5 ms·

That only bothers people who want to make life "fair" at the expense of what is practical. There is a reason we let people keep the wealth they build. It's not

by javert 5y ago

That only bothers people who want to make life "fair" at the expense of what is practical. There is a reason we let people keep the wealth they build. It's not because it's "fair." It's because taking it away, and having the brutes or demagogues decide how to distribute it, makes the society a hellhole.

TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
You should try visiting the Scandinavian hellholes to see how bad this can get. They're so backward they don't even have hundreds of thousands of health insurance bankruptcies every year.
- javert 5y ago
  Wouldn't work in the Americas, which have a far lower average level of human capital. You can't redistribute what has not been produced. There are lots of examples of this in history. By the way, the US health system crisis is caused by regulatory capture. There is no way to regulate the regulators to prevent this. At least, not in a failed democracy such as the US. Probably the only way to regulate the regulators in a society as complex as the US and most other countries (contra Scandinavia) is with strict constitutional principles. That's the only way I know. Once you put "people" in charge, corruption and other dysfunctions eventually reign.
  - amanaplanacanal 5y ago
    Are there any “not failed” democracies in your estimation? If so, what are they doing right that the US is doing wrong? Or is the whole Democratic experiment a failure?
    - mikem170 5y ago
      (not the person you are replying to...) One might look at Switzerland. A big difference between there and the U.S. seems to be that the people can petition for a vote on adding or removing any law or amendment they don't like, at any of their three levels of government. Contrast that to the U.S., where this ability doesn't exist in most places, including the federal government which was designed to be responsive to the states and not the people. The Swiss also have a tradition of local power where possible, to the point that most of their social programs such as health care are handled by cantons (states) that average a third of a million people each. While in the U.S. we have literally a thousand times that many people arguing over health care at the federal level. Here's a bunch of info on the Swiss political system: https://wolf-linder.ch/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Swiss-political-system.pdf https://wolf-linder.ch/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Swiss-poli...
- opo 5y ago
  >>...There is a reason we let people keep the wealth they build. >You should try visiting the Scandinavian hellholes... It is misleading to group all of the Scandinavian countries together in terms of wealth inequality. Here are the latest available wealth inequality numbers for the Scandinavian countries: Denmark 0.838 Finland 0.742 Iceland 0.694 Norway 0.798 Sweden 0.867 As a comparison the US is 0.852 The entire range for the world (where there are stats) is 0.498 - 0.902 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_inequality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_in...
ClumsyPilot 5y ago
"Demagogues decide how to distribute it, makes the society a hellhole" Fortunately corporate management and promotions are so different frin politics, no way would a demagogue or someine incompetent be in position of power and decide how to distribute wealth

by javert 5y ago

TheOtherHobbes 5y ago

You should try visiting the Scandinavian hellholes to see how bad this can get. They're so backward they don't even have hundreds of thousands of health insurance bankruptcies every year.

javert 5y ago
Wouldn't work in the Americas, which have a far lower average level of human capital. You can't redistribute what has not been produced. There are lots of examples of this in history. By the way, the US health system crisis is caused by regulatory capture. There is no way to regulate the regulators to prevent this. At least, not in a failed democracy such as the US. Probably the only way to regulate the regulators in a society as complex as the US and most other countries (contra Scandinavia) is with strict constitutional principles. That's the only way I know. Once you put "people" in charge, corruption and other dysfunctions eventually reign.
- amanaplanacanal 5y ago
  Are there any “not failed” democracies in your estimation? If so, what are they doing right that the US is doing wrong? Or is the whole Democratic experiment a failure?
  - mikem170 5y ago
    (not the person you are replying to...) One might look at Switzerland. A big difference between there and the U.S. seems to be that the people can petition for a vote on adding or removing any law or amendment they don't like, at any of their three levels of government. Contrast that to the U.S., where this ability doesn't exist in most places, including the federal government which was designed to be responsive to the states and not the people. The Swiss also have a tradition of local power where possible, to the point that most of their social programs such as health care are handled by cantons (states) that average a third of a million people each. While in the U.S. we have literally a thousand times that many people arguing over health care at the federal level. Here's a bunch of info on the Swiss political system: https://wolf-linder.ch/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Swiss-political-system.pdf https://wolf-linder.ch/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Swiss-poli...
opo 5y ago
>>...There is a reason we let people keep the wealth they build. >You should try visiting the Scandinavian hellholes... It is misleading to group all of the Scandinavian countries together in terms of wealth inequality. Here are the latest available wealth inequality numbers for the Scandinavian countries: Denmark 0.838 Finland 0.742 Iceland 0.694 Norway 0.798 Sweden 0.867 As a comparison the US is 0.852 The entire range for the world (where there are stats) is 0.498 - 0.902 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_inequality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_in...

ClumsyPilot 5y ago

"Demagogues decide how to distribute it, makes the society a hellhole" Fortunately corporate management and promotions are so different frin politics, no way would a demagogue or someine incompetent be in position of power and decide how to distribute wealth