Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except not true. Civilised man is not independent. You buy that plot of land and... build a house with which materials. You need to get at least some groceries. If you get sick, who heals you? If you are abused, or you abuse someone, they need protection Etc etc. Coordination and oversight (= government) is a must.
You confuse a colossal government that has its tentacles in every aspect of life with people working together to achieve things. All of the above can be achieved though the market arguable much more efficient than by far away bureaucrats at a fraction of the cost.
We've made the world too complicated
461–470 of 496 posts
Re: We've made the world too complicated
#462Earlier quoted context omitted.
> am a very devout capitalist. I believe very deeply in contributing to society. I don't think I am that unusual in this respect. I see people acting very capitalistic to operate community gardens with the maximum margins. I see highly trained experts volunteer as educators. I see well-paid doctors and lawyers raking up leaves for their neighbors. I see accountants freelancing to keep the blind center afloat. Charity…
Charity is the only thing that can save us. Tax is just a different take on charity. We all agree to pay into the community chest to provide for a pubic commons. Resistance to progressive tax is resistance to a type of charity. One important difference between charity and tax is who gets to decide on how it is spent. If charity won't save us taxes never will.
Tax is a mechanism for the distribution of wealth in a society. USA GDP is 38 trillion dollars and yet 85% of citizens own a tiny fraction of it. Where is all that money going? The government is on the verge of bankruptcy due to extreme debt.. to whom?
Large corporations are bleeding the society and the government dry but tax is a charity. Please educate yourself and propagate this bs
Re: We've made the world too complicated
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
You confuse a colossal government that has its tentacles in every aspect of life with people working together to achieve things. All of the above can be achieved though the market arguable much more efficient than by far away bureaucrats at a fraction of the cost.
Would a free market give you weekends, sick leave, pension?
Re: We've made the world too complicated
#464Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would a free market give you weekends, sick leave, pension?
You don't think employers have to compete for employees? Are you not putting down terms for your contract or do you just sheepishly accept anything offered to you? Not to mention the massive train wreck called state ran pensions, do you really want to get into that?
> do you just sheepishly accept anything offered to you Yes if there is no other option. Did coal miners in 1910 england just accepted those poor terms because they were dumb? They did not have other options. What if you are disabled, elderly.
State ran pensions: it's not good, but what is the other option?
Imagine a world where "free market" would regulate everything without states. You would 100% depend on your employee, on corporations?
Re: We've made the world too complicated
#465Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could this be because older people have more memories of when certain things were better than they are now?
The issue is that "better" is subjective and the subjects are shaped by the environment they grow up in. Most people thus naturally prefer the world as it was during their formative years.
Re: We've made the world too complicated
#466Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re stretching the meaning of understanding to ridiculous levels of uselessness. If you’re slapped across the face, do you need to understand physics and biology to know how the movement and speed of a hand interacting with the tissue of your face and interpreted by your brain and nervous system makes it hurt?
Understanding why pain happens is what allowed for anesthesia and modern medicine, which massively improved the quality of life of our species. Did we need to figure out how to do that? Sure, in the same way we needed to figure out how to create fire, or craft tools.
Re: We've made the world too complicated
#467Earlier quoted context omitted.
Charity is the only thing that can save us. Tax is just a different take on charity. We all agree to pay into the community chest to provide for a pubic commons. Resistance to progressive tax is resistance to a type of charity. One important difference between charity and tax is who gets to decide on how it is spent. If charity won't save us taxes never will.
I’m sorry to get incensed but I’m shocked in 2026 there are people who think tax is charity. The decades of corporate propaganda and brainwashing and corruption have really played a number on society’s understanding of basic concepts. Tax is a mechanism for the distribution of wealth in a society. USA GDP is 38 trillion dollars and yet 85% of citizens own a tiny fraction of it. Where is all that money going? The gove…
Now, nobody expects the 95-year old cancer patient to chop their fair share of firewood for the winter. So we can levy a tax to pay somebody to chop for them. Or we can just schedule a community chop for next Saturday and try to make sure everybody has enough wood. What do we do with the slackers who don't show up on Saturday?
We figured out a long time ago that cash is a very useful tool to facilitate trade better than bartering can. And we can extend that into community contributions. We don't have to track how many potatoes and apples somebody grew and contributed to the widow fund. We don't have to figure out if 5 carrots and two hours of wood chopping is a fair contribution. We can just convert it all to money and require everyone to chip in the same amount. Except for the cancer patient and the widow, and the guy who hurt himself chopping wood for the cancer patient.
Oh, and the Microsofts and Amazons. They only have to contribute 1/100th of what everybody else chips in.
But those are the rules. We just codified them so that we can stop feeling peeved because we haven't seen Ricardo at the last three community chops. So we started keeping score. And yet, somebody is always still feeling peeved. Perhaps they don't like the rules that let big corps off the hook. Perhaps they think wood chopper boy is faking that foot injury. Maybe they think cancer is a hoax perpetrated by big Pharma. People complained when contributions were an honor system. They complain when contributions are codified into a tax system. Some people dodged when it was an honor system. Some people dodge when it is the law.
Re: We've made the world too complicated
#468Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. Capitalism: Efficient, progress, but channels all benefits to very fewer and fewer as tech progresses. Trickle down is too slow. 2. Socialism: Bureaucratic and slow, no private enterprise, finally poverty. Unless it is the special form of global efficient state capitalism (same as capitalism then); just that commonfolk of the state-capitalist nation can be happy overall, at the expense of many more unhappy citizen…
Isn't the failure you note in 4 always inevitable in a system where Capital translates to power?
Just that, capital translating to power is not a universal truth. Historically too, various recipes have tasted success to move up power ladders. Be it high moral values, smart statecraft, peaceful bottom-up people movements-art-science, or worse like violence, anarchy, barbarism; or a hotch-potch of all those!
Will be fun to watch how things pan out today!
Re: We've made the world too complicated
#469Re: We've made the world too complicated
#470> Our internal intuition about right and wrong seems to leave us at an early age Well, mine didn’t. It’s called respect and love your neighbours, treat others as you would like to be treated. It’s pretty simple and feels deeply ingrained
Hard disagree, have you ever seen a group of 5 year olds interacting? We are little monsters without our parents literally berating us until we develop shame. Small kids left to their own devices will gang up on anyone different or weak and antagonize them to raise their own social standing. They respect strength/power and have little empathy. The "intuition" the author refers to only exists because the scoldings he…
My kid was about 3 when he figured out what it means to be a good person, and that's all he seems to want to be now.
Maybe it's just where I am, but the majority of parents around me also want to raise children who care, and a lot of them seem to be quite successful at it.
It was never scoldings, it was "hey, let's think about how it might feel if that happened to you." Patiently and caringly.
Again, it doesn't feel that hard to me, but I'll respect that it feels alien to other's nature.