> Well, but I think we have to figure out what and whether we can do something about it (inequality), how much, and for what cost (cost in the non-economic sens

> Well, but I think we have to figure out what and whether we can do something about it (inequality), how much, and for what cost (cost in the non-economic sense). Agreed. > I think the observation that power accumulates in one way or the other, capitalism or not, seems to hold in any society. Sure. And disease also spreads. Just because we haven't figured out how to inoculate ourselves against power accumulation as a society doesn't mean it's impossible or wrong. I haven't read Foucault, but I'm pretty sure he answers a lot of your questions. > I would argue that the only things that hurt a society when it comes to accumulation of wealth/power is actually _using it in a detrimental_ sense. Detrimental according to who? Everyone, everyone agrees that accumulation of wealth/power hurts society when it is used in a detrimental sense. That's the definition of the word "detrimental". Classical liberalism was founded on understanding that this statement means nothing. Why are luxuries detrimental? Why is crony capitalism detrimental? Why is inefficiency detrimental? These are questions that you haven't answered, because your proposal is arbitrary. Liberalism, classical or not, holds up universalism as an ideal because arbitrary measures are problematic, not least because they remain unreasoned from agreed principles but more importantly because they're ultimately elitist. Don't get me wrong: I'm not disagreeing that they're detrimental; I'm saying that you're identifying symptoms. And I suspect the reason is this: You see societal solutions in economic, not political, terms. And that's a problem, because people are not defined in economic terms. It's not a surprise in a place like HN; most of us are engineers and we like quantifiable problems and answers. A politician is scary, because a politician plays with forces we don't have the same grasp on. My advice? If you want to understand power, stop learning about money. Yes, they're strongly correlated, but you're never going to get a racist to stop beating up differently colored people by offering them a million dollars.