A guy who I've known many decades said that my embrace of the far left had lowered his opinion of me a lot.
We were talking about wealth taxes, qua my earlier post about 90% tax rates. But not just income taxes, estate taxes, real estate taxes, generally speaking, asset taxes.
The billionaire class has to cease to exist. What the bootlickers defending them seem to not understand, is that this is the *nice* way to make that happen.
"You're not far left," a buddy says.
In a world with fascists controlling every part of the federal government, I'm disinclined to argue with "far left" as a description. At least it clearly distinguishes me from the Nazis.
It's possibly not such a thing in the US, but in Europe many centre-left (ie socialist and social democrat) parties adopted economic liberalism in the 1990s and dropped their left-wing economic policies while pretending to still be centre-left to hold on to their voter base.
Those who continued to oppose economic liberalism were duly called 'far' or 'hard' left so that mainstream centrist parties could continue to call themselves left-wing.
People who automatically criticise the left tend to have been brainwashed or are simply too ignorant to change their opinions to suit the circumstances.....and at a time when billionaires are dictating economic policy to supposedly democratic govts it's probably time to give those left-wing ideas a second look.
People shouldn't pick a side for life, because matching your political views to current circumstances is no different from steering a car around bends in the road.
@Uair @Jirikiha @fatsam to be fair, the French also riot at the drop of a baguette. Which, I think, is why it works for them. The politicians know they can’t ignore the wishes of the people because the people will cheerfully bring the country to a grinding halt if they’re not happy about something.
Anglophones are not good at rioting, we tend to bottle it all up until it explodes. We need to learn to be willing to stop traffic until our needs are met.
What that person might call the far left is called Socialism in Europe and the UK and is in no way extremist.
It's how a modern society not stuck in the middle ages should be run.
When someone states their dislike of Socialism I ask them if they would like to work Saturdays regularly, not have public holidays and forgo their state pension.
Strangely enough they generally decline the offer 🙄🤦♂️
Well maybe not so much what passes for UK Labour today.
@Johns_priv @simonzerafa @fatsam
It's what happens when you make something taboo. People stop talking about it till they become ignorant.
@Johns_priv @simonzerafa @fatsam and it’s so selective around issues.
Their fire service is government-run and funded by taxes. Everything they should hate. But not even the most hardened Reaganist suggests privatising it. But they’ll trot out the old line that governments can’t run things and funding services from taxation is a terrible infringement on liberty.
@fatsam True. That said, though, a season or so of La Terreur might be just the thing for teaching these parasites the fear of god.
Put a bit of stick about, that sort of thing.
@JoBlakely @marcas the deaths of Robespierre, his brother, and friends, got me there already. Peaceful revolution is always preferable to violent revolution.
... but not always possible.
@marcas @fatsam just look at how they reacted to one assassination of a health insurance company executive.
That said, "the French Solution" ended up running rampant amongst more than just the nobility and moneyed classes in France or even those that deserved it. Once you pull the pin on that grenade you never know where it will end up tossed.
@david_chisnall @fatsam Both against movements for social equality and movements to bring back the monarchy.
I fail to see the far left in power here.
The killing was done by what we would now call upper class guys who wanted to really wipe the floor with the aristocracy because they were fed up with only having money but very little power.
@david_chisnall oh, sure, if you want to call that center right, the label doesn't concern me. Better to tax than chop.
But I'm open to chopping.
It’s a question of where you put the Overton Window. There are two extremes:
Framing a wealth tax that aims to reduce wealth imbalance to levels that are sustainable in a democracy as an extreme is ignoring one of the real extremes.
we can do it again if they like
I'm a millionaire and billionaires are an abomination
We should have a rich society; not a poor society that happens to have some rich people in it.
@fatsam I swear, there's a Wikipedia article for everything...
(Spoiler: It's more than a few.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_french_revolution#Financial_crisis
(Spoiler: Debt and crop failure.)
a guy you've known many decades is a fucking idiot
There are other ways to reign in billionaires:
1. World war. Millions die.
https://online.norwich.edu/online/about/resource-library/cost-us-wars-then-and-now
2. Revolution. Millions suffer.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-cost-of-the-cultural-revolution-fifty-years-later
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/russias-national-income-war-and-revolution-1913-1928
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/economic-consequences-revolutions-evidence-1789-french-revolution
https://www.snoqap.com/posts/2019/5/1/immediate-economic-impacts-of-the-french-revolution
https://fee.org/articles/inflation-price-controls-and-collectivism-during-the-french-revolution/
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/taxes-and-the-three-estates/
3. Mass death events. Millions suffer.
https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economic-impact-of-the-black-death/
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/plague/effects/social.php
https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/how-bad-was-the-worlds-first-pandemic
4. Taxation. By far the best option.
Though it lasted fewer than four years, World War II was the most expensive war in United States history. Adjusted for inflation to today’s dollars, the war cost over $4 trillion and in 1945, the war’s last year, defense spending comprised about 40% of gross domestic product (GDP). During that time, the government used new methods to raise the required funds and succeeded in accomplishing its goal. While the wars waged in today’s world are significant and costly, they still pale in comparison to the size and financial impact of World War II.
@fatsam Anybody that opposes a wealth tax has no capability to think for themselves.
I’ve talked to some conservatives about this, and in 100% of cases, their opposition was “if they can tax that wealth, they can tax mine!”
Sweeties, they already tax you WAY more than the wealthy. And you will never ever ever be wealthy enough to be hit by these taxes. Which is their other big delusion: they really think someday they will strike it rich.
In summary, the conservative movement is a small number of greedy rich people, and a LARGE amount of profoundly stupid people who think they are part of a “club” with the rich ones who don’t care about them at all.
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