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Comment by royaltheartist | Hacker News Reader

Compared to the wealthy who have enriched themselves

The wealthy are not a system. Which system do you say works better for the 99%?

Any system which allows for communal control of the means of production and for people to make economic and political decisions for themselves.

No, that's wrong too. The "burn it all to the ground, then introduce anarchy" strategy meets all those criteria:

* everybody has equal control of the nothing,

* no value → no economy → no economic decisions made for you by others,

* anarchy → no political decisions made by others

yet is clearly inferior to what we've got now.

It sounds like whoever managed to get political support in that community is making the economic decisions, rather than “themselves”. Individual property rights simply devolves that control to the individual or the family. Communal property rights would place control of property into the hands of the elites. I’m not saying the current system is perfect, but I’m the system to you’re describing I don’t see how someone gets a new technology to market without the support of the elites. It’s at least possible today, and leads to the collective increase in standards of living.

The system we live in is one in which everything is in the control of the elites. Who makes all the decisions about technology? The CEOs of massive tech firms. Who makes all the political decisions in government? To a person almost exclusively the rich, those who hoard capital.

I’m not going to argue that our political and social economic systems don’t have flaws. I do think directly merging political and economic power into the same institutions would only make it worse.

A few countries have tried that and it’s hard to do without applying the jackboot to a few million people’s’ necks.

Have you seen the footage coming out Chicago, New York and Portland of police beating people in the streets? You might want to ask what country is putting the jackboot on people's necks to maintain social order

I have seen it. I see non-violent protestors and I see violent protestors.

I have zero problem with the cops stopping violent protestors. That’s a basic function of government.

Which countries have tried to distribute wealth? Most countries that people usually claim that about have actually done the opposite - they were trying to put the jack boot to a few million people's necks, and found that claims about redistribution of wealth can win you enough followers to actually do that. This is certainly true of Lenin and Stalin and Mao.

I'm not arguing they did a great job, but Russia, China, Vietnam certainly tried - land reform is a good example.

Of course, the most "loyal" communists got the best land...

What about the system we had between WWII and Reaganomics, when not only was income inequality smaller, but most of computing was also invented (using state money)?

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