Oligarchy: The fight for democracy and the environment are the same

[BSM1]

All of the above.

Mostly, we stop making all our laws and policy decisions based on maximizing profits to capital investors, and we start making them based on the quality of life of all the citizens of the nation (and ultimately of the world). The only way this can happen is to stop the corrupting influence of greed (in the form of massive wealth) on the power of social institutions like government, the media, and the marketplace. And the only way to stop that is to stop the accumulation of great wealth in the hands of a few people. Wealth and responsibility have to be spread around, so that everyone gets a piece, and everyone gets say. Anyone who's ever played the monopoly game knows that the game is over when the "winner" gets all the cash and property.

Unfortunately the biggest world culprits of pollution don't give a fig about your concerns, baseless though they be. How do we stop them? Nukes?

 

[YmirGF]

All of the above.

Mostly, we stop making all our laws and policy decisions based on maximizing profits to capital investors, and we start making them based on the quality of life of all the citizens of the nation (and ultimately of the world). The only way this can happen is to stop the corrupting influence of greed (in the form of massive wealth) on the power of social institutions like government, the media, and the marketplace. And the only way to stop that is to stop the accumulation of great wealth in the hands of a few people. Wealth and responsibility have to be spread around, so that everyone gets a piece, and everyone gets a say. Anyone who's ever played the monopoly game knows that the game is over when the "winner" gets all the cash and property.

I DO hear you, @PureX and do realize that something has got to change however what you are describing has about as much chance of happening as you would getting a large crowd at a death metal concert to unplug and sit around singing campfire songs. It's just not going to happen anytime soon. The other thing is we hear that if we do as you describe everything will be better. I'm more interested in what unanticipated problems such massive changes could unwittingly saddle us with. Sounds like a great recipe for crashing an economy though.

 

[PureX]

Unfortunately the biggest world culprits of pollution don't give a fig about your concerns, baseless though they be. How do we stop them? Nukes?

Traditionally, we had to kill our human 'overlords', because they will not relinquish their excessive wealth and power any other way. And they will try to hire some of us to kill others of us to save themselves (which some of us will inevitably agree to do). In the end, they are always destroyed, but so are a great many of the rest of us in that process. It would be very good if we could find a way of recognizing this trend toward total social collapse before it gets that bad, and learn to reverse it. But so far as I am aware, humanity has not managed this, yet. To many of us still want to BE the overlords, and so are not willing to stop them when they emerge, and they begin to destroy us.

 

[icehorse]

All relatively good ideas... but... how to implement them with an apathetic voting public?

Amassing the political capital to pull this off is the problem. I'm not even sure how you would even get something like this off the ground.

I agree that that's a hard problem. It seems to me that any such solution would include a grass-roots component. The very words "oligarch" and "oligarchy" are not commonly known. The idea that oligarchy is in direct opposition to democracy is not well known. If these ideas became well known we might see a groundswell of support and action in the population.

 

[Lyndon]

The problem is that idiots are in charge of everything

 

[BSM1]

Traditionally, we had to kill our human 'overlords', because they will not relinquish their excessive wealth and power any other way. And they will try to hire some of us to kill others of us to save themselves (which some of us will inevitably agree to do). In the end, they are always destroyed, but so are a great many of the rest of us in that process. It would be very good if we could find a way of recognizing this trend toward total social collapse before it gets that bad, and learn to reverse it. But so far as I am aware, humanity has not managed this, yet. To many of us still want to BE the overlords to stop them when they emerge and begin to destroy us.

So are you advocating that we use our military to overthrow the offending countries? Are you willing to lead the charge?

 

[YmirGF]

The problem is that idiots are in charge of everything

What about all the idiots who are not in charge of so much as a lemonade stand! In essence, you just want to swap out idiots.

 

[BSM1]

What about all the idiots who are not in charge of so much as a lemonade stand! In essence, you just want to swap out idiots.

Oooh, wait...I'm going to use this if I run for Prez...

I can actually see my campaign slogan:

"Let this idiot run things for awhile. Couldn't hurt.."

 

[YmirGF]

Oooh, wait...I'm going to use this if I run for Prez...

I can actually see my campaign slogan:

"Let this idiot run things for awhile. Couldn't hurt.."

HAHAHA.... I would almost admire the honesty!

 

[Lyndon]

What about all the idiots who are not in charge of so much as a lemonade stand! In essence, you just want to swap out idiots.

Its better than being an idiot.

 

[PureX]

So are you advocating that we use our military to overthrow the offending countries? Are you willing to lead the charge?

OURS is the offending country. And we will fight back when it's far too late, and our loved ones are being killed by our own overlords. But by then the military may well be their paid goons. Certainly they are already militarizing our police forces, and the police seem to be eating it up. We could stop them easily, right now, because the actual military is made up of US. But we have no will to do so. We still want to BE THE OVERLORDS, not stop them. And we will keep wanting to be them until they start killing us and those we love. Because we don't care if they're killing our neighbor or his family.

That's the key. We need to start seeing our neighbors and their families as part of us, so that when the overlords begin enslaving and abusing any of us, we will see it and feel it right away, when we can easily stop it. But so far, we never do. We cling to the "every-man-for-himself" philosophy that keeps us all fighting with each other while our overlords rob us all blind and gain more and more power over us. It's the age-old story. And still humanity has not learned the simple lesson of unity, and cooperation. Still, we all want to be the gluttonous overlords. We think it's the only way.

 

[BSM1]

Its better than being an idiot.

But...but...oh, never mind...

 

[BSM1]

OURS is the offending country. And we will fight back when it's far too late, and our loved ones are being killed by our own overlords. But by then the military may well be their paid goons. Certainly they are already militarizing our police forces, and the police seem to be eating it up. We could stop them easily, right now, because the actual military is made up of US. But we have no will to do so. We still want to BE THE OVERLORDS, not stop them. And we will keep wanting to be them until they start killing us and those we love. Because we don't care if they're killing our neighbor or his family.

That's the key. We need to start seeing our neighbors and their families as part of us, so that when the overlords begin enslaving and abusing us, we will see it and feel it right away, when we can easily stop it. But so far, we never do. We cling to the "every-man-for-himself" philosophy that keeps us all fighting with each other while our overlords rob us all blind. It's the age-old story. And still humanity has not learned the simple lesson of unity, and cooperation. Still, we all want to be the gluttonous overlords.

Sooo..what's you favorite PlayStation game?

 

[Sunstone]

Seriously? Now you want the government telling you how much of your money goes to which candidate?

Seriously? That's your understanding of public financing? Get a grip on the subject before speaking about it.

 

[PureX]

What about all the idiots who are not in charge of so much as a lemonade stand! In essence, you just want to swap out idiots.

The problem is that only the idiots WANT to be in charge. So the rest of us keep letting them, and it blows up in our faces.

 

[BSM1]

Seriously? That's your understanding of public financing? Get a grip on the subject before speaking about it.

Really? You think it can be any other way?

 

[sun rise]

How do you combat climate change?

Personally I prefer market-based solutions that make it in everyone's interest to act positively. These mechanisms address the "tragedy of the commons". And they can save money. But too often, we see government promoting more expensive and more polluting solutions, such as coal.

Here's just one example: Take James Brainard, the Republican mayor of Carmel, Indiana, since 1996. He’s put a priority on lowering emissions because it saves his city money and makes it a nicer place to live There Is A Conservative Approach To Climate Change | HuffPost

If conservatives in general accepted the science rather than denying it, I'm sure we would see many ideas that would save money and improve the environment at the same time.

 

[Curious George]

Do we cap wages? Do we tell folks they have no right to earn $50,000,000.00 in a single year?

Yes. Well at least practically, anyway. We already have a progressive tax. This should be steeper yet. You are taxed the very same on your first 20k as the guy from McDonald's is taxed on his first 20k.

The tax brackets should increase to a point where 99% of an income is goimg back to the federal government at a certain point. A person has no business making 50M per year. The tax brackets can follow the years inflation. But at a certain point a person should be givimg $99 for every $1 they take.

 

[Revoltingest]

Seriously? Now you want the government telling you how much of your money goes to which candidate?

There is a potential feedback problem with government in the sole position
of deciding who gets funding for campaigning. (Makes me think of the PRC.)
Of course, this would be great if all leaders were always honest, dedicated,
capable & fair. But where has that occurred in human history?

 

[Shad]

- You shift subsidies away from fossil fuel companies and towards renewable R&D.
.

Go read the Paris Accords. Those same companies are getting billions due to the accords.