Behind the Wall Street Protest

After a certain point excessive wealth that someone personally 'earned' gets into the same 'no, they don't really deserve that' category that dynastic wealth does. IMO anyway.

And one generation of dynastic wealth doesn't bother me at all, since everyone wants to care for their kids. OTOH taxing inheritance wouldn't stop one generation of dynastic wealth because people can care for their kids by actually caring for them while they're alive.

Plus the person who 'deserves' the money is dead at that point and doesn't care who gets it.

OTOOH trying to limit people to what they deserve probably isn't going to lead to a world that you want to live in. Especially if who deserves what is determined by a political process. I can't see that working any better than the chaos of the market.

So, really, I'd want a solution based on practicality and not morality. v.v

So, really, I'd want a solution based on practicality and not morality. v.v

That's where I stand, too, which is easy because I find so often that other people's morality is pretty shocking.

All this talk about "redistributing wealth" sort of sends shivers up my spine. Our we really giving up the concept of Rule of law now? Private property? To help the ECONOMY?!??

I have been listening very closely to a lot of far left people talk about Occupy Wall Street and I've been trying to hear what specific things are being requested. So much of the laundry list is just children flailing in the dark without a clue about what they're talking about. I'm sympathetic, these issues are HARD.

But you know what happens next after you forgive student loan debt? No one ever gets a student loan again. When they say "ban the corporations" and "give us good jobs" it just makes me want to bang my head against the desk. I have to wonder how many of them are using their Bank of America debit cards while they protest against banks being too powerful. It is easy to mock. Really really easy to mock.

But at the core of it, even if people don't seem to be able to articulate what changes they'd like that could result in beneficial outcomes, they are right that things are broken. Really really broken.

We're past peak oil. Our fiat currency is in its frail old age. Our democratic republic was replaced by an empire. (I wonder how many of those protesters voted in the primary elections? That is the only remaining place where democracy has any power. Turnout was 10% in my precinct, where we immediately voted to return the inept or corrupt - can't tell which - octogenarian to office.)

Yes, there is income inequality, but that's partly because the fiat currency killed savings and apparently also killed capitalism. All that's left is gambling in commodities and bubbles to try to stay ahead of inflation.

There are no political solutions to these problems. We're past the point of no return. We lost our country. Rioting makes sense.

But empires don't have to be that bad. A regime falls somewhere on the planet pretty much once a month. Currencies fail and new ones are created. It's going to be okay-ish. Not great, but okay.

Rioting won't help, though. That was the thing I was happiest about when Obama was elected: I thought perhaps the sheep would stay complacent a bit longer because of the Hope & Change Yes We Can thing. It was all nonsense, but I had *hoped* it would forestall riots.

Poor Obama. He never knew what he was getting into.