Comment on Reification
HawlSera@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Thing is, America thinks giving us bread and circuses is “Socialism”
Comment on Reification
HawlSera@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Thing is, America thinks giving us bread and circuses is “Socialism”
Funkytom467@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Circuses isn’t socialism, it’s a pretty useful tool of capitalism, even though it ruins it in some cases.
Bread though, no capitalist will ever share their bread. Or anything for that matter.
HawlSera@lemm.ee 11 months ago
No, but the tyrants are so insane that they’re writing off ciruces and bread as socialism
Funkytom467@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Isn’t any tyrants left in the west, the system is the one being tyrannical. No head will fall and capitalism will end.
And the system is revolt proof. So it doesn’t care for the people one bit. Hence it can call anything good for the population “Socialism”, as in the enemy.
Capitalism was good but it’s time let it go, it failed us.
HardNut@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Historical precedence says you’re wrong. Rockefeller, a prominent capitalist and thus commonly demonized by anti-capitalists, supported initiatives to combat hunger. His foundation provided substantial funding for soup kitchens during the great depression, and his foundation has continued to focus on public health, education, and scientific research.
JP Morgan, “the ghost of rich dudes passed”, was also philanthropic as fuck. He didn’t donate food directly, but his efforts supported educational institutions, scientific research, and the arts.
Even Elon Musk has a foundation that studies renewable energy research, space exploration, pediatric research, and more, all at cost for the betterment of the world. In fact, when it was especially popular to point out that his wealth could end poverty entirely, he started directly asking people for their metrics and potential methods. He was clearly ready to put resources into fixing a problem, but nothing ever came of it because no one actually had real metrics or methods, they just wanted a reason to dunk on Elon.
Okay so those are just some guys I already knew about, what if I just pick a random “capitalist” name I hear commonly thrown around. Carnegie, sure, not sure what he did but I know I’ve seen his name besmirched for being capitalist aaaaand yep look at that! In his older age he donated most of his wealth to the establishment of public libraries, educational institutions, and foundations aimed at promoting world peace. I literally had no idea about any details of this guy’s life, but yeah, it’s not surprising that a successful prominent capitalist lived a life of philanthropy in his later years, because that’s the more consistent pattern.
Have you ever once even tried to look into whether what you believe is true or not? Or would you just rather hate a label you’ve been told to hate?
TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 11 months ago
[Same](Sociology professor Linsey McGoey has written that many current and past philanthropists amassed their fortunes by predatory business practices which enhanced the very social problems their philanthropy is intended to alleviate.)
HardNut@lemmy.world 11 months ago
What predatory practices?
Funkytom467@lemmy.world 11 months ago
My point of view is that the money all capitalist have is a resource that was taken from the rest of us. So donating all of it back would just be the bare minimum someone can do.
After donating all of it back, you’re right we also need to figure out a plan to distribute it properly in the first place, and most important make a system and society that’s gonna provide for everyone.
And no kidding no one found a answer to that, from the beginning of human society we only very briefly achieved some systems that’s almost there. But no one never had the answer. There is always some problems in any society.
What i know for sure is that capitalism is not only not the answer, but is actually a system that’s getting more and more corrupted, with increasing problems. To the point it’s leading us directly to a wall.
So in all the different view we can have of the world, all the different system we can use for society, there is no right system, there is worse than capitalism, but there is also better. I strive for not the definitive best, just better…
HardNut@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Why?
I didn’t suggest that. Redistribution of resources doesn’t work, because people don’t easily comply with their wealth being taken away. This idea requires the assumption that it’s not theirs to begin with, so we’re back to the first question: why is a capitalist’s wealth not rightfully theirs?
c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 11 months ago
All of these men would have made more of a difference and reduced their own wealth more if they’d supported a land value tax and the restructuring of capitalist economics to it’s true form of laborers creating an increase in wealth due to labor, and having wages derived from said labor by estimating their personal effort and the increase in capital that comes from it.
Instead we have men who owned more of the economy than Bezos and Musk giving out a pittance to help the poor when they’re the source of the problem with their pseudo-capitalism “trickle up” economics.
Fix the issue, rich people giving away 1% of their wealth isn’t a solution when the problem is the system that allows for them by taxing the wrong people on the wrong items. Eliminate all taxes and institute the LVT so the middle class doesn’t have to keep shouldering the burden that the rich should have an equal share of.
HardNut@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Land value tax is simply unjustifiable, because land is the most important thing to leave in private hands. To allow for land tax is to concede that the state has a right to the land you own. The problems that has directly lead to in history are innumerable. From Rome to Russia, state control of land was at the forefront of their issues.
Why do you think reducing their wealth is a moral good? If you want to improve life for some people, your focus should not be on reducing wealth for others. The latter does not necessarily lead to the former, and it’s an inherently destructive mindset. Destroying one person’s wealth merely destroys their wealth, it does not make others lives better by default