So I’m not sure why you picked the bank bailouts as an example. They were widely seen as the exact opposite of what we’re talking about.
Uh huh. Granting the government power to redistribute wealth “for the public good” had the consequence of the poor getting saddled with trillions in debt. Maybe they don’t believe they benefit from such a system.
“Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”
Frederic Bastiat
Maybe the working poor believe that the wealth redistribution game is a negative sum game, and advocate that we don’t play it. Yes, they might fight and claw at the trough, and get some portion of the slop. Why should they believe they’ll be more successful in that fight than the rich and well connected, particularly after just witnessing the rich and well connected walk off with trillions?
It’s like free speech. There is a lot of speech that offends me. I wish people didn’t believe that rubbish. But I wouldn’t want to empower the government to ban such speech, because having granted the government such power, why would I believe that would never be turned against speech I approve of?
This has always been the puzzle of the Revolutionary Vanguard. Why don’t the Proles support us, when our policies benefit them? Maybe, the Proles think the policies of the Revolutionary Vanguard won’t benefit them. There’s no puzzle to solve unless you just can’t conceive that the Revolutionary Vanguard may be wrong.
The only position I’m arguing against is that it is a mystery why the working poor don’t support government wealth redistribution. It isn’t a mystery to me, and I gave my solution to the supposed conundrum. I think that’s responsive.
This has always been the puzzle of the Revolutionary Vanguard. Why don’t the Proles support us, when our policies benefit them? Maybe, the Proles think the policies of the Revolutionary Vanguard won’t benefit them. There’s no puzzle to solve unless you just can’t conceive that the Revolutionary Vanguard may be wrong.
This is a very good argument. But on the other hand those pushing for wealth redistributions are (today) far from radical, basically they echo establishment sentiments. And the same people look back on history and see that this same establishment has always eventually “made the right choice” (or at least that is the publicly accepted narrative).
This is a very good argument. But on the other hand those pushing for wealth redistributions are (today) far from radical, basically the establishment. People look back on history and see that this establishment has always eventually “made the right choice” (or at least that is the publicly accepted narrative).
I didn’t mean to imply that I thought they were revolutionaries. It’s a bit of black comedy that the people who style themselves as radicals speaking truth to power are completely orthodox defenders of The Man. It’s a similar scene with Christians on Fox News, feeling persecuted and martyred in the US for their faith whenever there is the tiniest pushback against them having their way. They’ve both got their narratives playing as the soundtrack to their lives, no matter how incongruous to reality.
With the Revolutionary Vanguard cracks, I was getting at the heads I win, tails you lose nature of the Vanguard’s faith in their program. If the Proles don’t agree that the Vanguards program, the obvious reason, that the Proles don’t think it’s good for them, is overlooked, and instead theories about the “false consciousness” of the Proles sprout like mushrooms on a rotting tree stump.
Uh huh. Granting the government power to redistribute wealth “for the public good” had the consequence of the poor getting saddled with trillions in debt. Maybe they don’t believe they benefit from such a system.
“Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”
Frederic Bastiat
Maybe the working poor believe that the wealth redistribution game is a negative sum game, and advocate that we don’t play it. Yes, they might fight and claw at the trough, and get some portion of the slop. Why should they believe they’ll be more successful in that fight than the rich and well connected, particularly after just witnessing the rich and well connected walk off with trillions?
It’s like free speech. There is a lot of speech that offends me. I wish people didn’t believe that rubbish. But I wouldn’t want to empower the government to ban such speech, because having granted the government such power, why would I believe that would never be turned against speech I approve of?
This has always been the puzzle of the Revolutionary Vanguard. Why don’t the Proles support us, when our policies benefit them? Maybe, the Proles think the policies of the Revolutionary Vanguard won’t benefit them. There’s no puzzle to solve unless you just can’t conceive that the Revolutionary Vanguard may be wrong.
This is both non-responsive and arguing against a position I don’t actually hold. I lean ‘liberaltarian’, you’re not arguing with Thomas Frank.
The only position I’m arguing against is that it is a mystery why the working poor don’t support government wealth redistribution. It isn’t a mystery to me, and I gave my solution to the supposed conundrum. I think that’s responsive.
This is a very good argument. But on the other hand those pushing for wealth redistributions are (today) far from radical, basically they echo establishment sentiments. And the same people look back on history and see that this same establishment has always eventually “made the right choice” (or at least that is the publicly accepted narrative).
Don’t forget people do have a progoverment bias.
I didn’t mean to imply that I thought they were revolutionaries. It’s a bit of black comedy that the people who style themselves as radicals speaking truth to power are completely orthodox defenders of The Man. It’s a similar scene with Christians on Fox News, feeling persecuted and martyred in the US for their faith whenever there is the tiniest pushback against them having their way. They’ve both got their narratives playing as the soundtrack to their lives, no matter how incongruous to reality.
With the Revolutionary Vanguard cracks, I was getting at the heads I win, tails you lose nature of the Vanguard’s faith in their program. If the Proles don’t agree that the Vanguards program, the obvious reason, that the Proles don’t think it’s good for them, is overlooked, and instead theories about the “false consciousness” of the Proles sprout like mushrooms on a rotting tree stump.