Re:The Real Class War
by danaris on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @02:09PM
(#21641539)
Oh, I actually quite agree—at least in part. Jeff Bezos isn't sitting in Washington rubbing his hands together, twirling his little mustache and cackling with glee every time an Amazon warehouse worker pees in a bottle.
But...who would? I mean, that's not the behavior of real people. That's the problem, and the way these things are allowed to happen—people have a hard time understanding that real people, who love their family and tell jokes and have opinions about Game of Thrones, can do terrible, evil things.
It's not that the extremely wealthy actively seek the suffering of those beneath them (mostly; there are probably a few who are weird enough, but it's not enough to make a policy out of). It's that they don't care...or, worse, they see it as some kind of necessary evil to make the pure libertarian utopia they envision. And indeed, the idea that many of them are based in principles of individual freedom is a huge part of how they've sold the whole lot, despite the fact that carrying those principles to any sort of logical conclusion inevitably results in terrible suffering among real people.
But while I agree that there wasn't some intentional conspiracy meeting where they laid out a New World Order-type plot to take 99% of all the world's wealth, that doesn't mean that all the various efforts to enrich the wealthy aren't very deliberate—and to some degree coordinated.
Actions do not have to be taken by cartoonishly evil people to have cartoonishly evil outcomes, and looking around at America today, I can't help but think that's where we've ended up.
But...who would? I mean, that's not the behavior of real people. That's the problem, and the way these things are allowed to happen—people have a hard time understanding that real people, who love their family and tell jokes and have opinions about Game of Thrones, can do terrible, evil things.
It's not that the extremely wealthy actively seek the suffering of those beneath them (mostly; there are probably a few who are weird enough, but it's not enough to make a policy out of). It's that they don't care...or, worse, they see it as some kind of necessary evil to make the pure libertarian utopia they envision. And indeed, the idea that many of them are based in principles of individual freedom is a huge part of how they've sold the whole lot, despite the fact that carrying those principles to any sort of logical conclusion inevitably results in terrible suffering among real people.
But while I agree that there wasn't some intentional conspiracy meeting where they laid out a New World Order-type plot to take 99% of all the world's wealth, that doesn't mean that all the various efforts to enrich the wealthy aren't very deliberate—and to some degree coordinated.
Actions do not have to be taken by cartoonishly evil people to have cartoonishly evil outcomes, and looking around at America today, I can't help but think that's where we've ended up.