On Tue, Aug 9, 2022 Joel Dietz <[email protected]> Wrote
> *> John,For libertarians that identify as rationalists * I'm certainly a rationalist and, unless I incur massive brain damage someday, I don't think that will ever change, however although I once proudly called myself a libertarian, words change their meaning over time and so I no longer feel comfortable calling myself by that name. For one thing I do not wish to be associated with the ridiculous and self-defeating antics of the Libertarian Party, I think it likely if they had not run a third party presidential candidate in 2016 Donald Trump, the most anti-libertarian (and stupidest) president in American history, would never have won in the Electoral College. There is no concept in libertarianism that is more important than free markets but I know of many people who loudly declare that they are libertarians but don't give a damn about free markets and don't care much about the rights of individuals either, except of course for the right to carry a gun. > *there is a very clear way they can address your concerns.* could list > all of the public goods currently provided by governments and then explain > in which cases and over what timeframe they plan to turn them over to free > markets. Additionally, if they are free market maximalists they could > explain how they plan to move into enclaves where they have no > dependencies on public goods provided by governments. Easier said than done. Adjusted for inflation the top 1% in the USA saw their total net worth INCREASE by $21 trillion in recent years but the bottom 50% saw their net worth DECREASE by $900 billion. And thanks to technological improvements this trend is accelerating. Even the super rich, or at least the smart ones, realize this situation is dangerous and one way or another simply will not continue indefinitely, so they propose a wealth tax be imposed on the richest 10% of the richest 1% so they could still have some control over how this trend stops. 18 billionaires have signed a petition calling for exactly that: A LETTER IN SUPPORT OF A WEALTH TAX <https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/1342-wealthtaxletter-june2019/1852b1968e8e0d52b1a0/optimized/full.pdf#page=1> And they are far from the only ones, Warren Buffett has long advocated the same thing: WARREN BUFFETT on coddling the super-rich <https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html?module=inline> And so has Bill Gates: Bill Gates wants higher taxes on the rich <https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/bill-gates-suggests-higher-taxes-on-those-with-great-wealth.html> And Nick Hanauer, a member of the top 0.01%, also thinks the hyper rich should pay more and wrote a letter about it to his rich peers. I found this passage to be particularly illuminating: *"I’m not the smartest guy you’ve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I’m not technical at all—I can’t write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now? **I see pitchforks."* *My Fellow Zillionaires <https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014>* *> Here the overall story arc as promoted by Balaji and others is > effectively that mega-corporations powered by crypto will soon be in a > position to provide all state services and can effectively de-couple from > traditional forms of governance. You could call this a "revolution." * That's true, but social revolutions don't necessarily make people happier, just think of the French revolution. Due to technological advancements accelerating income inequality is a worldwide problem but the rate of increase is most dramatic in the USA. The US income inequality is greater than that in India or ANY country in Asia or ANY country in Europe, the only countries where it's higher are in Africa and South America where they tend to have revolutions every other day. And the USA also does poorly on economic mobility, Canada has twice as much and Denmark three times, in the USA if you're born poor you'll probably die poor but if you're born rich you'll probably die much much richer. As much as I love free markets I love rationality even more, and I honestly don't see how free markets alone can solve the problem of income inequality, and this isn't just a moral issue it's a very practical one, in fact if the problem has no solution than that could be the explanation of the Fermi paradox. If history has taught us anything it's that extreme wealth inequality leads to social instability and I can confidently state with 100% certainty the gap between rich and poor that has been accelerating for the last 40 years will *NOT* continue forever, it might come to a controlled gentle stop or it might be a catastrophic collapse, but one way or another it will stop. If I was one of the super mega ultra rich and if I prefered that my head remain attached to my shoulders I would either do everything I could think of to reduce that wealth gap or I'd start investing in a guillotine manufacturing factory. *> governments could be defined simply as "an institution which depends on > tax revenue (i.e. a form of coercion) to institute its own version of good > which may or may not intersect with that of its citizens" * That is not a bad definition of government and if we were starting from scratch I think we could do better without government and instead embraced privately produced law and private protection agencies, unfortunately it's far too late for that now, we're one hell of a long way from starting from scratch and there is no way in hell we could start over from zero and finish before the technological singularity renders all matters of this sort moot. John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis> rim > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv2YaDw_eihqFK%3DiEjuv6%2BAbfPcdMMFGpRxKUemTGWLnGg%40mail.gmail.com.
