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I disagree with a few things youre saying, though I think your heart is in the right place, allow me a moment. People who own property pay property taxes, the t
by Geisterde 3y ago
I disagree with a few things youre saying, though I think your heart is in the right place, allow me a moment. People who own property pay property taxes, the truth is that almost no one owns property in america, even the rich, we only lease it from the government. Further, a rich persons contribution to society is that cellphones are cheap and powerful, that you can have anything from a couch to a christmas dinner delivered to your door, that any of us have free time enough to talk on the internet rather than sustenance farming.
There is a big trick, they are robbing you, but knowing how is half the battle. As you say regulations push out competition, that is one factor; along with government spending which will always flow to connected interests; lastly a monetary system where the money can only exist when its loaned into existence by a private corporation, the Fed.
Each of these have their respective mythos of justification, and an underlying purpose. Regulation is to protect the public despite the fact that the regulations only come after working conditions have already improved, and are passed after the well connected corporate interests have gained some advantage that would be difficult for smaller businesses to replicate. Government spending is sold as defending citizens from ner-do-wells foreign and domestic, or more modernly for providing for the downtrodden, whereas the vast majority of money flows into the military industrial complex, the pharmaceutical industry, the banks and other well connected interests. The existence of a private organization responsible for the creation of our money is sold as a way to keep prices stable, when the reality is it gives them dominion over the wealth of the population, by manipulating interest rates and banking regulations they can chronically steal the wealth out of the paper you work for.
- mplanchard 3y agoI agree with some of what you’re saying, but “regulation is to protect the public despite the fact that the regulations only come after working conditions have already improved” seems to be pretty patently false, historically, for workplace, health, and environmental regulations.
- Geisterde 3y agoWell, I wont pretend to have sources in hand, but as I understand it things like child labor were already gone by the time it was regulated away, or like having breaks was found to improve worker efficiency before they were required by law. You can see this from a couple years ago when jeff bezos using a sockpuppet account to lambast bernie sanders attacks on amazon, he said amazon had a higher starting wage than bernies own states minimum wage and called on him to do better; yes, absolutely true but also a pristine reason not to raise the minimum wage, it wouldn't even affect amazon, americas largest private sector workforce. As to environmental regulations, those carbon tetraflourides (i think that was it) were removed before regulations. The emissions of modern vehicles being relatively low is as much a product of manufacturers marketing better gas mileage, low NVH (noise, vibration, hashness), and improved performance, as it has been about environmental regulation. Energy is a ladder, where every step represents higher capital investment and lower long run costs, it also generally represents lower emissions, from burning literal shit>wood>coal>oil>natural gas>nuclear; it shouldn't surpise anyone that the government didnt need to regulate away burning shit for energy.