Comment on Reification
Funkytom467@lemmy.world 9 months agoBecause we have limited resources, no riches can come to you without profiting of the work of others. If you really want to get your own view you can just look for yourself how rich people got their wealth and judge by yourself is that normal.
I meant that for the extremely wealthy to be precise.
Some moderately rich people are actually contributing positively. They are examples of what capitalism used to be, a system that wasn’t perfect but could still lead society in a positive direction, sometimes better than the alternatives.
Redistribution of resources only works to some extent. Not to redistribute all the wealth in one go sure, but to balance the inequity continuously. For exemple taxe on income could be such a way. And like you said some rich people are ok with it and are philanthropic even.
But the true goal of society would be to distribute riches correctly in the first place. So we don’t have to rely on philanthropy.
And yeah i don’t think capitalism distribute it correctly. So it’s theirs in our capitalistic society, but it isn’t rightfully in my opinion.
HardNut@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Why is this true, and why is this a problem?
In almost all cases I can think of, a rich person became rich because they provided a product or service that others saw value in, and this generally works for the betterment of civilization.
Ford got rich off cars, the people benefitted by gaining access to transportation. JP Morgan got rich off trains, same thing, he provided a transportation service that people willfully used. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs gave us home computers, despite whatever your opinion is for each of them. Jeff Bezos got rich because he made the online marketplace so ridiculously easy to use, a service people enjoy and see value in.
This is the principle reason they got rich in all of these cases: they sold something the people wanted, at a price they were willing to.
Can you describe what some of these moderately rich people are doing better than the mega rich people?
Why is this the goal of society? How do you determine it’s been distributed correctly?
Funkytom467@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Do you think it’s false? Because unless you don’t get it i’m not sure i’m interested in formulating logically a trivia.
And it’s not always a problem. When is it not, only if it’s balanced by making a plus-value on that work. And of course if its done within some ethical rules. (For exemple no slavery.) That plus-value is what’s better for moderately rich people who can create jobs and services without the problems that most very rich creates…
I think all the services you quoted would have been implemented either way. Some like cars for example might have been at the expense of better ways. An exemple is how, in the us, highways replaced the railroad system for profit.
In general, the way they implemented those solutions was through corruption like that and unethical work condition. (And it goes beyond the service they got rich on, to what they are doing currently too)
Moreover this idea of selling things at the (highest) price people are willing to buy is a great factor in creating many of thoses problems.
It’s the same logic that makes work conditions unethical. That includes using worker in other countries wich conditions are literally considered unethical in the country the goods are sold. But to a lesser degree also the bad conditions of work in many field.
Taking healthcare as a exemple, how do you expect a nurse to sell her work at a higher price. If you want a nurse to give the best service to society or even be ethical, you can’t raise the price?
So it goes either way, either healthcare become expensive. Or like in my country, it’s free, but the conditions becomes worse and worse. Both being bad for society.
So maybe not the goal, but a goal of society is to distribute those resources correctly. Simply because it’s necessary for us to live together.