The phrase “If you can’t get what you want with reason, get it with force!” is a central principle in the Netflix Ozark and I think it’s also the foundation of our current economic system. Would you agree?
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I don’t agree at all. In the US economic system, it would be more like:
"If you can’t get what you want with reason, reduce the price and kiss their ass.”
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I’m sorry, Torsten, I wouldn’t. In this 21st century, no democratic laws contemplate individuals taking the law into their own hands!
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Well, the 10 richest people in the world have doubled their personal wealth since the pandemic began, while millions of people have fallen into poverty. Would you really call that a democracy? It looks more like a plutocracy to me.
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In my opinion, wealth and poverty are so interdependent that one cannot exist in the absence of the other. After the economic chasm between the rich and the poor has fully widened, the two categories will end up being separated and thrown into their respective polar islands each having to fight and exploit against themselves for survival.
It is there and then that democracy fails, anarchy rises and force takes over the reins of power.
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You guys act like it’s a zero sum game. It’s not. Literally everyone can come out ahead. People like Bezos and Gates did not get rich because someone else got poor. They got rich because the average person is quite affluent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_thinking
The wealth of these people is entirely dependent on the average person having large amounts of disposable income. It also depends on them continuing to have large amounts of disposable income.
Ultimately their wealth depends mainly on two things. The average person needs enough disposable income to buy products from them. Then the average person still needs enough wealth left over to buy stock in those companies. If both those conditions are not met, and continue to be met, then the super wealthy will very quickly lose their wealth.
Almost 23 million people in Afghanistan are facing death either by starvation or cold. Would you define them as “affluent”?
Of course they are not affluent. But they are outside the system and have nothing to do with it.
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I think since we all live on the same planet nobody is outside the system.
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You are avoiding the issue. You are implying that there is some sort of zero sum game that made the super wealthy. That is the system. But that system doesn’t work the way you imply. The people in Afghanistan ARE outside that system. They have virtually no influence on it whatsoever. They did not contribute to making the super wealthy wealthy, nor were they hurt by it. It’s a completely different issue.
I agree with Anglophile. It would make things even worse.
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