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Accretionist
Nov 7, 2012
I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Golbez posted:

I have a friend who says he would rather pay more money for private health care than any public option because it's morally wrong to force him to pay for someone else. They aren't his concern.
What's he say about paying for highways or fire departments? Or that he'd have nothing without them paying for his stuff? The only difference between they and he is his conceit. They're in the same boat.

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Golbez
Oct 9, 2002

1 2 3!
If you want to take a shot at me get in line, line
1 2 3!
Baby, I've had all my shots and I'm fine

Accretionist posted:

What's he say about paying for highways or fire departments? Or that he'd have nothing without them paying for his stuff? The only difference between they and he is his conceit. They're in the same boat.

I tried this very argument; some people need more military or police or fire protection than others. Of course, then he mentioned that he wouldn't mind private police. :eng99:

Health care is civil infrastructure, just like police and fire and military and courts. Some people need more than others; some people never will; but we all benefit from the blanket level of protection.

Morton Haynice
Sep 9, 2008

doop doop
doop doop
doop doop
doop doop
[snip]

Morton Haynice fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Mar 4, 2013

User-Friendly
Apr 27, 2008

Is There a God? (Pt. 9)


Removed at Morton Haynice's request.

User-Friendly fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Mar 5, 2013

gaan kak
Jul 22, 2007

RAP APOLOGIST
I'm trying to show that consent to a particular activity does not entail consent to all possible outcomes of that particular activity. The objection I'm getting is pretty much, "yea, it is, they shouldn't have done -x-, so that -y- wouldn't have happened." I'm obviously not getting through to them, is there a resource I can read up on to try and structure my reasoning more clearly and persuasively? I've checked the Stanford Encyclopedia but can't find a salient article that addresses that point directly.

I AM GRANDO
Aug 20, 2006

gaan kak posted:

I'm trying to show that consent to a particular activity does not entail consent to all possible outcomes of that particular activity. The objection I'm getting is pretty much, "yea, it is, they shouldn't have done -x-, so that -y- wouldn't have happened." I'm obviously not getting through to them, is there a resource I can read up on to try and structure my reasoning more clearly and persuasively? I've checked the Stanford Encyclopedia but can't find a salient article that addresses that point directly.

Is it like, "if they didn't want to die in an earthquake, they shouldn't have moved to California"? If so, I'm not sure that there's a name for it. You should be able to take it apart pretty easily through examples that depart from the specifics of whatever your friend is hung up on.

Usually, though, there's no reaching people once they've declined to think through your refutation because they didn't reason themselves into the position they've occupied. Your friend likely adopted his position because of moral psychology (is it basically sluts profane their god-given, divine body with alcohol and so deserve the consequence of getting raped"? Or "poors deserve bad jobs because they lack the virtue to work hard enough to do better"?) and will now defend it reflexively because to him refutation feels like a personal attack. To admit error would be to compromise himself.

You can only reason somebody out of a position they reasoned themselves into.

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

User-Friendly posted:

Ask him to show news coverage for every single time a straight man raped and murdered a woman.

e: Removed

Shame Boy fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Mar 5, 2013

Judakel
Jul 29, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!

gaan kak posted:

I'm trying to show that consent to a particular activity does not entail consent to all possible outcomes of that particular activity. The objection I'm getting is pretty much, "yea, it is, they shouldn't have done -x-, so that -y- wouldn't have happened." I'm obviously not getting through to them, is there a resource I can read up on to try and structure my reasoning more clearly and persuasively? I've checked the Stanford Encyclopedia but can't find a salient article that addresses that point directly.

It is a classic problem with consequentialism - a school of ethics which states that consequences should be the ultimate basis for judging the morality of actions. As it applies to this particular case, the problem is this: It is impossible to know what all the outcomes of a particular decision will be, and so it is impossible to consent to all possible outcomes of that particular decision. Real observers do not possess such knowledge, so you could call it the "real observer problem" if you wish. As opposed to ideal observers.

twodot
Aug 7, 2005

You are objectively correct that this person is dumb and has said dumb things

gaan kak posted:

I'm trying to show that consent to a particular activity does not entail consent to all possible outcomes of that particular activity. The objection I'm getting is pretty much, "yea, it is, they shouldn't have done -x-, so that -y- wouldn't have happened." I'm obviously not getting through to them, is there a resource I can read up on to try and structure my reasoning more clearly and persuasively? I've checked the Stanford Encyclopedia but can't find a salient article that addresses that point directly.
I suspect the person you are speaking with is either arguing in bad faith or working off of a definition of consent you disagree with. The statement "Consent to an activity entails consent to all possible (foreseeable?) outcomes" isn't a wrong/right statement, it is a partial statement of what definition of consent you are using. But definitions are boring, we can adopt whatever definition we feel is appropriate for whatever conversation, what is interesting here is why is such a definition of consent useful. Presumably they are arguing that consent to an outcome implies the individual shouldn't be helped or we shouldn't feel bad if the outcome is bad. Whatever the case I think you need to address, given his definition of consent, how does that inform our beliefs and actions, and are those beliefs and actions desirable. I should note, that I think it's likely that this line of conversation will lead to you just saying "gently caress you, you are a bad person."

gaan kak
Jul 22, 2007

RAP APOLOGIST
We are specifically speaking about pregnancy and consent to sex, but they are also of the belief that those living in seismic zones in California or storm zones along the Gulf Coast should be S.O.L. if they are without private insurance. I feel like this might be an unproductive discussion with these people, but I appreciate everyone's help.

twodot posted:

I should note, that I think it's likely that this line of conversation will lead to you just saying "gently caress you, you are a bad person."

Yea, it's certainly getting there.

Judakel
Jul 29, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
There are many factors that play a role in where one lives, and no region in the world is free of natural disasters. The frequency of their occurrence is inconsequential, from the sounds of it. You could follow this logic to its inevitable conclusion and argue that we consent to anything bad that happens to us as a result of forces without moral agency no matter where we live.

Let's get to the heart of the matter though: Denying empathy due to consent is completely pointless. It achieves nothing and you gain nothing. No matter what ethics he wraps his opinion on, he is simply being an rear end in a top hat.

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


I've had this scenario occur to me a few times, with a few variations...

Someone who doesn't like Taxes... posted:

Why should I have to pay for someone's welfare? Or healthcare? Or the roads I don't use? It's my goddamn hard earned money!

This is pretty common among many people and this kind of phrase can me lighter or harsher but I've always had some kind of difficulty with formulating a decent default-response.

I've formulated this response.

quote:

The taxes you pay are payment for services the government has and is providing to you. While you may not use them their presence is indirectly and enormously beneficial to you. While welfare may not benefit you it's existence provides piece of mind and is there to serve as insurance during tough times. Just how there is insurance in the private market place the same exists for the public. This also protects the economy as what effects individuals directly effects the entire economy.

If you disagree with how funds are spent you are free to disagree however voters at this time have decided this is justified.

Thoughts?

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost
Instead of welfare (or only welfare) you might want to mention public utilities like water, electricity, roads, police, firemen, and teachers. He seems incredulous about paying for roads he doesn't use, but I can guarantee something or someone that benefits him has used those services. Raw materials come from everywhere, employees need basic education to become a successful workforce, everyone benefits from safe water and safe homes... it's the cost of living in a society, of civilization. By everyone contributing those resources are much more efficiently deployed in the manner that benefits everyone the most. Economies of scale don't disappear just because the government is the one doing it.

For welfare specifically, it's the cost of not having starving, desperate people breaking into anyplace they can (showing a little initiative, eh? good ol' bootstraps) just so they can survive and dragging their families and everyone else down with them.

However, if he's especially morally repugnant and talks about free market or some bullshit, ask him to consider whether welfare might just be the market-derived optimal solution? How much would it cost for everyone to get security guards, upgrade the security with their house, and the lawsuits from hurting or killing those desperate people? Surely giving them some food is a much better and cheaper alternative, born out by estimates by Moody's where every dollar spent on food stamps returned $1.50 to the economy.

Enjoy
Apr 18, 2009

Tab8715 posted:

Thoughts?

Peace of mind, affects :hitler: :spergin:

As for the content, "social contracts" are basically just fairy tales. Bourgeois states might be more or less nice in how they operate, but the capitalist class always has more political power in the aggregate than the rest of the populace, so the social programmes the state enacts are going to primarily be there to subvert radicalism (class collaboration/corporatism) and maintain capitalism in various ways (enforcement of property, formalisation of Adam Smith's "conspiracy against the public", infrastructure, protection from capitalists in other states with subsidies, protection from other states with armies). The make-up of an individual state in terms of social programmes and public institutions is a function of how hard various forces (eg anti-capitalists) have pushed against the ruling class, how hard the ruling class pushed back, the foreign threats the ruling class face, the interests of the important industries.

Nevertheless a fairy tale might be an easier sell for a right-winger than a class based explanation.

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


DarkHorse posted:

Instead of welfare (or only welfare) you might want to mention public utilities like water, electricity, roads, police, firemen, and teachers. He seems incredulous about paying for roads he doesn't use, but I can guarantee something or someone that benefits him has used those services.

I'd suspecting the knee-jerk reaction would simply be something such as - if the I don't use those roads and despite me benefiting from them those whom use them should foot the bill.

Enjoy posted:

Peace of mind, affects :hitler: :spergin:

:words:

Uh... What?

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost

Tab8715 posted:

I'd suspecting the knee-jerk reaction would simply be something such as - if the I don't use those roads and despite me benefiting from them those whom use them should foot the bill.
Can you turn that around then, and point out something which he uses for which he has not contributed? Something like the public school he went to as a kid, or moved to a place even though he hadn't paid taxes there before? Any roads he used on a cross-country trip? On an alternate tack, what about the military?

As an aside, you should have used "who" in that particular case. As a rule of thumb you only use "whom" when you'd use "him" or "her" when answering the (implied) question; "To whom should I give this letter?" "Give it to him," vs. "Who uses these roads?" "He does." I could give you a more precise answer of their distinctions, but that would require an even bigger derail detailing parts of speech and object/subject cases. It's just about always safe to use "who" though, as "whom" is rapidly falling out of circulation (and hence much of the confusion about its use).

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


My grammar was terrible, sorry about that :smith:

Another person I know brought up that minority rights don't exist only human rights. I'm suspecting that he means the government should allow businesses to discriminate based on race, sex, etc and that the "free market" would eventually correct this imbalance.

Am I on the right train of thought here? I think this is the same reasoning behind Ron Paul's books where he says that while it's morally despicable for an employer to sexual harass an employee it's just as wrong for the victim to ask the government to step in is wrong.

Judakel
Jul 29, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
He is right, minority rights don't exist. Civil rights do.

Oh dear me
Aug 14, 2012

I have burned numerous saucepans, sometimes right through the metal

Tab8715 posted:

I've always had some kind of difficulty with formulating a decent default-response.


I've stopped listing benefits of public expenditure because one gets bogged down in 'I didn't ask for that!' and 'I should be able to opt out!' and so on. Nowadays I just go straight in with "It's not your money. Is that your face on the notes? Taxation is the price you pay for the system that lets you get the money in the first place." They never want to opt out of money. :)

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

Oh dear me posted:

I've stopped listing benefits of public expenditure because one gets bogged down in 'I didn't ask for that!' and 'I should be able to opt out!' and so on. Nowadays I just go straight in with "It's not your money. Is that your face on the notes? Taxation is the price you pay for the system that lets you get the money in the first place." They never want to opt out of money. :)

I have honestly had someone come back at this argument with fuckmothering bitcoins before. I just stopped talking to them after that.

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


Oh dear me posted:

I've stopped listing benefits of public expenditure because one gets bogged down in 'I didn't ask for that!' and 'I should be able to opt out!' and so on. Nowadays I just go straight in with "It's not your money. Is that your face on the notes? Taxation is the price you pay for the system that lets you get the money in the first place." They never want to opt out of money. :)

I see this is why lolbertarians love their coins and gold standard. :smug:

SSJ2 Goku Wilders
Mar 24, 2010
Does anyone have some resources on Bitcoins? I have a couple of anarcho-libertarian friends that keep flooding my facebook with German Pirate Party articles about how it's a great idea to invest your pension in them

Mrs. Wynand
Nov 23, 2002

DLT 4EVA

SSJ2 Goku Wilders posted:

Does anyone have some resources on Bitcoins? I have a couple of anarcho-libertarian friends that keep flooding my facebook with German Pirate Party articles about how it's a great idea to invest your pension in them

I would say any text that describes how fiat currency works would be just fine - specifically inflation control. There was a fantastic (but lengthy) blog post explaining it for the (more or less) layman - not really about bitcoins, just about money in general. I've had no luck digging it out my various browser/bookmark histories though.

As far as I can tell bitcoins aren't the worst idea ever, they are just inferior to government backed, purposefully inflation controlled currencies in every way. (except for illegal things of course, for which they are great, at the cost of instability)

Well that and transaction costs, but that problem is quite solvable for traditional currency as well. For example.

Of course since your friends are anarcho-libertarians they would simply argue that these drawbacks, if they acknowledge they exist at all (bitcoins' crazy inflation control mechanism does approximate the behavior of actual central banks... well, in as much as an 8 year old playing doctor approximates a surgeon...) are worth the benefit of throwing off the oppressive yoke of government. And I mean, they're not wrong if you start from their premises. If you're not gonna have a government, you could do worse then bitcoins.

Nintendo Kid
Aug 4, 2011

by Smythe

SSJ2 Goku Wilders posted:

Does anyone have some resources on Bitcoins? I have a couple of anarcho-libertarian friends that keep flooding my facebook with German Pirate Party articles about how it's a great idea to invest your pension in them

Oh dear man. The short answer is just don't do it. The long answer is to go to http://buttcoin.org/ and read some of the articles about bitcoins and the bitcoin community as a whole. Investing in them is a fool's game.

Here's the value of bitcoin in USD over the past couple of years:


Notice the sharp spikes and corresponding sudden declines? We are currently approaching the peak of an upswing right now, this is about the worst possible time to invest in it.

It's also quite a bit of a hassle to get real money into and out of bitcoins. You end up either having to deal with several intermediaries between you and a bitcoin exchange, or paying a premium to buy "over the counter" in IRC channels.

ZeeToo
Feb 20, 2008

I'm a kitty!

SSJ2 Goku Wilders posted:

Does anyone have some resources on Bitcoins? I have a couple of anarcho-libertarian friends that keep flooding my facebook with German Pirate Party articles about how it's a great idea to invest your pension in them

Bitcoins are an ongoing trainwreck that's so consistent it can support a GBS thread.

The most obvious problem with them, not counting "the userbase" is that the value can fluctuate 50% in a month or two. Go ahead, throw your pension in.

SSJ2 Goku Wilders
Mar 24, 2010
I had seen the Bitcoin thread when it was still inchoate, but it exploded so fast that I couldn't really catch up with it anymore. Reading through 300 pages of posts just to riposte a few lunatics' crazyposting would've been a stupid way to spend time. But the Bitcoin meme is getting more traction, or it seems that way from my experience, so it helps to recognize the bs.

Are there any good, authoritative posts in that GBS thread that someone has the link handy to? What about articles on buttcoin.org? A lot of the website seems to be in-jokes for people whom already understand why the thing is laughable.

Thanks for the replies.

e: Just for the record, while they definitely did suggest putting my pension in them, I know enough about the things to know that this is a terrible idea :laffo:

SSJ2 Goku Wilders fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Feb 1, 2013

Nintendo Kid
Aug 4, 2011

by Smythe
The core of the problem with investing in bitcoin is actually explained in technical papers issued by the creators and lead programmers of the Bitcoin system. It is designed to be a proof of concept for how a crypto-currency can work, and not intended to really be used as an investment, a day to day currency system, or anything like that. The expectation of the people who actually created and founded the project is to show that such a thing is possible, but not be the final product which can be used.

Honestly it's a clever bit of programming, and a great proof of concept. But it's not able to sustain itself as anything other than an intermediary for certain kinds of transactions that are tricky to do with normal currencies. I suspect your friends just want to wither profit off you by selling you them, or are interested in buying some drugs online. They're probably not gonna be dissauded by anything you have to say, and they're gonna have to get burned by it themselves to wise up.

Golbez
Oct 9, 2002

1 2 3!
If you want to take a shot at me get in line, line
1 2 3!
Baby, I've had all my shots and I'm fine
Speaking of currency, I once read a list of 'dangerous ideas' about 8 years ago that mentioned "complimentary currency". Basically saying, for trade with the outside world, a city or region wants to use a currency in wider circulation that is scarce by nature. But for trade and development within the community, you want a local currency that is abundant by nature. This dichotomy was supposedly how many of the cathedrals in Europe were funded, for example. Unfortunately I've been unable to find this article again so I can't review it and confirm what it was talking about. Does that make sense, to have a local abundant currency vs an external (though can still be the same country) scarce currency? The Wikipedia article on complimentary currency doesn't go into the differences in how the currencies are managed, just that they exist.

Helsing
Aug 23, 2003

DON'T POST IN THE ELECTION THREAD UNLESS YOU :love::love::love: JOE BIDEN
From what I've been told bitcoins have found a certain amount of popular amongst certain international criminal elements.

Golbez posted:

Speaking of currency, I once read a list of 'dangerous ideas' about 8 years ago that mentioned "complimentary currency". Basically saying, for trade with the outside world, a city or region wants to use a currency in wider circulation that is scarce by nature. But for trade and development within the community, you want a local currency that is abundant by nature. This dichotomy was supposedly how many of the cathedrals in Europe were funded, for example. Unfortunately I've been unable to find this article again so I can't review it and confirm what it was talking about. Does that make sense, to have a local abundant currency vs an external (though can still be the same country) scarce currency? The Wikipedia article on complimentary currency doesn't go into the differences in how the currencies are managed, just that they exist.

They have a dual currency in Cuba I believe, one kind of money for tourists and another kind for locals. I don't know how the currency works for international trade though, just that they've literally split the money between locals and foreignness.

NovemberMike
Dec 28, 2008

Morton Haynice posted:

A guy complaining about pro-gay bias in the media just brought up the case of William Smithson, a gay man who raped and murdered 23-year-old Jason Shephard in 2009.
He says that there was little to no coverage of the case, and that "highly-placed" homosexuals are responsible for suppressing it.

I assumed he was exaggerating until I tried to search for articles from the major networks. The only thing I could find was an article from Fox that wasn't even about the initial arrest, and a Youtube video from a local network.
(He also brought up Frank Lombard, but for that, I found plenty of coverage.)

Obviously one case does not make a pattern, but I am loathe to concede any ground whatsoever here. Was there really no coverage of this?

And if so, how should I frame my response so that he can't immediately declare victory?

News is a money making industry. The news stations probably just didn't think it would make money. There's a lot of people killed every year, not everybody gets a 24 hour news cycle about them.

Nintendo Kid
Aug 4, 2011

by Smythe

Golbez posted:

Does that make sense, to have a local abundant currency vs an external (though can still be the same country) scarce currency? The Wikipedia article on complimentary currency doesn't go into the differences in how the currencies are managed, just that they exist.

You could consider precious metal standard currencies to function like that. In day to day use while silver or gold backed money was in use, you'd of course just get paper currency or base metal coinage and those are not scarce. However for international transactions, they'd sometimes be denominated or even actually delivered on the basis of specific amounts of silver/gold/whatever.

Of course, especially in the middle ages, it would be common for there to be very little cash or coins in actual use among the public. A lot of day to day transactions would involve payment in kind or essentially running up a tab. For that you could consider what people had and did to be the "local abundant currency" while actual money was the scarce currency for external transactions.

Helsing posted:

From what I've been told bitcoins have found a certain amount of popular amongst certain international criminal elements.

True international criminals prefer to stick to mature real currency money laundering. The international criminal elements using bitcoin are like, a guy in France who sells 10 grams of cocaine to a dude in the US.

The amount of value available and liquid in the bitcoin system is not nearly enough for the use of large scale criminal operations.

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

Install Gentoo posted:

True international criminals prefer to stick to mature real currency money laundering. The international criminal elements using bitcoin are like, a guy in France who sells 10 grams of cocaine to a dude in the US.

The amount of value available and liquid in the bitcoin system is not nearly enough for the use of large scale criminal operations.

Well there's also criminals in the bitcoin community itself, who take a bunch of untraceable internet fun money from nerds and run away with it (since it's pretty drat easy to launder stolen money using the system). There's also the criminally stupid, like the guy who restarted his amazon cloud instance and literally deleted a whole pile of internet fun money belonging to other people. But you should really read the bitcoin thread (or buttcoin) for those stories.

So what I'm saying is, you should invest your pension in cosbycoins instead. They can only go zip zop zoobity bop.

SSJ2 Goku Wilders
Mar 24, 2010
One of the friends I was talking about used to be in local punk antifa groups and was somewhat of a socialist, he ended up linking me to mises.org and started dropping Ron Paul talking points on me in attempts to salvage his precious coin. What a waste.

Thanks for the replies, I'll read the GBS thread over the weekend.

Soviet Space Dog
May 7, 2009
Unicum Space Dog
May 6, 2009

NOBODY WILL REALIZE MY POSTS ARE SHIT NOW THAT MY NAME IS PURPLE :smug:

SSJ2 Goku Wilders posted:

Does anyone have some resources on Bitcoins? I have a couple of anarcho-libertarian friends that keep flooding my facebook with German Pirate Party articles about how it's a great idea to invest your pension in them

It's a lot like investing in Forex except the currency you investing in is the currency of a country consisting of a person producing alpaca socks, some drug dealers, and a dozen ponzi schemes.

miscellaneous14
Mar 27, 2010

neat
I brought up the subject on my facebook of our current culture not being ready for automation of major industries. Someone very Republican responded with, to paraphrase, "If you care so much about jobs, why don't we return to the older eras where common people would need to work tirelessly out in the fields doing grunt work? Personally I'd prefer a society where robots deal with most of the work so that I could have more free time".

Responding to that, I pointed out that the problem with this sort of automation is that it passes the savings onto the upper classes that honestly don't need the extra money, while factoring out entire industries of low-skill labor without introducing many new types of professions for those that would be put out of work. I'm 90% sure he's going to respond asking where I'm basing this on, and while I could just as easily say "the nature of our capitalist society demands more profits for shareholders and business owners, not more jobs for the people who actually sustain the economy", I'd like to respond with specific examples where automation has directly hurt the working class.

Does anyone have any comprehensive reading material on this particular subject? It's something I'd like to have more substantial knowledge on.

Uranium Phoenix
Jun 20, 2007

Boom.

miscellaneous14 posted:

I brought up the subject on my facebook of our current culture not being ready for automation of major industries. Someone very Republican responded with, to paraphrase, "If you care so much about jobs, why don't we return to the older eras where common people would need to work tirelessly out in the fields doing grunt work? Personally I'd prefer a society where robots deal with most of the work so that I could have more free time".

Responding to that, I pointed out that the problem with this sort of automation is that it passes the savings onto the upper classes that honestly don't need the extra money, while factoring out entire industries of low-skill labor without introducing many new types of professions for those that would be put out of work. I'm 90% sure he's going to respond asking where I'm basing this on, and while I could just as easily say "the nature of our capitalist society demands more profits for shareholders and business owners, not more jobs for the people who actually sustain the economy", I'd like to respond with specific examples where automation has directly hurt the working class.

Does anyone have any comprehensive reading material on this particular subject? It's something I'd like to have more substantial knowledge on.

This article (and lots more, google productivity vs. wages) has a nice graph and gets at the core issue. Productivity has increased over the past decades, but wages, especially for the working class, have stagnated. The problem, as you've correctly identified, is under capitalism the wages all go to the top:

(from this article)

However, that's not really an argument against automation, it's more of an argument against our perverse economic system.

miscellaneous14
Mar 27, 2010

neat
It actually just hit me a few hours ago that I was working in the theater industry around when they were implementing digital projectors, and a ton of projectionists got laid off as a result, so I responded with that example.

That chart and the associated info will help deal with the occasional "upper class have all these taxes while the lower classes are living it up" nonsense I run into occasionally though. Thanks!

Accretionist
Nov 7, 2012
I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

miscellaneous14 posted:

That chart and the associated info will help deal with the occasional "upper class have all these taxes while the lower classes are living it up" nonsense I run into occasionally though. Thanks!
Yeah, all those taxes:


How will they manage:


I'm living it up down here at the low-end:

(Note: This is net)

What with all my low-tax living:

SSJ2 Goku Wilders
Mar 24, 2010
As long as we're not appropriating the value we create as a society for the benefit of society then you'll have issues like that, I suppose. Jacobin had two articles about something that is tangentially related to this, by (I think) Frase and Ackerman, the 'work of anti-work', and what it's responding to. Jacobin's come under some fire lately but those articles are still good introductory material for the topic.

I prefer reading Frase at the source:
http://www.peterfrase.com/category/anti-star-trek/

Frase posted:

People know my beat by now, so everyone has been directing my attention to Paul Krugman’s recent musings on the pace of automation in the economy. He moves away from his earlier preoccupation with worker skills, and toward the possibility of “‘capital-biased technological change’, which tends to shift the distribution of income away from workers to the owners of capital.” He goes on to present data showing the secular decline in labor’s share of income since the 1970′s.

He then notes that his position “has echoes of old-fashioned Marxism”, but reassures us that this uncomfortable realization “shouldn’t be a reason to ignore facts”. The implication of those facts, he says, are that neither the liberal nor conservative common sense has anything to say about our current predicament: “Better education won’t do much to reduce inequality if the big rewards simply go to those with the most assets. Creating an “opportunity society” . . . won’t do much if the most important asset you can have in life is, well, lots of assets inherited from your parents.”

Meanwhile we have Kevin Drum despairing that the coming decades will be “mighty grim”, as automation means that “the owners of capital will automate more and more, putting more and more people out of work”. And we have the Financial Times publishing Izabella Kaminska arguing that “we’ve now arrived at a point where technology begins to threaten return on capital, mostly by causing the sort of abundance that depresses prices to the point where many goods have no choice but to become free.” This, of course, leads to attempts to impose artificial scarcity through new forms of property rights (with dire consequences for growth and prosperity), but I’ve written all about that elsewhere.

Claude Bitot, "Communism has not yet begun", arguing for an emphasis on the expansion of the productive forces as the objective condition for communism (which I agree with for what it's worth).
http://libcom.org/library/communism-has-not-yet-begun-claude-bitot

Bitot posted:

From this end of the historical cycle of capitalism, which could encompass an entire period (measured on this scale, 30 or 50 years are nothing), and which will be, as it advances, the stage for increasingly severe economic crises accompanied by equally severe social crises, we do not deduce the “possibility” of communism, but its imperious necessity. In other words, we are saying that communism (which all the bourgeois commentators have announced is dead and buried) will rise from the ashes like the Phoenix, not because it is a “beautiful utopia” (there is no more utopia!) but because it will be inscribed along determinist lines that leave no other choice other than this way out, the only one that is viable due to the enormous development of the productive forces which has taken place, henceforth rendering any steps backward towards earlier forms of exploitation and domination impractical, as is demonstrated by the failures—whatever anyone may say—of the various regressive movements we have seen (religious fundamentalisms, micro-nationalisms, ethnic identity movements), which are capable of causing harm but which are still incapable of transforming their gloomy dreams into reality.

There is a distinct lack of Marxist / Leftist works dealing with cybernetics and robotization that don't devolve into libertarian fetishism like Kurzweil or Star Trek liberalism, sadly.

SSJ2 Goku Wilders fucked around with this message at 10:18 on Feb 5, 2013

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Mrs. Wynand
Nov 23, 2002

DLT 4EVA

Accretionist posted:

Yeah, all those taxes:


How will they manage:


I'm living it up down here at the low-end:

(Note: This is net)

What with all my low-tax living:



I'm confused. The tax rate by quintile chart shows the top quintile (that means, the top fifth of people if sorted by income, right?) having the highest effective tax rate. The taxable and non-taxable units by income chart also shows the highest incomes having the lowest deductions.

Is your point that it's income inequality alone that has grown, but that the tax burden has actually kept up with this?

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