- It is not reasonable to make money at all costs, having other people suffer for your gains.
- <honestly and legally> It is much harder to make money honestly than you might think. A lot of money is made by taking advantage of the poor and powerless. Likewise, what is legal is often a set of rules that favor the rich and powerful.
- So Bloomberg gives 3% (or less) of his wealth to charity each year? Is he doing without anything to do this? No. I admire your visiting patients in cancer wards more than the money you or he give to charities...
- <Risk> I think it is a fake argument to say that people who take risks, ie investors, deserve the gains that take. Everybody in a human body has skin in the game and takes risks. A much bigger risk is when you have no money, take out loans to go to school for a job that may or may not pan out. Later you find out somebody sold you a bill of goods. Too bad for you, sucker...
- I question whether contracts negotiated from a place of inequity can be moral. David Graeber in Debt: The First 5000 Years, opened by eyes to the nature of debt.
- <Personal Responsibility> In my book, fiscal responsibility is one of the lower forms of personal responsibility. PR to me is finding a way to live that doesn't fluck other people (or the world) over. (BTW, I have always paid my debts.)
- I don't know what the Portland riots were about, though I have to say that I find institutional violence as abhorrent as street violence. Worse, actually...
Rarebird- I've followed you for years, admire you, know you don't suffer fools lightly, and occasionally like to have your rant. I believe I understand your point about creating govt gridlock to limit the harm it does if it can't figure out to do good. But I believe your capitalist, self-serving blinders are leading you to bad conclusions on this one... Yes, Trump-hating is a waste of time and may very well backfire. But there are many ways to run a govt and it is ridiculous to say that every idea by all 20+ Democratic candidates is wrong...
All the best,
dan6 |
