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>all the way down to people performing essential services who can't afford to feed their families on full-time work. This is a feature of the system, not a bug

>all the way down to people performing essential services who can't afford to feed their families on full-time work. This is a feature of the system, not a bug. If these folks weren't barely making it, there'd be more free energy for rentiers to extract through various rent-seeking behavior, and since rentiers have significantly more political power, the system would get subtly worse for the everyman in whatever ways have the least-bad optics until they're barely making it again. Like, this is why the SF Bay Area has the zoning-caused housing crisis: because it can afford to.

rabidrat 8y ago
Can we strike at the root and try to reduce rent-seeking behavior? Even if we can't eliminate it, there was a time when 'usury' an ugly moral sin and Jubilee was an actual event, so at least we understood who the jerks were, instead of blaming ourselves for being indentured servants in a rigged system.
- ThrustVectoring 8y ago
  IMO it's gotten too sophisticated to tackle head-on. Back then, if you were getting screwed, at least you knew how and by whom. Now, the vast majority of people who really understand how any particular rent-seeking scheme works are the rentiers themselves, so any public policy debate quickly devolves into a mix of noise and actual malice.
  - marvin 8y ago
    I initially mistook your first comment for defending a broken system (don't know how I could have done that), but this is just beautifully cynical. I buy your reasoning, and the state of things is actually quite tragic. Most people who understand how this works will think "okay, so this is broken, but how can I profit from this?" rather than focus their energies on how the system can be fixed. The former is much easier to accomplish.
    - RestlessMind 8y ago
      > Most people who understand how this works will think "okay, so this is broken, but how can I profit from this?" rather than focus their energies on how the system can be fixed. The former is much easier to accomplish. Taking that cynicism one step further: I don't think it is about ease or difficulty of either approach. Rather, those who understand the system also typically understand the human nature, particularly its lust for power, which prohibits any system from being truly fixed. Because any system is going to be gamed by someone to accumulate power for themselves (or their inner circles). So why not apply your insights for your own benefits?

rabidrat 8y ago

Can we strike at the root and try to reduce rent-seeking behavior? Even if we can't eliminate it, there was a time when 'usury' an ugly moral sin and Jubilee was an actual event, so at least we understood who the jerks were, instead of blaming ourselves for being indentured servants in a rigged system.

ThrustVectoring 8y ago
IMO it's gotten too sophisticated to tackle head-on. Back then, if you were getting screwed, at least you knew how and by whom. Now, the vast majority of people who really understand how any particular rent-seeking scheme works are the rentiers themselves, so any public policy debate quickly devolves into a mix of noise and actual malice.
- marvin 8y ago
  I initially mistook your first comment for defending a broken system (don't know how I could have done that), but this is just beautifully cynical. I buy your reasoning, and the state of things is actually quite tragic. Most people who understand how this works will think "okay, so this is broken, but how can I profit from this?" rather than focus their energies on how the system can be fixed. The former is much easier to accomplish.
  - RestlessMind 8y ago
    > Most people who understand how this works will think "okay, so this is broken, but how can I profit from this?" rather than focus their energies on how the system can be fixed. The former is much easier to accomplish. Taking that cynicism one step further: I don't think it is about ease or difficulty of either approach. Rather, those who understand the system also typically understand the human nature, particularly its lust for power, which prohibits any system from being truly fixed. Because any system is going to be gamed by someone to accumulate power for themselves (or their inner circles). So why not apply your insights for your own benefits?