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Going to paraphrase a quote from a podcast that stuck with me. > What (the left) needs to do is clear out rents. Not just housing rents, but rent seekers. The

Going to paraphrase a quote from a podcast that stuck with me. > What (the left) needs to do is clear out rents. Not just housing rents, but rent seekers. The economy is riddled through with people who do nothing, but get paid because structurally that’s who gets paid. Intuit is one of those companies. They produce a few real products, QuickBooks for businesses and Mint, but overwhelmingly their money comes from the fact that they charge rent on filling your taxes. They’re a parasite on our society. Fortunately the podcaster wasn’t talking about the US; their country was worse off than America in this area by far. But unfortunately it seems like we’re on the same glide slope if we don’t do something about it.

Clubber 5y ago
>What (the left) needs to do is clear out rents. Unfortunately in the US the rent seekers have an easy hack to make sure that never happens: lobbying. The system will never change unless we vote out the current politicians, and then maybe it will change. We might have to clear out most, ideally all of the applicable congress every election cycle for a few years before we see any results. As long as we keep voting in the same people, nothing will change and it will most likely only get worse. The current political power structure is great at telling us what we want to hear, then conducting business as usual. The only political power the citizenry has is our vote, everything else can be ignored. Emails go unanswered, polls go unnoticed, protests get suppressed. Occupy Wall Street was 10 years ago. Thing are worse today than they were back then.
- landemva 5y ago
  The federal system in regards to lobbying would change if we followed the constitution as written to allow House of Representatives to grow with census population count. And restore the not direct election of Senators. Then remove federal personal income tax. For icing on the cake, shut down the 3rd central bank known as 'Federal Reserve'. This would require a nationwide general strike to show the people are serious. Most people are not serious about anything beyond TV, social media, and more personal debt.
  - candiddevmike 5y ago
    Definitely expand the house, but we should abolish the Senate. It serves no purpose except tyranny of the minority and gridlock.
    - Clubber 5y ago
      The senate is supposed to represent the state governments at the federal level, but they stopped doing that with direct elections. It was to prevent large states with a concentration of population (currently like CA, NY, TX, FL) to have too much power over smaller states. Here's some background on the arguments for and against. It's got some partisan hyperbole so try to ignore all that. https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-17th-amendment-under-attack/ https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-17th-amendment-un...
      - ashtonkem 5y ago
        Honestly, I don’t really care too much about representing the states per se. It’s the people of the nation that the federal government should respond to, not the divisions.
  - ZoomerCretin 5y ago
    >The federal system in regards to lobbying would change if we followed the constitution as written to allow House of Representatives to grow with census population count. Sounds good. >And restore the not direct election of Senators. Then remove federal personal income tax. For icing on the cake, shut down the 3rd central bank known as 'Federal Reserve'. I’m curious to know how any of these policies would be beneficial.
    - charwalker 5y ago
      Yeah, that's an odd set of policies to support.
      - landemva 5y ago
pydry 5y ago
The left doesnt really have any power in the US. What passes for the left (the socially liberal corporate elites that run most of the democratic party) are pretty much just as invested in protecting the rentiers as the right wing. Rentier money is structurally geared towards destroying any populist politicians who threaten their rents. It was a fluke that AOC won given her Democratic opponent (when she was unknown) outspent her something like 7:1. People like her arent supposed to slip through the early stage political filter. If they do slip through there's also an enormously powerful and effective propaganda machine dedicated to character assassination.
- twofornone 5y ago
  >The left doesnt really have any power in the US Without debating whether the left has political power (hard to question when the administration and majority of house and senate are left leaning), there's no question that "the left" dominates our media and most of our institutions, and controls (often explicitly as with big tech) the boundaries of allowable discourse.
- thebigman433 5y ago
  This is so important and I think a lot of people miss it. The "left" that has power in the US (establishment dems) barely qualify as being left at all. They are very much invested in protecting power and wealth. The only "left" that would push against the rentiers are people who will almost never see power. However, I wouldnt say AOC winning is a "fluke". Its definitely the exception, but progressives have been able to repeat it a few more times in democrat strongholds that have historically kept establishment candidates. Right now the only "power" the real left has is withholding their votes from corporate dem bills like we're seeing with the BBB Act. This only even works because the rest of the party is interested in protecting power/wealth and is pretty inept at actually winning races.
  - jjcon 5y ago
    > The "left" that has power in the US (establishment dems) barely qualify as being left at all So when the left does something you dont like, they must not be left? Smells of no true scottsman to me.

Clubber 5y ago

>What (the left) needs to do is clear out rents. Unfortunately in the US the rent seekers have an easy hack to make sure that never happens: lobbying. The system will never change unless we vote out the current politicians, and then maybe it will change. We might have to clear out most, ideally all of the applicable congress every election cycle for a few years before we see any results. As long as we keep voting in the same people, nothing will change and it will most likely only get worse. The current political power structure is great at telling us what we want to hear, then conducting business as usual. The only political power the citizenry has is our vote, everything else can be ignored. Emails go unanswered, polls go unnoticed, protests get suppressed. Occupy Wall Street was 10 years ago. Thing are worse today than they were back then.

landemva 5y ago
The federal system in regards to lobbying would change if we followed the constitution as written to allow House of Representatives to grow with census population count. And restore the not direct election of Senators. Then remove federal personal income tax. For icing on the cake, shut down the 3rd central bank known as 'Federal Reserve'. This would require a nationwide general strike to show the people are serious. Most people are not serious about anything beyond TV, social media, and more personal debt.
- candiddevmike 5y ago
  Definitely expand the house, but we should abolish the Senate. It serves no purpose except tyranny of the minority and gridlock.
  - Clubber 5y ago
    The senate is supposed to represent the state governments at the federal level, but they stopped doing that with direct elections. It was to prevent large states with a concentration of population (currently like CA, NY, TX, FL) to have too much power over smaller states. Here's some background on the arguments for and against. It's got some partisan hyperbole so try to ignore all that. https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-17th-amendment-under-attack/ https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-17th-amendment-un...
    - ashtonkem 5y ago
      Honestly, I don’t really care too much about representing the states per se. It’s the people of the nation that the federal government should respond to, not the divisions.
- ZoomerCretin 5y ago
  >The federal system in regards to lobbying would change if we followed the constitution as written to allow House of Representatives to grow with census population count. Sounds good. >And restore the not direct election of Senators. Then remove federal personal income tax. For icing on the cake, shut down the 3rd central bank known as 'Federal Reserve'. I’m curious to know how any of these policies would be beneficial.
  - charwalker 5y ago
    Yeah, that's an odd set of policies to support.
    - landemva 5y ago

pydry 5y ago

The left doesnt really have any power in the US. What passes for the left (the socially liberal corporate elites that run most of the democratic party) are pretty much just as invested in protecting the rentiers as the right wing. Rentier money is structurally geared towards destroying any populist politicians who threaten their rents. It was a fluke that AOC won given her Democratic opponent (when she was unknown) outspent her something like 7:1. People like her arent supposed to slip through the early stage political filter. If they do slip through there's also an enormously powerful and effective propaganda machine dedicated to character assassination.

twofornone 5y ago
>The left doesnt really have any power in the US Without debating whether the left has political power (hard to question when the administration and majority of house and senate are left leaning), there's no question that "the left" dominates our media and most of our institutions, and controls (often explicitly as with big tech) the boundaries of allowable discourse.
thebigman433 5y ago
This is so important and I think a lot of people miss it. The "left" that has power in the US (establishment dems) barely qualify as being left at all. They are very much invested in protecting power and wealth. The only "left" that would push against the rentiers are people who will almost never see power. However, I wouldnt say AOC winning is a "fluke". Its definitely the exception, but progressives have been able to repeat it a few more times in democrat strongholds that have historically kept establishment candidates. Right now the only "power" the real left has is withholding their votes from corporate dem bills like we're seeing with the BBB Act. This only even works because the rest of the party is interested in protecting power/wealth and is pretty inept at actually winning races.
- jjcon 5y ago
  > The "left" that has power in the US (establishment dems) barely qualify as being left at all So when the left does something you dont like, they must not be left? Smells of no true scottsman to me.