TheSkaFish
Jedi Guardian
Rich People and Poor People are just two different breeds of rats trapped in the same cage. Fighting and squabbling amongst themselves, will unfortunately make them no less caged than what they already are. The trouble is that greed is irrational and illogical, and as everybody on both sides of the fence understands: No good decision is ever made in an irrational and illogical state.
Therefore:
If the Rich People fill the cage with only other Rich People, by killing off all of the Poor People, than half of the Rich People become slaves to the other half of the Rich People. And the only thing you get is a reset of the exact same position. It's still the same game, still the same cage.
If the Poor People fill the cage with only other Poor People, by killing off all of the Rich People, half of those Poor People will become Rich People and enslave the other half of the Poor People. And the only thing you get is a reset of the exact same position. It's still the same game, still the same cage.
This is the Fallacy of Human Social Constructionism.
As you can see, we're not particularly good at this as a species.
That's kind of how I feel about it. Both extremes lead to dictatorship in the end, absolute power for a few, and no freedom for most. The only difference is, in a communist country they straight up tell you you're not free, you have no choice. In America we say you're free, but for most people, in practice that freedom is near-meaningless.
I tend to lean more socialist in some areas of life, but I'm hesitant/reluctant/just don't call myself a communist, because it's a historic fact that quality of life in communist countries wasn't good, and that communist regimes were responsible for terrible crimes against humanity.
At the same time, just because communism is bad, doesn't automatically mean unregulated capitalism is good. That's the part that politicians seem to leave out here in America. I think the Western way is the best, but with the safety nets in place that came after WW2 and created the middle class, or "normal life" as we know it today. The more we deregulate and the further we get away from that, the worse everything gets for most. It's no mystery.
The regulations are there to make sure capitalism actually works for the people/society, not just the few on top - much like communism just works for the few on top. Except for super-smart people, pro athletes/A-list entertainers/celebrities, and of course heirs to generational wealth, most people can't handle unregulated capitalism, they need the artificial safety nets to be able to function. But, I kind of thought that was the whole point of civilization - insulating people from survival of the fittest, so more people could live a better quality of life than people in the past could ever imagine.