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Comment by andrepd | Hacker News Reader

She is the richest women in Africa on account of comically massive corruption, nepotism, being the daughter of a "democratically elected president" who has been in the job for 38 years, all the while the people of Angola live in absolutely abject poverty. Seriously, Luanda is almost the definition of late stage capitalism: one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in as a uber-rich, and a population so miserably destitute I don't even... You gotta be really in too deep if this is just a ok with you.

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you need to understand that most, really most of the riches we've got today are rich due to crimes to society.

in the US you have a lot of "self-made" people who wouldn't make it anywhere if the US didn't keep its imperialism, which generally kills more people than that regime, but it's ok right as you are the benefitor of something which happened somewhat far away from you, correct? not really.

becoming an entrepreneur is something only some people can afford to.

it's just life.

> you are the benefitor

He has to pay the taxes and has his social programs gutted to finance imperialist policies that primarily benefit the connected ultra rich, who might let him have a few crumbs of their wealth.

Some benefit.

"Society is unequal. It's just life" said the slave to the master, said the serf to the lord, said the subject to the sovereign. No its just just bloody life, it's a system of society which can be improved upon or even replaced (as indeed such systems have evolved and changed in the past).

What an appallingly paralysing way to view things.

That went downhill fast. I'm assuming here that you mean income inequality. Just bear in mind that equalizing politics has been one of the greatest sources of tyranny in history (think Animal Farm; see Frankfurt's "On Equality" for some discussion around equality qua equality and the issues around it). The problem isn't inequality per se, but things like poverty or secondary issues like the power that money often buys. To say that "the system" is the ultimate source of our evils is a silly notion that fails to pin the blame on individuals. "Systems" (or I'd say, prevailing social realities) can make bad behaviors appealing, but morally upright people do not take advantage of such opportunities. Certainly, some social orders are better than others, and legal systems that punish and reward appropriately is very important, but thinking that a properly constructed "system" will eliminate all concerned evils by removing inequality is terrifying madness. Focus on the elimination of poverty instead. Inequality per se is irrelevant.

In Animal Farm, the source of tyranny was not equality, on the contrary; it was the failure of the masses to sustain the idea and to prevent the leaders from violating it. Orwell was still a believer in socialist equality, just not in the Bolsheviks or Stalinism.

See Revolution on Animal Farm: Orwell's Neglected Commentary.

Is there a wonderful country somewhere we should emulate instead? You must have somewhere in mind.

Anyone can be an entrepreneur. It's having an idea that can be acted upon that should provide a positive return (in terms of comparable and calculable inputs and outputs). In the capitalist production order, entrepreneurs need capital to create the conditions necessary to act on the plan. Most people don't have ideas that can be acted upon with enough potential return to justify seeking capital investment as a unique enterprise.

You're oversimplifying things to an absurd level. A lot of American entrepreneurial wealth is made from goods & services made and sold in the US, so I don't see how American Foreign policy has any effect on it.

Sure the established corporations do make a ton of money from international trade (Oil, Manufacturing, Electronics etc.).

Democratically elected with 99.6% of the vote, according to a picture in the article. So either a massive campaign of coercion, or redolent of a quote about whichever of North Korean Kims it was who was reported to have got 18 holes in one the first time he played golf: "the more outrageous the lie, the greater the display of power".

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