Tuesday, March 11, 2014

On Marxists (or people who aren't Tea Party Republicans) and their obvious perfidy

Over at Sadly no, BBKF  re-posted an American Thinker comment that claimed that "As Marxists have proven over the centuries they are the lowest of the low." and went on to claim that Democrats were engaged in wholesale election fraud.  Leaving aside the unproven, deliberately provocative, allegations of imaginary election fraud, by broadly painting democrats and liberals as Marxists, he's trying to suggest that Marxism is inherently bad, and that liberals and democrats should feel bad, and stop trying to obstruct the goals of Tea Party, the Republican party and by implied extension of all true Americans.  But...

Property and ownership are customs, they aren't inherent in any physical object, much less for abstract concepts.  Customs can change.  Animals claim territory so it's not just a human invention, but they also share territory, and they are at the mercy of any other animal or group of animals capable of running them off.  Capitalists claim ownership of mines, of farms, of factories, but the only thing that makes that even as valid as a bird's claim to a nest, is the collective will of society to enforce those rights.  Society can also exercise its collective will to abrogate some or all of those rights.  Laws and taxes can change. 

Lots of people forget that.  When a society or population has had enough of the concentration of resources and power by the wealthy elite far beyond the dreams of avarice while a broad plurality of the population have to curtail their ambitions of a good job and a house and a family, or go hungry or homeless, that society can and should re-examine the social contract that makes that hoarding possible, and if necessary, re-distribute resources in a more equitable fashion.

There's nothing inherently moral about our current system of property and capital.  There's nothing inherently immoral about systems that strive to curb the excesses of hoarding and monopoly.  Every time a new tax is implemented or adjusted, legislators and regulators are adjusting the rate at which capital can accumulate, and way resources are allocated.  I'm not against hyper capitalist billionaires buying everything and running the world economy for their sole benefit because of my deep commitment to make sure everyone has an equal share of our world's prosperity.  I'm against hyper capitalists buying everything because that road leads to riots, famine, bloodshed and revolution.

Marxists aren't the lowest of the low, billionaires aren't the lowest of the low*, the lowest of the low are people that defend the inequalities in our country and our economy because they hope to someday make a buck off of it.

*put a billion dollars in my stock portfolio and I too, would probably throw my weight around politically and legally.  Anything that empowers people, will also empower assholes, but that doesn't mean the rest of us should have live at the mercy of the whims of billionaire assholes.

3 comments:

  1. You have a stock portfolio? ELITIST LOOXURY!

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  2. Well, if someone were giving me a billion dollars I'd sure as hell get one. Right now I just have a 401k, which already puts more of my skin in that rigged game than I am strictly comfortable with.

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  3. I'm against hyper capitalists buying everything because that road leads to riots, famine, bloodshed and revolution.

    Along with constant wars.
    ~

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