I like many of Bernie's stands, but I am leery of government given perks.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
I am too, if they are misappropriated. I believe that a society has to care for its most vulnerable and keep a wary eye on its most powerful. That's why I think Wall Street and billionaires should lose some of their government-given perks and we should spend some of that (our) money on society as a whole and caring for the least among us. Not because the wealthy deserve to be punished (some likely do, but that's a job for the wary eye of regulators, who I think have a bigger role to play in a healthy society) but because such perks, given to those who are already doing very, very well, are misappropriated IMHO.
Turns out that that Tytler quote is misattributed. It seems that it was invented by some American anti-New Dealers in the mid 20th century and attributed to Tytler (an anti-democracy monarchist), likely to give them extra weight. I'm not sure who they had in mind as far as "the world's greatest civilizations," but I'm not sure that history shows us anything quite so cut and dry about the cycles of "civilization." The warning about the risks of apathy and selfishness seems solid, but the dependence part is harder for me to understand, in a broad historical context or as a natural result of social apathy and selfishness.
Ha Ha....no more Goodreads.com for quotes!....but the "Tytler cycle" has some merit points. When 62 individuals own as much wealth as 3.5 billion, there is something out of balance. Part of it is the consolidation of power though wealth, ie our current plutocracy. The aggregators of wealth inject that into the political process to further consolidate. It becomes self serving. They in turn rob people of opportunity, which I see as the greatest loss in society right now. You see it everywhere in the world, and automation is just around the corner, displacing even more opportunity.
Consolidation is the enemy of opportunity.
I see some talk about a basic wage, a stipend given by government to every citizen and It may come to that some day. People should dread that. It really is the ultimate loss of opportunity.
I couldn't agree more about consolidation and I am very wary of a national wage. Such ideas have the ring of real desperation to them, and despite what we hear from the politicians, I don't think we're that far up S**t Creek yet.
I think sufficient opportunity to take a national wage off the table can be created through correcting consolidation, ending plutocracy, and investing in society through things like infrastructure repair and creation, new energy sources, addiction treatment, education (which is a whole other topic I won't uncork here), etc. It's not the final answer or guaranteed to be awesome, but I believe it should be tried before we dismiss government spending as a tonic entirely simply because of its potential to negatively affect opportunity. We've seen how deregulation, multinationals, and neoliberalism affect opportunity and they're no sure thing either.
I like many of Bernie's stands, but I am leery of government given perks.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler
I am too, if they are misappropriated. I believe that a society has to care for its most vulnerable and keep a wary eye on its most powerful. That's why I think Wall Street and billionaires should lose some of their government-given perks and we should spend some of that (our) money on society as a whole and caring for the least among us. Not because the wealthy deserve to be punished (some likely do, but that's a job for the wary eye of regulators, who I think have a bigger role to play in a healthy society) but because such perks, given to those who are already doing very, very well, are misappropriated IMHO.
Turns out that that Tytler quote is misattributed. It seems that it was invented by some American anti-New Dealers in the mid 20th century and attributed to Tytler (an anti-democracy monarchist), likely to give them extra weight. I'm not sure who they had in mind as far as "the world's greatest civilizations," but I'm not sure that history shows us anything quite so cut and dry about the cycles of "civilization." The warning about the risks of apathy and selfishness seems solid, but the dependence part is harder for me to understand, in a broad historical context or as a natural result of social apathy and selfishness.
Ha Ha....no more Goodreads.com for quotes!....but the "Tytler cycle" has some merit points. When 62 individuals own as much wealth as 3.5 billion, there is something out of balance. Part of it is the consolidation of power though wealth, ie our current plutocracy. The aggregators of wealth inject that into the political process to further consolidate. It becomes self serving. They in turn rob people of opportunity, which I see as the greatest loss in society right now. You see it everywhere in the world, and automation is just around the corner, displacing even more opportunity.
Consolidation is the enemy of opportunity.
I see some talk about a basic wage, a stipend given by government to every citizen and It may come to that some day. People should dread that. It really is the ultimate loss of opportunity.
I couldn't agree more about consolidation and I am very wary of a national wage. Such ideas have the ring of real desperation to them, and despite what we hear from the politicians, I don't think we're that far up S**t Creek yet.
I think sufficient opportunity to take a national wage off the table can be created through correcting consolidation, ending plutocracy, and investing in society through things like infrastructure repair and creation, new energy sources, addiction treatment, education (which is a whole other topic I won't uncork here), etc. It's not the final answer or guaranteed to be awesome, but I believe it should be tried before we dismiss government spending as a tonic entirely simply because of its potential to negatively affect opportunity. We've seen how deregulation, multinationals, and neoliberalism affect opportunity and they're no sure thing either.