December 16, 2015
-
Are All Inequalities Created Equal?
Suppose I were to describe you a system:
1) The people at the top of this system get most of the benefits. Many earned their way there, but some were merely genetically fortunate.
2) The people in the middle get decent benefits. However, at times they are at the mercy of the people at the top. They live in perpetual insecurity of dropping to the bottom.
3) The people at the bottom get few benefits. The only reason they do not rebel more often is manipulation from the top and middle, or the depressing feeling that they will lose what little they have if they complain.
I’ve described a pseudo-meritocracy that sounds a lot like capitalism...and the hook-up culture. If you’re for socialism, are you then for...monogamy? If you’re anti-capitalist, should you also decry sexual excess in the name of consistency? Heh, just have been thinking about it lately.
Comments (7)
test
interesting. it seems to be allowing me to comment even though I'm not "active".
What you are describing here doesn't sound like capitalism at all to me. It sounds more like socialism/communism. the government (the people at the top) control everything. Some people may have earned their government positions, others inherited their positions (think, the Kim family in NK). lower level buerocrats have it better than the average worker/citizen but they are still reliant upon their "betters" Monogamy would also not be something that would play into socialism; if you belong to the state, you do what the state tells you to do with your body. monogamy, polygamy, there is no choice, only what you are told to do.
Yes, feel free to comment, you can still leave all the comments you want. And you are right, actual socialism/communism has not done as good a job as they think. However, interestingly enough, some forms of communism/socialism have been fairly emphatic on monogamy, idea of strong family = strong state. I think so, anyway, I should research.
I like the way you think. I feel a lot of the time capitalism is hardly any different from socialism. There is still a stupid amount of regulation, both are merely adjusting the rules to benefit another set of people.
I've managed to offend both camps, while remaining morally superior to both.
Why do you hate America so much, John?
p.s. what am i doing on this site?
@llamalima: You're here because you missed me, obviously. Ha, but seriously, nice to see you comment, always like your wit and sarcasm. And maybe America is not the right place for me, who knows.
You are literally one of two people who have posted something on this site in the past 6 months. Everyone else is dead--this is like Z for Zechariah.
>America is not the right place for me
Exactly. Come join my hippie commune!
I think it is hard to critique capitalism because we have not been in a capitalistic system for a long while.
We have a mix of systems; crony capitalism/corporate welfare, and certainly many aspects of socialism in our safety net.
Is it a new type of facism (technically speaking. of course) ? I think our system of taxation, picking winners and losers in industry, creates a situation where the government can brag when things work and blame business when it can't succeed under their regulatory environment.
A system in wish you can not fail is a system in which you can not truly succeed either. Capitalism requires the ability to fail.
Comments are closed.