Post by Athans on Jan 29, 2015 8:54:33 GMT -6
One of the point Libertarians, and Conservatives in general, fail to address when it comes to capitalism is the “losers.” Capitalism is based on the premise that there will be “losers.” When I say losers I mean the people at the bottom or the unskilled workers, those that do not have a skill or are simply not capable of having a skill. This could even be people with a skill but stuck where they are due to a lack of opportunity. This WILL happening in capitalism and has to. Not everyone can move up and not everyone could be the boss, I mean who would do the work? If everyone is a highly skilled supervisor, there would not be anyone to do the actual work. The sad reality is that some people just are not good enough to do a simple task, for whatever reason and will not prosper in capitalism.
The question is what do we do for or with these people? My answer would be to give them a minimum wage that allows them to support themselves and/or assistance from the government so they do not simply die in the streets.
Obviously Conservatives are against any type of government redistribution or government aid. If one can actually get them to admit that these “losers” exist, their responses and solutions are minimal. So, after reluctantly admitting the existence of losers in capitalism say “sometimes you get a bad draw” or “every system has losers in it.” They have no solution to the problem, so I can simply assume their conclusion would be to let them starve in the streets because they do not believe in a minimum wage, a livable wage, or government assistance. If this is your conclusion, you are a shitty person, period.
Those that have actually spent more time understanding Free Market Capitalism have realized this problem and have come up with a solution. Their solution is charity. They say that those that are struggling will receive assistance from charity, freely given charity and not something that the government takes and redistributes without input of where that money goes. In theory, like a lot of the things in Free Market Capitalism, this sounds like a reasonable solution to the problem, I mean Americans donate billions do dollars every year. But like most things in the Free Market Capitalism mindset, this idea is intellectually shallow and not based in reality.
Why is it that people prefer giving to charity? There are two reasons. First, they can give the amount they want or afford. This is a fair. But second, they give to WHO they want. Yesterday in a discussion someone gave the solution to fix the problem I explained above to be charity. So I asked if they were okay with giving charity to someone that is unskilled and lazy. Here was the response…
“charity is personal... Person by person”
Exactly. Charity is given to who one perceives needs it or who one chooses to give to. If you paid attention to the last presidential election, one of Mitt Romney’s biggest points was that liberals are just lazy moochers. Obviously liberals would not be part of the group getting this charity money (whether they are lazy moochers or not.) There is also blatant racism in this country. Obviously those people do not need charity. Charity for Muslims or atheists? HA! Forget those Godless heathens. Charity for gays? For people choosing to live a life of sin? Certainly not! That is the problem with charity. It is limited to who one decides needs it, not based on the reality of who needs it but based on personal opinion or preference. Many religious groups are very charitable, but that charity goes to those of the same religion, denomination, or church.
Free Market Capitalists do not like taxes because they want some say in where their money goes, like they do in charity. They do not like taxes being spent on people they do not see worthy of receiving them. This is exactly why charity fails on a large scale and this is why government assistance is needed. Without the government stepping in the only people receiving charity would be people “like them.” Maybe we decide the only people that need charity are middle-class Christians that just need that 4th TV to put in their child’s room. Absurd? Charity is personal…All it takes for large scale suffering is being part of a minority race, religion, political group, or whatever. Charity is only about helping people that think the same way you do. It is just like a theocracy, it is great as long as it is YOUR religion…if not, it is the worst thing in the history or humanity…ask Americans about Islamic theocracies, they will tell you.
Once again, the Free Market utopia falls apart when put into the context of logic and reality.
The question is what do we do for or with these people? My answer would be to give them a minimum wage that allows them to support themselves and/or assistance from the government so they do not simply die in the streets.
Obviously Conservatives are against any type of government redistribution or government aid. If one can actually get them to admit that these “losers” exist, their responses and solutions are minimal. So, after reluctantly admitting the existence of losers in capitalism say “sometimes you get a bad draw” or “every system has losers in it.” They have no solution to the problem, so I can simply assume their conclusion would be to let them starve in the streets because they do not believe in a minimum wage, a livable wage, or government assistance. If this is your conclusion, you are a shitty person, period.
Those that have actually spent more time understanding Free Market Capitalism have realized this problem and have come up with a solution. Their solution is charity. They say that those that are struggling will receive assistance from charity, freely given charity and not something that the government takes and redistributes without input of where that money goes. In theory, like a lot of the things in Free Market Capitalism, this sounds like a reasonable solution to the problem, I mean Americans donate billions do dollars every year. But like most things in the Free Market Capitalism mindset, this idea is intellectually shallow and not based in reality.
Why is it that people prefer giving to charity? There are two reasons. First, they can give the amount they want or afford. This is a fair. But second, they give to WHO they want. Yesterday in a discussion someone gave the solution to fix the problem I explained above to be charity. So I asked if they were okay with giving charity to someone that is unskilled and lazy. Here was the response…
“charity is personal... Person by person”
Exactly. Charity is given to who one perceives needs it or who one chooses to give to. If you paid attention to the last presidential election, one of Mitt Romney’s biggest points was that liberals are just lazy moochers. Obviously liberals would not be part of the group getting this charity money (whether they are lazy moochers or not.) There is also blatant racism in this country. Obviously those people do not need charity. Charity for Muslims or atheists? HA! Forget those Godless heathens. Charity for gays? For people choosing to live a life of sin? Certainly not! That is the problem with charity. It is limited to who one decides needs it, not based on the reality of who needs it but based on personal opinion or preference. Many religious groups are very charitable, but that charity goes to those of the same religion, denomination, or church.
Free Market Capitalists do not like taxes because they want some say in where their money goes, like they do in charity. They do not like taxes being spent on people they do not see worthy of receiving them. This is exactly why charity fails on a large scale and this is why government assistance is needed. Without the government stepping in the only people receiving charity would be people “like them.” Maybe we decide the only people that need charity are middle-class Christians that just need that 4th TV to put in their child’s room. Absurd? Charity is personal…All it takes for large scale suffering is being part of a minority race, religion, political group, or whatever. Charity is only about helping people that think the same way you do. It is just like a theocracy, it is great as long as it is YOUR religion…if not, it is the worst thing in the history or humanity…ask Americans about Islamic theocracies, they will tell you.
Once again, the Free Market utopia falls apart when put into the context of logic and reality.
