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The shifting politics of inequality and the class ceiling
Nonnel:
--- Quote from: Cappytaino on July 08, 2017, 10:34:41 AM ---You seem to be confusing economic equality for prosperity. Take for example a country like Somalia. Most people are equal in the economic sense but that isn't indicative of prosperity.
Economic inequality doesn't mean something is inherently unfair. Correct me if I'm mistaken but you seem to be insinuating that equality of outcome is more important than equality of opportunity; that is to say, if I go to medical school and you flip burgers, it is inherently unfair that I make more money than you do despite spending many more years on my education and training?
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In a classless society, doctors would still make more money than fast food workers. The difference is that there isn't an owner of the fast food restaurant who is making 10x what the other workers make.
Conan:
basic rule of the internet: 99.9999% of the time its impossible to change anyone else's thoughts or perspective on something
Karl Marx:
--- Quote from: Conan on July 08, 2017, 01:47:51 PM ---basic rule of the internet: 99.9999% of the time its impossible to change anyone else's thoughts or perspective on something
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My opinions have been shaped, for the most part, by internet discourse.
Letting people communicate almost anything they want to anyone in the world is a great way to spread, develop, and challenge ideas. Refusing to change your stance is evidence of stubbornness, not a failure of the miraculous innovation of communication technology.
Cappytaino:
--- Quote from: Nonnel on July 08, 2017, 01:25:25 PM ---In a classless society, doctors would still make more money than fast food workers. The difference is that there isn't an owner of the fast food restaurant who is making 10x what the other workers make.
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where does the capital come from? In capitalism usually the owner of the business or investors will provide the capital to establish that business for the purpose of providing goods/services for profit. Where is the incentive in capitalism? "Because it's for the common good" is a pretty weak incentive.
Look at Venezuela right now. They have some of the largest reserves of Oil in the world, abundant natural resources, and the people are marching in the streets to throw their communist government out.
People vote with their feet. Why are more people not going to live in North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, etc? Why historically did people run en-masse AWAY from communism If it's so great?
Karl Marx:
For anyone still convinced that capitalist tendencies are biologically innate, or that people are only motivated by monetary incentives:
Grotesque inequality is not a natural part of being human
--- Quote ---An attack on capitalism is “an attack on human nature” itself, according to an essay by the American humanities professor Mark Hunter. All of which is the perfect justification of the status quo: we cannot live under any other system because of our own biological hardwiring.
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/apr/25/inequality-project-guardian-in-depth-look-unequal-world-equality
So perhaps it is surprising to turn to the City for the evidence against this. Our financial sector, which plunged a large swath of humanity into economic turmoil, is perhaps the epitome of all the negative traits associated with modern capitalism. But a study published in Nature suggests it is the financial system that promotes dishonest behaviour: in other words, the individuals involved are not innately dishonest. The culture they work in is to blame, driving people to behave in a certain way. In the Square Mile’s daily newspaper, City AM, this research is presented as undermining the arguments promoted by “banker bashers” that the City attracts such people. Quite the reverse: it shows that if an environment successfully promotes selfishness, then it can equally nurture very different sorts of behaviour, too.
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The Compassionate Instinct
Study on human altruism
Are bankers dishonest?
How Capitalism changes conscience
Motivation is Driven by Purpose - and not Monetary Incentives
How Culture and Experience Shape our Lives
Don't let clueless dolts like Ayn Rand dictate your philosophy.