Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly! The big supermarkets have tomatoes that look perfect, but taste like wax. The Asian groceries have lumpy odd-colored tomatoes that actually taste good.
We've had a garden and orchard for most years for quite some time now (several decades) and this is one of the most stark and interesting things I've observed as well. Garden produce is nearly always smaller, lumpy-looking, and by appearances alone looks to be quite inferior. However, they taste great compared to those "perfect" veggies and fruits in the grocery stores. In mid-winter when the home-grown produce is go…
Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
561–563 of 563 posts
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#562Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has there ever been an example in history where this has been true? All of the largest famines were caused by socialist attempts at controlling the food supply. Besides... the massive crash in population coming over the next 10 years should solve most fo this without ripping up entire societies.
All of the largest instituted famines were literally perpetrated by Fascist Capitalist societies... I think it's interesting how much agitprop westerners swallow and think it's sugar.
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#563Earlier quoted context omitted.
We probably can agree on lots of things, about inefficiencies in current system and the like, but some elementary things between us are too far apart. The ideas you identify as solutions, for me are the problems. You can promote artificial redistribution all you want, but I will want to stop it however I can. If a global redistribution system would be implemented, then all your wealth would go to Africa and Russia, a…
You go to absolute loaded language to talk about concepts that should be discussed in a more leveled language. You consider thievery just wealth redistribution but don't consider thievery the products of the exploitation of labour, for example. Why is it thievery to redistribute wealth from elites who are exploiting societal developments (education, skills training, etc.) so they pay their share back into the society…
You might have missed the point of my previous message, but it's okay since I don't have trust in my language skills that much to suspect a problem with your reception. I accept it can be a problem with my emission instead.
I use extreme examples as abstract ideas. I try to consider an idea in its extreme first, to assess if it's an idea worth considering. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. I don't use this technique because I'm unable to imagine anything that can be put in between -- I can, but thinking in extremes for me is easier.
I agree that the example of "global wealth redistribution" is extreme. But that was the point: to show that this extreme idea is ridiculous, as an extreme. But if we want to consider this idea in not an extreme way, as a "leveled" idea as you've said it, then my point was that this is NOT different at all from the rich guy example.
If you have a group of people (a state) with some wealth, and you want to choose that wealth stays inside the group, this is not at all different than the rich guy wanting the wealth to stay inside the family. For anyone outside of this group (e.g. from someone in Africa), your group is just another, but a higher level, rich guy. And I think it's very telling that you oppose other rich guys, but you want to stay a part of a rich guy yourself, because this is also how a rich guy behaves: other rich guys want to fight other rich guys too!
I see your arguments as "I want their money", disguised as "help the poor with their money". For me it seems that you don't want to help the poor, because you still want first to choose who is poor, and who isn't. So it's not about helping the poor, it's about choosing who YOU want to help. You choose that the poor in "your family" are more important than the poor outside of it. This is exactly how a rich guy behaves. Also you say that rich people don't have rights to their money, but the question is why YOU want to have the right to decide where their money should go. Because you pay taxes?
And your question, "what is natural about people who want to exploit", then well, this is with humanity from day zero, people with clubs exploited people without clubs, so I guess that would be a definition of the word "natural". It's not to say that "natural" means "a good way to do things", rather "natural" as average, it always been that way, etc.
For some reason you think you're on higher moral standing with your ideas, but I can assure you, I don't see it this way.