@quietmarc The politics of undeservedness. Inequality is a core component of capitalist economics. For those who live incredibly well in times like these, moral justifications for the misery of others are required. We are conditioned to instinctively assume that anyone that is not thriving in capitalism has made some mistake or error in judgement, and that therefore, they are undeserving. Of a good life, of “handouts”, and sometimes even of any help at all. Bootstraps et al.

@godpod God has good taste!

@ddayen I would have also accepted “As soon as we can end the filibuster” and/or “as soon as Joe Manchin removes his head from his ass.” It’s increasingly troubling that Biden still thinks there’s any possible future where even his own plans, let alone the greater left’s plans, are achieved through convincing the “good Republicans” to “see the light.”

@helava @rbreich my pleasure. Solidarity!

@helava @rbreich The disastrous state of global capitalism is equally as responsible for the rebirth of Socialism and Social Democracy in the developed word as for the speedy rise of the alt-right in the same places. So what can we do? Engage with labour politics. Act in solidarity with every unionization push, and pay attention. When a mining town is shutting down, when a town has no clean water, etc, we should be engaging those being pushed to the margins. Mobilization!

@helava @rbreich Nope lol! And certainly not overnight. It’s worth remembering that the the global economy’s golden age of prosperity can be traced to the economic havoc of the Great Depression. This is what finally made the conversations around unfettered capitalism unavoidable. The worse everybody’s material conditions, the more radical the discourse. Doesn’t mean we should do nothing and wait for the economy to collapse!

@helava @rbreich By looking at historic levels of wealth inequality, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/ you can see that the wealth gap in the US and other countries has increased massively since about 1980, which is when the political zeitgeist in America, Britain, Canada, and others shifted to neoliberalism. This shift coincides with massive cuts to rich/corporate taxes and social programs. Not a coincidence.

@helava @rbreich The broader policy solution is taxation-funded social programs. For example, taxing rich individuals and corporations to fund public health insurance, will, through the money it saves individuals and the broader economic benefits (think negative externalities from bad health outcomes and vice-versa,) act as a direct wealth transfer from the top strata of the wealthy to less wealthy subsets. This is the fundamental principle of Social Democracy.