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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

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Violence has historically been the only way for racial change to occur.

Because Martin Luther King Jr. was such a large proponent of violence...

And Gandhi

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

#132
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

". The perception by many is that immigration was causing a drag down on wages, but all the data suggests in fact immigration is net benefit to a population". That statement is the old switcheroo. In summary, the perception of many is correct and they care less about the fact that immigrants tend to, e.g., raise GDP, than the fact that they are depressing wages for people like them.

So in summary, people would rather vote to make their country poorer, than vote for their fair share of its wealth.

Nobody cares about a country's wealth -- people care about their own. See Adam Smith.

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

#133
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you are old enough to remember that far leftist ideological organizations were often violent up until the last quarter of the 20th century. This period of peacefulness is a recent phenomenon. One of the big pacifiers of democracy is that people accept the result because the majority voted for it. When you have a situation when 46% of the population is pushing an agenda that at least 48% of the population…

>at least 48% of the population is strongly against Where did you get that number from? Hillary Clinton got 65.8 Million votes. That represents 20.6% of the United states population. >That group often starts to look for alternative ways to flex its majority power. See above. They were the majority of voters but they defintely don't represent the majority of the US.

Since this thread is going a bit off topic I figured I would share a link from your friendly neighbors to the north it relates to your two party system and is from a great canadian leader we had a long time ago, who brought us our version of obama care.. It's the story of mouseland.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://...

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

#134
post #32
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…

Here's another reason for unions to become defunct over time, as explained by Steve Bruce in his book Sociology: A Very Short Introduction. "Any kind of group activity requires organization. But as soon as one starts to organize one creates a division within the movement between the organized and the organizers, between ordinary members and officials. The latter quickly acquire knowledge and expertise that set them a…

Funny you mention that quote. I'm half way through Jefferson Cowie's bestseller about the demise of the American working class starting in the 1970s [http://fave.co/2j8L5pI] and the first part of the book recounts the struggle of young west virginian coal miners against the entrenched, oppressive, borderline-criminal leadership of their union. At some point in time certain unions started to operate as political machines and the incentives of members and leaders did seem to substantially diverge. It's interesting to think about how organized labor has evolved across different sectors (physical labor, knowledge workers like teachers, Government workers, law/medicine) through this perspective of divergent incentives.

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

#135
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…

Trump isn't even close to being a billionaire. His son in law is, though.

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

#136
post #99
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, there would need to be other methods to deal with super rich, although they'd just escape jurisdiction into other states. I don't think poor/middle class would be that badly affected. With money taxed, you have a lot of incentive to give that money away, to avoid paying cost.

You have an incentive to exchange dollar bills for some other form of assets. This is easier for the rich, and richer people tend to hold a lower percentage of their wealth in cash. So the system you propose is regressive; it is actually less redistributive than some kind of flat tax. The idea is just incredibly stupid as a way to redistribute wealth.

Well, it did prove itself as a prototype once:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freigeld

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%B6rgl#The_W.C3.B6rgl_Expe...

Government still gets to redistribute whatever taxes it accrues.

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

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So in summary, people would rather vote to make their country poorer, than vote for their fair share of its wealth.

Nobody cares about a country's wealth -- people care about their own. See Adam Smith.

Yes, Smith's The Wealth of Individuals is a must-read

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

#139
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is essentially a loophole and there must be a way to close it. Maybe it's naive to think its as simple as being slightly more verbose: "Salary tied to lowest paid employee or contractor"

Well technically running separate businesses for each salary tier would still get around it. The CEO's pay would be the combination of all of the individual CEO salaries that they would be doing. Also cleaning and administration services wouldn't be contractors, but services bought from another company. So that wouldn't count either.

Point of interest: sometimes technical people forget that the law doesn't work the way that computers do.

If you close all reasonable loopholes and make your intent clear when you write the law, a judge (at least here in the US, I know the UK has a slightly different system) is not going to say "Oh, that's undefined behavior, you get a free pass."

He or she is going to say "That's undefined behavior, but you're trying to circumvent what was clearly the intent of the law. Bring yourself into compliance or face further penalties."

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

#140

I love reading the comments on stories like this and consider these comments to be a bellwether as to the current state of inequality in our society. Unfortunately I tend to consider myself one who exists on the lower part of the wealth distribution logarithm within the western world, globally it's a different story. Just as anyone tweeting on their smart phone or tablet claiming to be part of the 99% might want to r…

The rise in terror is not caused by radical religious zealots. It's caused by bombs raining down everyday on your life from foreign occupation.

This is just as simplistic - and wrong - a view as the one you're opposing.
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