I think we can work with current Democratic politicians if they get over their fear of chaos and disorder.
Youâre imagining a catch-22 of sorts that is actually immaterial.
The end goal for the working class in class warfare is to end the existence of the institutions and the social constructs that allow and codify relationships between people that lead to economic rent-seeking and exploitationâthe things that create classes. The winning move if you seize the income producing assets of .1% is not to simply sell them to others, and the new owners extract profits like the former owners did. If you did, then the class war hasnât ended, itâs been perpetuated.
Letâs take as an example a specific type of incoming producing assetâreal estate. If the assets of the REITs were seized, we wouldnât sell them to a new REIT. Instead weâd house people without the unnecessary economic rent seeking of the landlord class.
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The discussion needs more memes about LIBERALS!?
The more, the merrier.
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I agree but couldnât resist taking the shot. If he can resist the urge to post 100 liberals memes he could add some interesting perspective.
Sure but you say the 0.1% while NBZ says maybe people who make more than $200k. Thatâs the entire problem. There is no defensible moral philosophy that judges people based solely on net worth.
The rich should be heavily taxed. All this pure class warfare stuff isnât worthy of serious discussion. Not only will it never happen. It canât happen.
So what definition of âclass warfareâ are we even working with? The billionaires frame taxes on them as class warfare, so âŚ
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Fair point but I think the question assumes the kind of wholesale seizure of assets above some hypothetical line. Taxes are a slower version of the same process but that is sort of the point.
Thatâs odd, the concept of class conflict doesnât carry those connotations for me. When I think of class warfare in 2020 it feels more like a) drown Citizens United in a bath tub, b) global coordination on eliminating tax havens. The blatantly unfair gaming of the system by the mega rich bugs me much more than the tax rates my dentist pays. Like sure, letâs have the debate about whether professionals pay enough tax. But maybe letâs do that after we stop the top 0.1% from avoiding taxes altogether and collaborating to appoint Presidential nominees, etc.
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If thatâs what we mean by it count me in 100%.
I think you fundamentally misunderstand what I am arguing for. Moral philosophy has nothing to do with it. This is purely about electoral strategy.
Emotion drives voters. Hate is a potent emotion. To mobilize Democratic voters, we should offer them a target to hate. I suggest a message of class warfare in which we encourage people to hate the rich. I donât care if we draw the line at 0.01% or 1% or 5%, whether it is at $200K or $2 million or $2 billion. I care that there is a line and that anyone on the other side of the line is portrayed as an other who is an existential threat. Once elected, Democratic policies donât have to match the rhetoric completely.
Ok Iâm even more confused. Dems should advocate a wildly unpopular policy they donât actually support to get support?
Iâd guess if you polled Americans using the term class warfare you would be lucky to exceed 10% support.
Bernie showed the path to meaningful support for âclass warfareâ. His answer to practically every question was âTHE BILLIONAIRESâ.
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I agree. Iâm disagreeing with NBZâz framing.
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There all ready is class warfare and the rich have been winning it for everâŚ
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Weâre not judging them, weâre seizing their property.
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Iâm not sure why think that a message of class warfare requires uttering the words âclass warfareâ.
The basic idea is to encourage resentment towards the rich, for some definition of rich. I donât particularly care what the definition is. Itâs better to be vague about it and not get into nit-picky arguments over who exactly is rich.
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100%. Repubs have had huge success cultivating the vague and demonic âsocialist demsâ
Kind of hard to make that case when NBK is talking about guillotines.
Ok, not solely, but I canât think of any legitimate moral philosophy that doesnât make being rich immoral, all else equal.
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