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The state protects wealth. Being born now in the west is like joining a game of monopoly two hours in. All the squares are owned. Round you go. As we get more

The state protects wealth. Being born now in the west is like joining a game of monopoly two hours in. All the squares are owned. Round you go. As we get more efficient less human labour is needed for a finite amount of land/resources. If inequality is high most valuable land is owned by a few people. The rest of us must pledge ever more labour for the right to subsist. The rich are very much relying on the state to keep order as inequality rockets. Guess what would happen if we had no police force to enforce collection of taxes primarily from the middle classes? Or nobody to stop someone calling into question why they can't stand in a particular spot "because that land has been owned by my family for generations". The rich very much rely on the state.

rsync 11y ago
"The state protects wealth. Being born now in the west is like joining a game of monopoly two hours in. All the squares are owned. Round you go." You've made this analogy a few times in the past few days and I think it is flawed. It's only like a game of monopoly, joined two hours in, if in monopoly the players are periodically removed from the game (death) and have their assets divided up among new players (wealth taxes OR the dilutive effects of transfer to heirs whose number is greater than the original player). Also: imagine 50,000 more property squares that nobody wants. Detroit Place. Haiti Way. Rural Spain Parkway. Really, the analogy is flawed.
- branchless 11y ago
  Inheritance tax isn't effective. It's like tag team monopoly where one older family member dies and passes over their counter to the next player. It's not a perfect map 1:1 for the world but it's useful. Inheritance tax is necessary for a fair society.
  - rsync 11y ago
    I think you would do well to read historical accounts of families - both modern and historic - and get a wider perspective of how this actually works out in the real world. Inheritance tax may not work as quickly as you'd like, but the avoidance that you refer to only goes so far. People multiply. They have kids. Those kids have kids. Not everyone has the intelligence and drive to produce 1%-style outcomes. The wealth dilutes. And then there is none. In fact, even with no inheritance tax whatsoever, the old dictum "wealth never survives three generations" ("Fu bu guo san dai") absolutely asserts itself. Of course there are edge cases. Let's not waste our time indexing all of the rothschilds and windsors and duponts. The point is: all of the squares are not taken and the squares that are taken come up for grabs all the time: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/period-property/10084080/Buy-your-own-Downton-Abbey-10-stately-homes-for-sale.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/period-property/...
    - branchless 11y ago
      The windsors and a few other rich families own vast swathes of the UK whilst we are all paying for it. My time is wasted, not enumerating them but slaving for them. And Windsor is a made up name, it's Saxe-Coburg-Goth.
bufordsharkley 11y ago
> Being born now in the west is like joining a game of monopoly two hours in. All the squares are owned. Round you go. Appropriate in that Monopoly (or more precisely, the game it ripped off, The Landlord's Game) was created to demonstrate the inequality that derives from private ownership of land, and how a land-value-tax a la Henry George removes the inequality. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord%27s_Game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord%27s_Game

rsync 11y ago

"The state protects wealth. Being born now in the west is like joining a game of monopoly two hours in. All the squares are owned. Round you go." You've made this analogy a few times in the past few days and I think it is flawed. It's only like a game of monopoly, joined two hours in, if in monopoly the players are periodically removed from the game (death) and have their assets divided up among new players (wealth taxes OR the dilutive effects of transfer to heirs whose number is greater than the original player). Also: imagine 50,000 more property squares that nobody wants. Detroit Place. Haiti Way. Rural Spain Parkway. Really, the analogy is flawed.

branchless 11y ago
Inheritance tax isn't effective. It's like tag team monopoly where one older family member dies and passes over their counter to the next player. It's not a perfect map 1:1 for the world but it's useful. Inheritance tax is necessary for a fair society.
- rsync 11y ago
  I think you would do well to read historical accounts of families - both modern and historic - and get a wider perspective of how this actually works out in the real world. Inheritance tax may not work as quickly as you'd like, but the avoidance that you refer to only goes so far. People multiply. They have kids. Those kids have kids. Not everyone has the intelligence and drive to produce 1%-style outcomes. The wealth dilutes. And then there is none. In fact, even with no inheritance tax whatsoever, the old dictum "wealth never survives three generations" ("Fu bu guo san dai") absolutely asserts itself. Of course there are edge cases. Let's not waste our time indexing all of the rothschilds and windsors and duponts. The point is: all of the squares are not taken and the squares that are taken come up for grabs all the time: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/period-property/10084080/Buy-your-own-Downton-Abbey-10-stately-homes-for-sale.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/period-property/...
  - branchless 11y ago
    The windsors and a few other rich families own vast swathes of the UK whilst we are all paying for it. My time is wasted, not enumerating them but slaving for them. And Windsor is a made up name, it's Saxe-Coburg-Goth.

bufordsharkley 11y ago

> Being born now in the west is like joining a game of monopoly two hours in. All the squares are owned. Round you go. Appropriate in that Monopoly (or more precisely, the game it ripped off, The Landlord's Game) was created to demonstrate the inequality that derives from private ownership of land, and how a land-value-tax a la Henry George removes the inequality. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord%27s_Game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord%27s_Game