141–150 of 189 posts
If we make more and more of the earth/universe usable for humans and only 'the rich' own these usables, why not?
Eventually, society revolts, and 'the rich' end up owning a place for their head in a basket.
The problem seems that you can ease people into becoming too weak before they realize that they need to do something.
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Globalism was literally a concerted effort to off-shore blue collar work with the expectation that the population of richer countries would become more educated and work in information intensive jobs (also siphoning off value from said off-shored industries). Where it went somewhat awry is that computers and automation have meant that less jobs are actually required in those sectors that we envisioned people having,…
By Fox News politics I mean opposition to stuff like the robust welfare states and strong labour unions you mention.
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So it's OK to fuck over a large portion of your own population because it's trickling down to a poor country? The issue is that nations have a duty to their own citizens, good luck telling an entire generation that they need to make sacrifices for others while the rich keep getting richer.
I'm not sure the rising inequality in the US is really a result of the poor countries getting richer. Lots of other developed countries have traded with the world with much less of that eg. Germany, Scandinavia. It's more a result of the kind of politics Fox News pushes.
It's worth noting that both Scandinavia and Germany are far less economically libertarian than most Americans would palate too
I see people throwing ideas and most of these ideas rely on politicians and/or govt doing something. Is there a non govt or non politician dependent way of solving inequality? facebook connected the world not govt or politicians. Google made knowledge and information available to the whole world not a politician or a govt. (I understand there are down sides to these companies products but so is there to govts/politic…
Inequality is produced by engines of value creation whose fruits accrue more to some than others. The simplest way to reduce it is to break them.
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I'm not sure the rising inequality in the US is really a result of the poor countries getting richer. Lots of other developed countries have traded with the world with much less of that eg. Germany, Scandinavia. It's more a result of the kind of politics Fox News pushes.
Right, and Germany is seeing a rise in populism too so maybe they're also facing similar macro trends... It's worth noting that both Scandinavia and Germany are far less economically libertarian than most Americans would palate too
Also, crime rises/falls depending on economic outcomes for the lower segment of the population. If there's too many immigrants unable to find jobs or integrate, crime rises which can cause discontent.
Then look at how the Romans failed during the time of the Gracci and the US succeeded during the 1930s - 65.
There’s a whole chapter devoted to this in the Durants’ Lessons of History.
I see people throwing ideas and most of these ideas rely on politicians and/or govt doing something. Is there a non govt or non politician dependent way of solving inequality? facebook connected the world not govt or politicians. Google made knowledge and information available to the whole world not a politician or a govt. (I understand there are down sides to these companies products but so is there to govts/politic…
A political solution that doesn’t involve politicians or the government will just create its own politicians and government to sustain it. Look what happened during the American and French revolutions, or the Russian revolution. It always starts out as “we don’t need that” and in the end you simply recreate that.
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You're dying of cancer. How much will you pay doctors / drug company to keep you alive? Is the transaction voluntary? Think carefully what voluntary means. Many, if not most, people, in their daily lives, don't have much volition.
I don’t think the second bit follows from the first. You’ve cherry picked an example of tough circumstances that most people don’t face.
Say your neighbour falls on hard times, and instead of just helping him, you offer to buy some of his land, or his watch, or whatever at a disadvantageous price. Or you lend him money at unfavourable terms.
There are real life businesses that operate today, pawn shops, cheque cashing places, that grow wealthy on the poor.
The way to avoid giving what little wealth we have to the man, means to rely on one's community, but in North America that is being eroded more and more.
Why is inequality a problem if everyone else’s quality of life is improving? Poverty is lower than ever and most adults in developed countries have a smartphone, an unimaginable luxury that not even the richest could have twenty years ago. Things are good.
Globally quality of life is improving, locally the US is regressing to third world status among larger and larger areas. Financial measures somewhat cover up the increase in instability in people’s lives.
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I like the idea of progressive property tax rates. Figure out the median property value, make the first 50% of that tax free. Then the next 50% is taxed at the previous rates. Then tax values above that enough to make up for it. Could apply the same idea to land value taxes too.
That "figure out the median property value" is the hard bit. The value is determined in a voluntary exchange, such as a sale, and results of sales of similar property serve only as approximations. Same problem is with the land value tax. It's like trying to buy / sell your property every time you do taxes. There is a known mechanism to limit attempts do show an excessively low value. Back in the day, the British Empi…
Plenty of jurisdictions do market-value property taxes by using market data and creating models to approximate the rest.
It’s never perfect, but the line in the sand must be drawn.
Other taxes have the same approximation issues. Income taxes don’t really tax all the value I provide. Any social person barters plenty of value that goes untaxed, but technically should be.