The "Modest Proposal to Eliminate Inequality" elicited a thoughtful response, so I will offer a thoughtful addendum. The response was,
As you say, Facebook is bad for long discussions, but very briefly: my concern with inequality is twofold. First, it seems clear that humans can become motivated to achieve unbounded wealth -- that is to say, to be motivated to continually seek more wealth, regardless of their current amount of wealth, far beyond anything necessary for survival. Second, it is to me clear that the systemic effects of many such super-rich people, continuing to seek further wealth, has distorting and disproportionate effects on politics, which greatly increase the difficulty of political change which would address many of the "problems that can wreck everyone" -- especially poverty and climate change. In other words: the (politically) unrestrained pursuit of arbitrary amounts of wealth by the super-rich causes those people, and their specific selfish wealth-increasing agendas, to have immensely disproportionate impact on society's policymaking -- to the detriment of the large majority of the population.
In reply,
Do people pursue wealth beyond the bounds of apparent sense? Of course; we pursue many things beyond such bounds. But aside from the question of money in politics, it sounds like you and I are reasonably in tune to encourage the pursuit of wealth that is channeled by sensible laws/regulations/incentives into doing well by doing good, i.e., by creating more wealth than you consume. Which suggests you'd agree to give people like Larry Page, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Elon Musk, all of whom are either apolitical or in favor of fixing things, an exclusion on the matter. Which suggests the issue is not inequality, it is corruption. So let us focus on that. The standard Democratic inequality proposal, taxing not just bad actors but everyone with money, long after the bad actors have done the deed, is both too late and too scattershot.
Still, is money in politics one of the biggest sources of political dysfunction? Right at the moment, I could wish money influenced politics as much as some people claim. If it did, Jeb Bush would be running against Hillary Clinton, and the whole world would be a safer place. I have another whole rant on money in politics and the rise of social media. The truth about the money is more complex and nuanced than the simplistic rants of news media.
I don't have a rant about why we cannot fix global warming. Why not? Because I have an entire sf novel planned, "Observations from the Apocalypse". Boy, how I wish the biggest difficulty in fixing global warming was to prevent the Koch brothers from making campaign contributions. Consider the dramatic German and Japanese increases in carbon dioxide footprints. These are not the result of wealth, they are the result of hysteria.
Whatever we do, we must not hinder Elon Musk's effort to colonize Mars. It is our only backup plan. And for this plan, Elon has demonstrated himself more competent than all of earth's governments. Typical efforts to eliminate inequality would almost certainly hinder his efforts. Let us be careful.
<< A Modest Proposal to Solve Inequality <<
As you say, Facebook is bad for long discussions, but very briefly: my concern with inequality is twofold. First, it seems clear that humans can become motivated to achieve unbounded wealth -- that is to say, to be motivated to continually seek more wealth, regardless of their current amount of wealth, far beyond anything necessary for survival. Second, it is to me clear that the systemic effects of many such super-rich people, continuing to seek further wealth, has distorting and disproportionate effects on politics, which greatly increase the difficulty of political change which would address many of the "problems that can wreck everyone" -- especially poverty and climate change. In other words: the (politically) unrestrained pursuit of arbitrary amounts of wealth by the super-rich causes those people, and their specific selfish wealth-increasing agendas, to have immensely disproportionate impact on society's policymaking -- to the detriment of the large majority of the population.
In reply,
Do people pursue wealth beyond the bounds of apparent sense? Of course; we pursue many things beyond such bounds. But aside from the question of money in politics, it sounds like you and I are reasonably in tune to encourage the pursuit of wealth that is channeled by sensible laws/regulations/incentives into doing well by doing good, i.e., by creating more wealth than you consume. Which suggests you'd agree to give people like Larry Page, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Elon Musk, all of whom are either apolitical or in favor of fixing things, an exclusion on the matter. Which suggests the issue is not inequality, it is corruption. So let us focus on that. The standard Democratic inequality proposal, taxing not just bad actors but everyone with money, long after the bad actors have done the deed, is both too late and too scattershot.
Still, is money in politics one of the biggest sources of political dysfunction? Right at the moment, I could wish money influenced politics as much as some people claim. If it did, Jeb Bush would be running against Hillary Clinton, and the whole world would be a safer place. I have another whole rant on money in politics and the rise of social media. The truth about the money is more complex and nuanced than the simplistic rants of news media.
I don't have a rant about why we cannot fix global warming. Why not? Because I have an entire sf novel planned, "Observations from the Apocalypse". Boy, how I wish the biggest difficulty in fixing global warming was to prevent the Koch brothers from making campaign contributions. Consider the dramatic German and Japanese increases in carbon dioxide footprints. These are not the result of wealth, they are the result of hysteria.
Whatever we do, we must not hinder Elon Musk's effort to colonize Mars. It is our only backup plan. And for this plan, Elon has demonstrated himself more competent than all of earth's governments. Typical efforts to eliminate inequality would almost certainly hinder his efforts. Let us be careful.
<< A Modest Proposal to Solve Inequality <<