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Life During Class Wartime

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Re: Life During Class Wartime

#211

Post by Atlas667 »

pocksuppet wrote: post #167
AlexandrB wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We are currently killing millions of our own people. What do you mean?

I think they mean, the USA (or capitalism in general) is currently killing millions of our own people. We know how many people communism killed, but has anyone done the same math on capitalism? Maybe they're both very bad, and we have to find a third way.

Comment OP here. The third way is just capitalism with extra "were different" rhetoric.

Remember capitalism isnt a vibe its the private control of production for profit.

All "third way" people are just capitalists with extra checks and balances for freedom.

What they dont say or realize is that these extra checks and balances can be done away with by the very incentives of the people they think wont.

Power isnt a vibe, its the control of production made policy.

Re: Life During Class Wartime

#212

Post by [deleted] »

slibhb wrote: post #176
zug_zug wrote: post #3

Yeah I'm glad somebody's talking about it. Wealth inequality seems like it will be THE defining issue of our lives (accelerated drastically by AI). I think there are many practical ways to solve it, and would love to see more proposals out there. Instead I tend to see nihilism or division.

Inequality isn't a big problem. Those who claim it is seem to think that the existence of really rich people causes the existence of really poor people. That is not the case. It's natural that things are less equal now that we're not farmers or hunter-gatherers. Economies of scale will massively enrich those who take build them. Sometimes it is claimed that inequality is a problem because the rich will control politi…

[deleted]

Re: Life During Class Wartime

#213

Post by tekne »

yabones wrote: post #52

For the vast majority of human civilization, all taxes were based on wealth. Your emperor, pharaoh, czar, or whoever was in charge sent a dude around to take a bit of everybody's stuff. Not how much income they made but how much stuff they actually had . It's only been the last 120-ish years that the idea that wealth and income were totally different things as far as taxation is concerned emerged. I think almost ever…

Obligatory land value tax mention

Re: Life During Class Wartime

#214

Post by jacquesm »

lovich wrote: post #208
tptacek wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thread has had moderator attention, as you can see.

[flagged]

Hi, I don't think tomhow or 'pocksuppet' meant me, I think that was a reference to the current CEO of YC misbehaving himself. I don't drink, so I don't have any handy excuses for posting here or anywhere else. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39162499, contrary to Tom I don't think that being drunk excuses anything, alcohol serves to reduce inhibition and tends to reveal the real person more than that it inspires you to make death threats against politicians.

As for my comment: I really don't think I was glorifying violence or calling for violence for specific persons as both Thomas and Tom seem to be implying (and both of them have known me through my comments for more than a decade so I'm a bit surprised by them jumping to conclusions so badly).

I just answered a question and later followed it up with a longer explanation, we get taught about the French revolution and what led up to it in history class here and that is the - to me obvious - context. Tom has my email address, we've exchanged plenty of email over the years. If he was unclear about my intentions he could have simply checked up or asked in the thread but he choose to interpret the comment in the worst way possible and immediately acted accordingly. Which - ironically - is itself against the spirit of HN.

But I recognize this is his - and Dan's - website, that being a moderator is stressful at the best of times and that these are not the best of times and that they get to make the rules and call the shots, and all of us have to abide by their interpretation of those rules.

Re: Life During Class Wartime

#215

Post by actionfromafar »

chungusamongus wrote: post #81
6AA4FD wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value of currency like other things is governed by supply, so destroying some does not damage anything real in the world, just increase the purchasing power of the other dollars in circulation.

You're describing deflation which leads to job losses. If you do nothing else, the policy you're advocating for would lead to a recession, if not a depression.

Yes, but it would be the first recession to hit poor people less I guess

Re: Life During Class Wartime

#216

Post by lovich »

jacquesm wrote: post #214
lovich wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Hi, I don't think tomhow or 'pocksuppet' meant me, I think that was a reference to the current CEO of YC misbehaving himself. I don't drink, so I don't have any handy excuses for posting here or anywhere else. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39162499 , contrary to Tom I don't think that being drunk excuses anything, alcohol serves to reduce inhibition and tends to reveal the real person more than that it in…

[flagged]

Re: Life During Class Wartime

#217

Post by pocksuppet »

roxolotl wrote: post #44
_ink_ wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are these practical ways to solve it? And who do you think will implement them? Especially when Billionaires control the opinions of a big chunk of the population.

You can read about the transition from the Gilded Age to The Progressive Era in US history for potential solutions. Anti-trust and political reform is a bit part. Political opinions were controlled undemocratically during that period as well through political machines. Direct election of senators, direct primaries, women’s suffrage were enacted to help with that.

Any political solution (as in voting, bills, laws) will have to start with getting political power. You can't do politics without political power.

Re: Life During Class Wartime

#218

Post by pocksuppet »

christkv wrote: post #53

In Europe governments make up such a big part of GDP now in some cases nearly half of it that it becomes silly to talk about the evil capitalist. We should be talking about the graft and poor spending of that money.

Europe does suffer from American capitalism at a distance. But what you said is also true.

Re: Life During Class Wartime

#219

Post by ponector »

stavros wrote: post #195
slibhb wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inequality isn't a big problem. Those who claim it is seem to think that the existence of really rich people causes the existence of really poor people. That is not the case. It's natural that things are less equal now that we're not farmers or hunter-gatherers. Economies of scale will massively enrich those who take build them. Sometimes it is claimed that inequality is a problem because the rich will control politi…

I don't think anyone says that really poor people are caused by the existence of really rich people. The argument, as I understand it, is that spreading the wealth of billionaires around would mean fewer really poor people.

If all wealth of top 10 will be distributed equally it will add 5-10k per person. Will it make any difference in amount of pure people?

Re: Life During Class Wartime

#220

Post by stavros »

ponector wrote: post #219
stavros wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone says that really poor people are caused by the existence of really rich people. The argument, as I understand it, is that spreading the wealth of billionaires around would mean fewer really poor people.

If all wealth of top 10 will be distributed equally it will add 5-10k per person. Will it make any difference in amount of pure people?

Yes, 5k will make a difference. How about the top 1000?
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