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Well, this is annoying (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 13 points 2 months ago (1 child)

Having power and wealth destroys empathy for less powerful people on a physiological level. That allows them to exploit people harder to get more wealth and power.

Taxing they wealth away doesn't work. Maybe just put people in jail for every year they have x amount of dollar. You can be free or wealthy, not both.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Just an FYI, that goes all the way down the power chain. We tend to have less (instinctive) empathy for people below us. It's not we actively want to do them harm, but that we just don't think about them at all.

    E.g. when did you last take proactive action to help the exploited workers harvesting chocolate? You likely never even thought about them.

    The problem is that people like musk look down on us the same way. We get smashed by their indifference.

    The best long term solution is a tax system aimed at "regression to the mean". I.e. exceptional people can get rich. However rich, "average" people will regress back towards average income and savings. Conversely, an averagely capable poor person should easily climb back up to average income levels.

    Basically change the graph from a hump to a bathtub shape.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    Your system has a flaw from my perspective. It ignores the effect of wealth on capability, especially in youth. People who are already less "exceptional" - say, mentally challenged - would stay poor through factors outside of their control. On the other side, people who are "exceptional" are most commonly so because of the benefits wealth brings, so the way i understand your system, it will cement the status quo - the rich stay rich because of virtue of being rich, the poor and uneducated stay poor because they are poor and unremarkable.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    It's not perfect, but no system is. The goal is to keep a level of equibility, while also allowing the good to benefit from their own efforts.

    If the rich invest in their children, and make them exceptional, that's fine. Trying to get parents not to do that goes against extremely strong instincts. The goal is to make climbing the wall harder, not impossible. If the child buckles down and takes advantage that's fine. If they slack off and coast, they will coast back towards the mean income level. They won't get the run away effect that happens currently.

    A lot more can be done at the bottom. Giving poorer children the education and support facilities needed to reach their potential would make a huge difference, for a relatively small investment from society.

    It's also worth noting that I'm also an advocate for UBI. There should be a floor on how poor people can be. As a society, we can afford to support that.

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