On Monday, June 3, 2019 at 3:45:11 PM UTC-5, John Clark wrote: > > On Mon, Jun 3, 2019 at 12:33 PM Lawrence Crowell <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > > > The equivalency between the two parties is often drawn with the fact >> they both take corporate campaign donations. >> > > I don't mind that so much, governments have caused vastly more misery in > the world than governments, that's why I became a libertarian. >
I presume you meant to say more misery in the world than business. Well, I suppose the distinction between a capitalist system is the corporations own the government, while in a socialist or communist system the government own the corporations. Ernst Krupp wrote in 1933, "We have put Mr. Hitler on the payroll." I could go further, including why I am not a libertarian. I pondered that nonsense years ago. The problem is that market systems are just not stable. They can collapse, and do so rather spontaneously. These can drag lots of people into misery and death. Even if you had a libertarian system without government, or government intrusions, the corporations would at some point end up inventing a government. I can also say that I am not a lot of things that end in "ism" "ian" "anity" and so forth. These ideological scripts are to me largely nonsense. I do vote in most elections, even the minor ones, but I largely do not so much vote for certain candidates, but against certain candidates. LC > > > Of course we all know that tariffs are a terrible way to cure trade >> imbalances, >> > > Yes, and as as often as not trade imbalances don't even need to be cured, > I have a trade imbalance with my local supermarket, I buy lots of stuff > from them and they never buy anything from me, but that's OK with me. > > >> > but with t'Rump his 6th grade understanding of the world says >> otherwise, >> > > You're insulting school kids, I would much rather have a bright 6th grader > as president. > > >> > The wealth gaps and the exponential growth in the power of >> billionaires, while the average middle class or "petite bourgeoisie" person >> is falling into at best income stagnation or decline, are a recipe for >> future chaos. >> > > Yes, that's what made me change my political philosophy, until a few years > ago I was a hardcore libertarian, I still am on social issues but not > economic ones. I've always thought if a theory doesn't fit the facts then > it must be abandoned regardless of how much you love it, and I saw some > fact I just could not ignore. > > In 2010 the richest 388 people had as much wealth as poorest half of the > entire human race, that's 3.6 Billion people. In 2014 the richest 85 > people did. In 2015 the richest 62 people did. In 2017 the richest 8 > people did. Think of it, the 8 richest Human beings have as much wealth as > the poorest 3.6 BILLION Human beings! History has pretty decisively shown > that huge wealth inequality just ain't healthy for any society, although > history has no examples of inequality of > the > magnitude > we have now. > > > The improvements in AI that are certain to come > > in the next few years > > will only accelerate the acceleration of this socially destabilizing trend > unless something pushes back, something like government action. Health > insurance for all might be a good place to start. However Donald Trump > wants to push for lowering taxes on the rich, getting rid of the > inheritance tax, and eliminating health care for > > the > > 24 million > > poorest people in the country; > > but that's pushing in the wrong direction and will only accelerate the > acceleration of > the acceleration > of the wealth gap. > > Anybody who is not terrified by this doesn't understand the situation. > > One way or another this trend will NOT continue, if government action > doesn't slow down the widening of the gap something far far more unpleasant > will. > If > I were one of those 8 hyper rich people I'd be calling for change louder > than anyone because I like the fact that there is a connection between my > head and my shoulders and would prefer to keep it that way. > Let me be clear, > I'm not talking about "should", I'm not talking about morality, I'm just > saying > that > when the gap between the rich and the poor gets > too > large social instability occurs > and that can be very unhealthy for those at the very top. > > > Americans like to think they live in a meritocracy but they don't, the > truth is if you're born poor in the USA and are talented you're less likely > to get rich than if you were born in other advanced countries, particularly > one of the Scandinavian socialist countries. Take a look at this graph, > it's informally called "The Great Gatsby Curve" by economists and is a > plot of the Gini coefficient for several industrialized countries (a > measure of economic inequality) against economic mobility (the likelihood > if you're born in one economic class you'll die in the same economic > class): > > The Great Gatsby Curve > <https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.bwbx.io%2Fimages%2Fusers%2FiqjWHBFdfxIU%2Fi39D39AoA74w%2Fv1%2F1000x-1.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2013-12-12%2Fthe-gatsby-curve-how-inequality-became-a-household-word&docid=sLvBewmozWO0CM&tbnid=7SCQhdxQMkmSvM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwj44KDfgeHgAhUCD60KHUFzAUgQMwhLKAswCw..i&w=1000&h=825&bih=863&biw=1707&q=Great%20Gatsby%20Curve%3A&ved=0ahUKEwj44KDfgeHgAhUCD60KHUFzAUgQMwhLKAswCw&iact=mrc&uact=8> > > As you can see the USA is in the extreme upper right of the plot and that > is exactly where you don't want to be; enormous economic inequality and > little economic mobility, the same conditions that occurred just before the > French Revolution. The only reason there hasn't already been blood in the > streets is probably because the poor are unrealistically optimistic about > getting rich. Here is another interesting graph, it plots several countries > actual economic mobility against the perceived economic mobility with the > diagonal line representing an accurate assessment of possibilities. As > you can see Americans are far too optimistic while most other countries are > somewhat too pessimistic, only the Italians get it about right and see > things as they actually are: > > Actual Mobility Versus Perceived Mobility > <https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0bIjqqXgAApZ3O.png> > > So we're sitting on a time bomb and the only thing stopping it from going > off is a misperception by the poor and lower middle class, but it's only a > matter of time before they wise up and when they do I suggest you invest > in guillotine futures. > > >> > The Democrats seem eager to lose another, and for all we know it >> might be the last, presidential election >> > > It very well could be that it doesn't matter who wins the 2020 > presidential because regardless of the outcome Trump intends to stay in > office until the day he dies, and after that Donald junior or Ivanka will > take over. > > John K Clark > > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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