Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Wealth Redistribution and a Moral Imperative

roachboy · 10-14-2008, 11:23 AM

well, first of all i have no faith at all that any conservative actually knows what socialism is. generally, it is an empty category around which various nitwit projections get clustered. the defining features of socialism--democratic socialism anyway--have nothing to do with tax rates, particularly not taken in isolation. so there's nothing interesting about the question of whether there is some magic number or not---except that you don't really have an idea of what you're talking about.

one of the main features of a democratic socialist system is a political orientation toward full employment.
how anyone gets from that to any of these conservative cliche's about "sitting on your hands" is beyond me--except if you factor in not knowing what the fuck you're talking about--in which case anything's possible.
wealth redistribution is generally oriented by this sort of system-level or macro-policy goal. in that contexts, it's really just a transfer of wealth from one place to another--nothing moral about it---a political consensus is what matters.
the discourse of morality is another conservative non-sequitor.

generally the rationale is that the ability of a firm to extract profit is a function of system maintenance---which means the economy cannot be understood as floating in a separate space, but rather as part of the broader society. so firms (and individuals who benefit from their activity) owe it back to the system to contribute towards its maintenance.

there's more to this, but i'll stop
it's pretty simple.
and it makes a hell of a lot more sense than neoliberal assumptions do.

whether you *like* taxes or not is irrelevant.
the "effects" on the "welfare class" is in another matter, another conservative fever dream.
it is a mystery to me why people choose to believe it---easier to blame the excluded in a class society than to think about why the social class system is as it is. this is another area in which neoliberalism is worth nothing at all.

10-14-2008, 11:23 AM	#16 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	well, first of all i have no faith at all that any conservative actually knows what socialism is. generally, it is an empty category around which various nitwit projections get clustered. the defining features of socialism--democratic socialism anyway--have nothing to do with tax rates, particularly not taken in isolation. so there's nothing interesting about the question of whether there is some magic number or not---except that you don't really have an idea of what you're talking about. one of the main features of a democratic socialist system is a political orientation toward full employment. how anyone gets from that to any of these conservative cliche's about "sitting on your hands" is beyond me--except if you factor in not knowing what the fuck you're talking about--in which case anything's possible. wealth redistribution is generally oriented by this sort of system-level or macro-policy goal. in that contexts, it's really just a transfer of wealth from one place to another--nothing moral about it---a political consensus is what matters. the discourse of morality is another conservative non-sequitor. generally the rationale is that the ability of a firm to extract profit is a function of system maintenance---which means the economy cannot be understood as floating in a separate space, but rather as part of the broader society. so firms (and individuals who benefit from their activity) owe it back to the system to contribute towards its maintenance. there's more to this, but i'll stop it's pretty simple. and it makes a hell of a lot more sense than neoliberal assumptions do. whether you like taxes or not is irrelevant. the "effects" on the "welfare class" is in another matter, another conservative fever dream. it is a mystery to me why people choose to believe it---easier to blame the excluded in a class society than to think about why the social class system is as it is. this is another area in which neoliberalism is worth nothing at all. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite