04-13-2020, 10:18 PM
(04-13-2020, 09:02 PM)Generational Wrote: Regarding income and wealth inequality I think it's clear to everyone but neocons / neolibs that it's a very big problem and needs to be reversed. Also, everyone except for blinded ideologues knows that socialism and anything in this directions does not work. So what gives? My feeling is we will find a populist solution close to what the book "Towards a Truly Free Market" from 2010 outlines.
Nationalist-populist conservatives understand that there are TWO things that make people conservative like nothing else:
1. Have children
2. Own property and assets
Large cities with a tenant-only class are ALWAYS governed by socialist-type local governments, across the globe. The voters have nothing to lose. But get the property widely distributed --- they turn conservative. The same is true when you collect assets like stocks over time. I started this early and I tell you nothing made me more conservative as I have something to conserve now.
Populism is liberal and it works. It means higher taxes on the wealthy, minimum wages and union rights for workers, break up of big monopolies and oligarchies, regulations to keep business behaving, and public ownership of certain industries and services where workable and appropriate. A mixed economy. That's populism. Power to the people, not the 1%. Neo-liberalism is the opposite: trickle-down economics or opposition to taxes, regulations and welfare.
We need people to be liberal, not conservative. Conservatives (which are now all neo-liberals) hold on to the status quo of elite power and traditional authority. That blocks progress toward true populism, and has blocked it in the USA for 40 years.
Families and property owners need to understand, for their own good and benefit, that allowing a small number of rich people to own and control everything reduces the value of their property, because the economy suffers. Only a country in which wealth is widely distributed is creative and fun to live in, and full of opportunities to earn and invest money. In the long run, we are all in it together. Wealth results from a country with abundance for all. Allowing conservatives to control the country means that needed problems are not addressed, and no solutions are found. That is what conservatism is now. Stand pat, do nothing, preserve the privileges of the wealthy, and expect all benefits to trickle down from the top. But nothing trickles; we are tinkled on.
That's the choice now; don't be fooled. The choice is between a country that works for 1%, or one which works for 99%. That's a D vs. R choice; blue vs. red. True progressive populism vs. neo-lib/neo-con. There are no other choices available now. None.