this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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Late Stage Capitalism
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For most people if you never had to work a day of your life for you to live a decent life you probably would follow your own interests. And I'm not blaming you for that, but mass wealth isn't accomplished by everyone going on a journey of selffulfillment. Which economic system works better might I ask you?
It's not just about different systems. It's about priorities.
The Nordic model keeps capitalism heavily, heavily straightjacked, to power the wellbeing of society.
Taxes aren't largely resented, because everyone is educated to understand that when you succeed, the society you're a part of succeeds. No one fears going to a doctor, higher education is based on academic merit because everyone benefits from an educated populace. When you succeed, you are taxed to a degree that would make our capitalists cry. Yet they are the happiest people's in the world. And if that isn't the goal of any society, they're doing it wrong. We don't prioritize that at all, only how high our most effective sociopaths can fly.
Here, the tail has been wagging the dog for a long time, the false promise of being "free" to attain society warping levels of wealth has toxified our culture into forgeting that freedom devoid of responsibility is a rampage. Meanwhile everyone else is free to die in the gutter alone for the crime of not making them enough money.
Letting people gain enough wealth to warp society beyond their single vote, and more, not punishing trying to infect our politics with life imprisonment, has destroyed our democracy, it's all for show. You pick a major party, and I'll show you a party that's been bought and paid for by the same people, to the point they've made it all perfectly legal since Reagan and especially since Citizens United.
Capitalism belongs in making optional widgets for a reasonable profit it has no place in sectors people need to survive. Those should be socialized, because in those sectors stability is more important than economic growth/metastasis.
If it isn't enough motivation to have a peak of maybe 2 really big homes and 1 really big boat, then I question that person's motivations and recognition that they are a member of a society and not society's owner.
No one should have more unelected, unaccountable power over society than their single vote allows. No one. Capital beyond material needs and desires is power.
TLDR start with making attempting to bribe an elected official the highest of capital crimes, life no parole as they're actively attempting to bend all of society to their desires, only public funds for campaigns, continue by rewarding labor with far lower taxation than speculative, insider info laden gambling that should be taxed astronomically as the vice it is, and then have a maximum wealth tax at let's say a 100 million dollars where they're declared the winner, given a cake, and congratulations on all additional wealth going into improving the roads and commons of the society that facilitated their accumulation of such astronomical wealth to begin with.
If someone like Elon wants a kingdom, let him fly to Mars and make one.
I liked the build up but the conclusion really made no sense. Yes, capitalism needs to be strictly regulated and sectors that are irreplaceable and are too important to fail can't be trusted with private companies. I agree with that notion. If you ask for a 100 mio. max wealth tax then you don't really understand the meaning of wealth. If I start a company and my company gets valued at over 100 mio dollars what should I do? Sell parts of my company? Net worth is not like money on your bank account, and if other people value it so highly and I'm forced to sell parts of it this money won't really go into public hands. For one someone needs to buy it, with their capped monetary assets, and secondly only because a company is valued at a certain point doesn't mean you create more productivity or money out of thin air.
Absolutely. You won. You want to be pitied because you have enough to live like a modern pharoah for several lifetimes?
Whats wrong with forcing organizations with such an economic footprint to be owned by many members of society? That sounds healthy. That's just the logical next step of antitrust, no one person should own so much they have the power to make other citizen's lives harder.
Other people live in this country and on this planet. If someone wants to keep their business all to themselves, give a lot of charity instead of growing operations and keep your net worth at 90 million, everyone wins and your community will love you.
If these people truly want to flex their ego and build an infinite empire without any temperance or restraint, there's plenty of uninhabited islands where they can do so. They don't want to though, they want to exploit innumerable other people and use infrastructure they don't want to pay back into to build their infinite sums. Then hilariously claim they could have done it alone on the moon themselves with a paperclip by their bootstraps.
Our economy should reward Good, Proscial business people and business practices, and we don't. We reward sociopath hoarders. A good business person would have a nice car and home, but pump most of their profits back into their community, not hoard it like a dragon and influence politicians to lower their taxes to increase their hoards. This used to happen more. When pre Reagan tax slashes on speculative investment, more businesses did instead take those funds and rebuild a courthouse or buy a High school a new gym. They got their name on a building and thank the society that facilitated their success.
Our economy should be reward to elevate the George Baileys and punish the Mister Potters, if we want a society and not this cesspool of desperation and greed without limit.
You think it's wrong to split YOUR 100 million dollar company up, I ask why you want an infinite sized company taking up an entire economic sector, and what it is you want to do with 200 million dollars that you can't do with 100. I think something of whatever scale you're working on ought to have other voices brought in because again, other people live here and public good > your ego feelings.
Its not like they're hoarding it on their bank account. And ones the stocks of my company fall my 100 mio might not be worth anything or like just a part of it. And still... who would buy the company thats over these assets, and how should the company increase productivity which is in public interest if it does not have a stable ownership situation and it keeps changing due to the cap.
Just because a company is valued like 3 trillion like nvidia you couldn't just cash out just like that. Money doesn't just spawn and the productivity doesn't just go up. I don't necessarily want an infinitely sized company but if a company value keeps rising it indicates rising productivity and success which is good for society. A company doesn't need to make profit to be valued at a certain mark.