this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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That's kinda my point though, if we had less tax money spent on companies and bombs then they could fix more potholes and wouldn't have the same excuse of needing money to ticket people. A non corrupt govt could spend that money with so much more efficiency than we could. I think war money in the USA is so high that they could probably give you tax cuts at the same time if they just chilled on bombs.
There’s no such thing as a non-corrupt government. Taxation perverts the incentives because the source of their revenue is decoupled from the voluntary contributions of people who want the service they provide. That extra money will not be going to you. These people are not your friend. Efficiency isn’t even possible - half of the information in the economic calculation is not present because they don’t obtain revenue voluntarily.
Yep, I agree.
The less corrupt, the more specialists will control their own fields of specialty which allows more efficiency and sanity to the system, going beyond the standard incentives and the likes. I do agree that large scale governments are inherently bad, but I don't think people are ready for anything better than a lower corruption more democratic subdivided government. Sounds like you want business to be more powerful than government? The reason our governments are so corrupt is because businesses buy the politicians because of previous measures being degraded by the same influences before. As corruption in the govt increases, corporate control is maximised.
I wasn't expecting a serious convo in this post haha
Perhaps you both just need an introduction to
Horizontal governance
I'll try to read it tomorrow. I'm an anarcho-pacifist btw lol. It's too hard to just talk outright so I explain the reformist framing. Anarchism and capitalism are mutually exclusive.
Ha, sorry, I really should have replied to the other person directly because it was much more aimed at them, but I just went along the thread.
Also hard agree re capitalism and anarchism, screw ancaps.
:D
<3
I agree the more decentralized the better. And the government is just a business with the worst incentives - evidenced by other, more efficient businesses following their own incentives to protect their interests by lobbying the government to use the impetus of legal violence. The existence of the government provides the avenue for corruption. There isn’t a great workaround, the Constitution was the best attempt and a single clause enabled the federal government to argue for basically everything it does.
Best just to nix the idea of an institution that can legally demand resources regardless of how well they perform their job.
And yeah, sorry about the seriousness- I’m no fan of billionaires but they can theoretically exist just by providing things people want. The government, with taxes and wars, figuratively and literally suck the blood out of people.
When we started talking, I didn't notice your username. If I did, I would have taken a different non reformist approach, so this is a bit messy because of me.
I think power corrupts, and I mean almost any level of power will make a person go insane(in a sane looking way).
Capitalist institutions will prefer to keep govt style arrangements with no power to the pretend democracy so they can protect themselves from themselves in a basic contract style way. What we see lately is the libertarian/ancap/conservative group gaining power. As they gain power, the govt becomes the capitalists puppet and rejects democracy entirely.
The correct way to handle this in my eyes is for a cultural shift where everyone reduces allowed max power. The govt is plato's shadow of the peoples will. It's currently being coopted by capital more and more. The corruption you speak of, is capitals power over us.
It seems to me we have fundamentally different ideas of what capitalism is. To me, capital is savings - immediate consumption forgone to create something which provides more in the future. I haven’t yet encountered an argument that isn’t reducible to a complaint against the way market mechanisms interact when the government is involved.
I agree about reducing the maximum wieldable power to the greatest extent possible. I think we just disagree about what this actually looks like. The problem is that any institution which would deign to be the authority on this matter is the very one where power coalesces. A system wherein no one single entity has the ultimate authority is the only one that won’t get worse on this over time. The participants should be governed by the incentives inherent in the system, not the dictates of one of the participants.
Anarcho-pacifism is a very respectable political position, btw. I think studying economics from the Austrian school would at least give you a better idea of where ancaps are actually coming from.
First, I want to say that I'm very happy with the way you are civilly discussing this. I've had constant bad faith arguments from practically everyone that's disagreed with me, and I think you are the first since I've made this account that's acted in good faith. Thank you.
The official view, is that capitalism is an economic system that allows the private ownership of capital(capital in this case is the means of production etc).
My view is that capitalism is just another form of authoritarianism involuntary hierarchy, that consolidates more power(money/capital) into fewer hands. It's inherently totalitarian and self strengthening.
Just like a large scope government will be corrupted easily, large corporations will ultimately end with the most bloodthirsty parasites at the top, as decent people will not be willing to be as ruthless.
To me, I want to see people chose to progressively reject power structures and power in all forms. Obviously it will take generations to build culture around it, and we will only meaningfully start while under duress as we currently are. I totally agree that institutions will be useless for the reduction in power, which is why cultural change and peaceful communication and education are key. There is a reason our masters want us fighting and uneducated.
Money/currency itself is inherently evil in the form that its power to corrupt and change things, it's easily abstractable, collectable, worshipable . Money itself, just like any institution has powers to progressively self corrupt, which is why I want to minimise them quickly.
Thanks :)
I've learned a bit about ancap theory, and am willing to do a bit more research and googlin'. The issue is that what I know, says: Ancaps are a co-option of anarchist thought, to hijack some anarchists, or slander the anarchist movement as a whole. I feel that ancap ideology makes no sense in the way of capitalism and anarchism being absolutely in disagreement with each other. Capital(ism)/money is naturally hierarchy forming in a very bad way.
I truly see ancaps, libertarians and conservatives as fundamentally being the same thing. The minimisation of government to maximise corporate powers. Their minimisation of government power is seen by us as the corruption of money, and corporate influence in politics.
I’m happy you are doing the same, and discussing civilly. It’s the only way we can understand each other. Hopefully the quality of discussion will be better on this platform - I think I had a grand total of three or four legitimate conversations on Reddit over the course of several years, so at least we’re off to a decent start.
And yes, you’re right about the definition of capitalism. The terms capital, ownership, private, and means of production are unfortunately not that clear when people coming from different perspectives have different definitions of all those component parts, so I was trying to phrase a bit of my perspective of it in less ideologically-loaded terms.
It’s not surprising you’d feel that way about anarcho-capitalism if you believe money is evil. I think money is man’s greatest invention, the foundation of peaceful cooperation, and primarily good.
I know you already touched on it, but could you explain in more detail why you think money is inherently evil? My view is - there are a very limited number of ways people can interact with each other to obtain things they need or don’t have. If you wish to obtain something from someone else, the fundamental options are trade, beg, steal, or enslave. Outside of reshaping the nature of man into one of complete selflessness, I think the only consistently good option there is trade - which money enables us to do very efficiently. That’s probably already a lot to unpack, but I’d like to hear your thoughts.
It might be easier to describe why money causes problems by contrasting with an alternative.
Money can absolutely help start and simplify trade, and in the early days it was likely beneficial. Money these days though, has become a religion of sort, where people don't know how things interact other than monetary value. They don't get the benefits of social interactions through the hardships of barter, they can detach socially like a billionaire can, and even buy friends and status, charity orgs and can ultimately manipulate so much of their lives, that they destroy aspects of themselves with it.
There are tons of reasons why the USD is toilet paper for example. It used to be money, and now its currency. That change slipped past most peoples awareness because of how complex this system is. Corruption through excessive complexity. Secret doubling of USDs over the last 4 or so years wouldn't even be known by a quarter of the people here.
Bonus trump projection quote from twitter. iirc "The Chinese yuan has been weaponized to hyper-inflate at the pull of a trigger, invalidating their debts"
I think simple trade and letting go of a complex life is fun and enriching. We as kids will clean up for fun, until the first time we are forced to :P society is the same. Id just fix the pothole if it was a dirt road. Bit harder these days as id probably break something by putting dirt onto a bitumen road. I want to work a bit in many fields, but under this current system i have to "win" a job and abuse myself in the process, just to be a slave under totalitarian workplaces.
Now I have a question for you. How do you feel about companies being the most totalitarian aspect of our lives?
Now all this in combination with most other work places being just as bad, and poor social safety nets. You realistically have to submit or die. I take their control as threats against my life, no different than slavery. We do have some options, but they are really bad most of the time. Nothing can really allow an average person without luck to break free of cycles of poverty and submission to totalitarian businesses.
Also, we spend most of our lives realistically tied to, or at work. The freedoms I lose from work exceed the freedoms I lose through direct govt action.
Long reply, excuse the mess.