tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post7876868847763700099..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: Why Piketty is Wrong and Western Workers Have a Bright FutureFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-49418984913872473732014-06-09T21:52:05.315-04:002014-06-09T21:52:05.315-04:00I agree with you that these sorts of things will b...I agree with you that these sorts of things will be attempted -- they always have, and probably always will. But I also think it will get harder and harder to pull off. There are just too many outs for people any more -- too many escape hatches. More and more, you just don't have to put up with it if you really don't want to. It is like playing a game of whack-a-mole, but suddenly every time they get a whack in, four more holes open up. The system is getting leaky. You have too many choices.<br /><br />Look at how fragmented media and communications have become. Look at what is happening to the publishing industry and to education. That sort of thing is spreading. Think about those kids printing out working pistols on a 3D printer. How do you regulate that?<br /><br />In particular, I like a nascent movement I see coming along (which I would really like to write about sometime) -- ridiculously early retirement. By ridiculous, I mean 30 - 35 years old and retired. As early as possible, in other words. We have become so productive that this has become a realistic possibility for people who want to do it. People who really put their minds to it can pull it off.<br /><br />That is a huge reduction of dependency. No more axe hanging over your head in terms of not ruffling feathers because you need the income, you can live anywhere, spend all your time instigating on the internet if you want, or actually doing worthwhile things with your time instead of satisfying bureaucrats (which is how most talented people seem to wind up spending their time these days) etc. It's really, really hard to get your tentacles around someone like that to make him 'behave.'<br /><br />That is serious independence, and I'd like to see more of it. The easier it is to make a living, the more people can start structuring their lives around life, instead of around having to make a living.Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12915297057336831151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-1043922560840527382014-06-09T07:07:26.500-04:002014-06-09T07:07:26.500-04:00Scott,
As usual, I had to read it twice - and som...Scott,<br /><br />As usual, I had to read it twice - and some paragraphs 3 times. And I probably only understand a part of what you're saying. But THIS I got (I hope):<br /><br />". . . the rise of Deng and the fall of communism ushered in an explosion of 'social capital' overseas that went into competition with Western social capital, and began attracting away complementary physical capital to extend production to these areas as rapidly as possible, taking advantage of freed-up labor and resources. In the process, Western social capital, physical capital, and labor was relatively devalued, to varying degrees."<br /><br />However, you make a prognostication that probably can't come true:<br /><br />"Inequality will fall, or at least moderate, especially if well enough is left alone. I don't think progressive taxes and such will help the situation, or really have much of an impact one way or another, just as it didn't have much of an effect between the world wars and the 1980's, in my opinion."<br /><br />"Well enough" will almost certainly NOT be left alone. My experience of governance since LBJ is that progressive taxes and counter-productive (and counter-real-free trade) policies will actually accrue wealth (if not real capital) to the crony partners of state and business (ala Fascism.)<br /><br />In fact, state governments, the EU, the IMF, central banks and market mavens are doing everything they can to devalue real capital by using leverage and regulations to restrict the real effect of real capital.<br /><br />I may be misunderstanding your underlying points, but it seems to me that states and the businesses they favor are doing everything they can to ensure that "capital" doesn't accrue to labor or the middle class, but rather to the state and it's cronies.<br /><br />That's the definition of "fascism" to me. And to call it right-wing is one of the great lies of our time.Tim Turnernoreply@blogger.com