated for paying UBI to people. Then require that companies pay part of their taxes in this currency, in order to make it valuable. It should cycle itself back and there would be no need to issue new UBI money. The deeper problem is that companies have a conflict of short term / long term interest. In the short term, they would prefer to sell the…

I see this repeated all the time but I consider it to be completely wrong. It is always in my interest to keep $X rather than give it to someone else. Even if they use the $X to buy my product, that's still less favorable for me than to just keep it and not sell the product. And the chance that they would buy my product with that money is almost zero anyway. Giving people money in hopes that they will buy your produc…

Companies are benefiting from paying less salary and thus not supporting society, but in tern, expecting the same society to buy their products.

Population was already reliant on salary, which was a part of the cost of production. It won't change much, just that now it is redistributed more.

Re: Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

#54
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how communism was supposed to work, and the guys in charge of redistribution took the lion's share for themselves.

There are ways to making this work. Sadly, none applies to dollar. One solution. Make dollars worthless, unless they have been stamped with a stamp, for the current month. Basically force people to pay taxes on money. Say you have to pay 10% of the value. Got 2bil, congrats. You are paying $200 million each month.

This childish understanding of economy and prosperity would be funnier if authoritarian regimes wouldn't try them on a regular basis. They find out that cash holders don't use it to fill their bathtub but run their business.

Re: Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

#55
post #6

Louis Chauvel, a french sociology professor, made a similar argument using a Prey-Predatory model with trade union membership and income inequality over the last 100 years : "This article shows empirically how trade union membership and income inequality are mutually related in twelve countries over more than 100 years. While past research has shown that high income inequality occurs alongside low trade union members…

I think this is really interesting, especially as how it has played out in recent years - right up to the last few months - in the UK. I used to know a guy who worked for a trade union who was bemoaning its demise. In 1997 when Labour came to power in the UK for the first time in nearly 20 years, they strengthened employment laws so well, the need for trade union was perceived as lesser by much of the membership. Thi…

Asserting that Brexit voting is based on immigration dismisses a whole swathe of arguments in favour of an exit from the EU. I certainly didn't consider immigration policy as a reason for my exit vote.

Re: Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

#57
post #8

How about we take away everything down to 10^6$ from the 0.0001% richest and redistribute it to everyone. We repeat this with the 0.0001% of the richest every year from there on. Every time someone is chosen for this honour they get a medal.

Imagine for a moment you are a driven, self-made .00001%er. If you KNEW your profits were taken at the top, would you work hard and innovate? Or would you commit fraud and squirrel away your wealth or not bother. Im sure a few would see it as a 'goal', but stakeholders would doubtlessly disagree. The spirit, I agree with, but not possible to cleanly implement.

There is no amount of work a human being could do that justifies the wealth that is in the hands of people like Zuckerberg and Warren Buffet. They seem like decent enough people, but they have an obscene amount of wealth and power.

Re: Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

#58
post #54
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are ways to making this work. Sadly, none applies to dollar. One solution. Make dollars worthless, unless they have been stamped with a stamp, for the current month. Basically force people to pay taxes on money. Say you have to pay 10% of the value. Got 2bil, congrats. You are paying $200 million each month.

This childish understanding of economy and prosperity would be funnier if authoritarian regimes wouldn't try them on a regular basis. They find out that cash holders don't use it to fill their bathtub but run their business.

[deleted]

Re: Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

#59
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a bomb destroys a building, to whom is the value of the building redistributed to?

Skanska? But in all seriousness I would look at multi-national companies and industries "selling shovels" that benefit for rebuilding both sides of war.

Contrast the sale of a car to the sale of a bomb: in the first case, both parties are clearly better off. In the second case, some people would argue that the commons is better off by funding a public good (national defense).

If the sold weaponry is not increasing security for the public, or even decreasing it, wealth is destroyed. It's like buying a car and burning it on the spot.

Re: Stanford historian uncovers a grim correlation between violence and inequality

#60
post #6

Louis Chauvel, a french sociology professor, made a similar argument using a Prey-Predatory model with trade union membership and income inequality over the last 100 years : "This article shows empirically how trade union membership and income inequality are mutually related in twelve countries over more than 100 years. While past research has shown that high income inequality occurs alongside low trade union members…

I think this is really interesting, especially as how it has played out in recent years - right up to the last few months - in the UK. I used to know a guy who worked for a trade union who was bemoaning its demise. In 1997 when Labour came to power in the UK for the first time in nearly 20 years, they strengthened employment laws so well, the need for trade union was perceived as lesser by much of the membership. Thi…

Funny how austerity measures f everything up. let them eat cake!
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