75 points
*

You could take 99% of the wealth from the top 12 wealthiest people in the US, and they’d still have over a billion dollars each.

https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/

permalink
report
reply
-6 points

Well…minus the negative value those assets would have with the massive surplus on the market of trying to realize the rest of their assets

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points

I mean it is true if you’re doing it as a one-time event. This is one of the main critiques against Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance.

permalink
report
reply
5 points

Yep, Socialism is necessary.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

True. It would need to implemented alongside economic reform.

Trickle-down was an experiment. It was proven to be a failure based on the current wealth inequality. Now we just simply need to redistribute and try something else.

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points
*

False.

Trickle down was a REBRAND. It used to be called “Horse and Sparrow economics.”

The literal idea being that horses get to eat whole grains, and sparrows peck their meals from horseshit.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points
*

It’s true that Reagan’s Trickle-Down was a revival of Harding’s Horse & Sparrow, but that doesn’t affect my point.

We’ve proven it doesn’t work. The correct solution is to redistribute and try a different method to check capitalism.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Oh really, would like to learn more.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. So to start you may want to read up on Rawls’ theory of Justice as Fairness and how he uses the original position thought experiment (imagining society from behind the veil of ignorance).

Robert Nozick wrote a critique of Rawls’ theory: that it was a “patterned but not historical” principle (that it gives no moral weight to who produces what) and that “liberty upsets patterns.” That is to say, if you start with an equal society where everyone has the same resources you can’t expect it stay that way if everyone is free to exchange those resources with each other. Just like in the game of Monopoly, you’ll see winners and losers after enough time has passed.

This is all to say that the big problem for Rawls is that his theory is a “time slice theory.” It is very strong at describing how a society can be made to be just at a single moment in time but it fails to account for how that state of affairs can be preserved long-term without restricting people’s liberty. One can argue that the game of Monopoly is just according to Rawls’ theory because everyone starts with identical resources at the beginning!

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Wow. That’s super interesting. I’ll have to check out these links. Thank you very much for the detailed reply!

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

OK let’s start by redistributing wealth hoarded in churches, prioritized by a product of the number of hectares of land owned by the church and the volume of redistribution propaganda the church has promoted

permalink
report
reply
1 point

Wasn’t that one is the big shit shows in France, that the church didn’t want to give up land? They were forced to eventually

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

There was a disestablishment during the Revolution that seized land from the Catholic church. Revolutionaries also socialized vital records and institutionalized divorce, which had all previously been under the church’s dominion.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

What movie is this template from?

permalink
report
reply
5 points

Inception

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

oh right, should have known!

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Inception, a sci-fi/action/suspense movie

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points
*

Depends. If you mean simple Social Safety Nets or UBI, these are band-aids on a much larger problem, that problem being Capitalism itself. If you mean public ownership of Capital and democratic central planning, ie Socialism, that is necessary and does work.

The problem with only increasing social safety nets is that these nets are eroded over time if you maintain Capitalisy power, and there is still the necessary rise in disparity that comes with late stage Capitalism as markets coalesce into syndicates ripe for central planning (which Marx took as meaning Socialism is the next phase in development of Mode of Production, as Capitalism creates the ideal conditions for Socialism over time).

I keep a “Read Theory, Darn It!” introductory Marxist reading list if anyone wants to read more, or feel free to ask questions.

permalink
report
reply

Late Stage Capitalism

!latestagecapitalism@lemmy.world

Create post

A place for for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited.

A zero-tolerance policy for bigotry of any kind. Failure to respect this will result in a ban.

RULES:

1 Understand the left starts at anti-capitalism.

2 No Trolling

3 No capitalist apologia, anti-socialism, or liberalism. Support for capitalism or for the parties or ideologies that uphold it are not welcome or tolerated.

4 No imperialism, conservatism, reactionism or Zionism, lessor evil rhetoric. Dismissing 3rd party votes or ‘wasted votes on 3rd party’ is lessor evil rhetoric.

5 No bigotry, no racism, sexism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or any type of prejudice.

6 Be civil in comments and no accusations of being a bot, ‘paid by Putin,’ etc.

Community stats

  • 2.2K

    Monthly active users

  • 66

    Posts

  • 368

    Comments