There’s a good bunch of people who don’t think they are poor but “temporarily inconvenienced bllionaires”.
Sounds familiar. With my conservative family members it’s always either socialism or islamphobia. Or both.
I do own a railroad. I bought it for $200. I own Reading Railroad, B&O, and I’m trying to work out a deal to acquire Short Line from my brother in exchange for Vermont Avenue.
In my country center left’s tax the rich means tax income above 60k.
And because that’s against majorities interests they get voted out.
The rich unfortunately bought all the parties. Parlamental democracy is a failure and we need direct votes on each bill. Imagine being able to directly vote on the topics discussed on a weekly or monthly basis via phone.
Fuck that. Most people are dumb as shit and should not vote.
In Switzerland we have some sort of “direct democracy” (basically people get to vote on a law or a change in the constitution a few times a year) and people still vote for less taxes for the rich.
Sounds like an awful idea. Direct democracy on specific policies is a fucking nightmare. I want actually informed and knowledgeable people making decisions on shit.
Yeah, sounds great in theory if everyone was as autistic as I am. But I don’t want policies on healthcare and vaccines being decided on by the average uninformed click of some average idiot with a smartphone app.
“Ask the audience” works until you have a question that requires actual expertise.
I get your frustration with capital corruption and influence. But you’re not thinking this through.
I don’t want to throw away my vote after elections
I got lied to too often.I want to be included in decisions that concern me - other decisions only concerns other people, I don’t need to be involved in everything, but I want to keep my vote
Actually I’m more of an utopian naivist and with that an anarchist, to be happy with that. But it would be a step in the right direction.
To more self determination
You lack imagination. I’m seeing a system where you can change the party you vote for at any time. Not knowledgeable on a topic? Leave it to the people you trust most. But if certain policies are interesting it should be possible to intervene at will.
If people decide on topics they have no clue on that’s their right and no worse than voting the wrong parties.
One problem i’m seeing is, people might vote shortsighted like brexit. But i’m seeing parties all over europe only thinking within their legislature too so no loss.
Not knowledgeable on a topic? Leave it to the people you trust most.
That’s not what people do.
But if certain policies are interesting it should be possible to intervene at will.
No, it shouldn’t. I can find vaccines “interesting”. I shouldn’t have a say in whether a new vaccine is safe or not. That decision should be left to experts in that field.
I don’t lack imagination. You are lacking any understanding of how policy is created and how governments function.
It’s such a stupid idea that I’ve heard this “app based direct democracy” multiple times from the dumbest fucking guys at bars. This is the equivalent of “we just need crypto” solution to problems with banking a capital. Ironically, if we had this type of direct democracy, you’d have the most popular policies be more and more dumb “easy to understand” solutions like the one you are presenting.
Yeah, imagine having to regularly vote on something like “Art. 2.17b GCrL shall be amended to exclude entities as described under Art. 90 IndRegR”. Didn’t vote? Oops, that one made it functionally impossible to sue companies for negligence. And the one almost identical-sounding one next to it would’ve lowered your tax burden by 5%.
A state is a hideously complex thing and I don’t want to have to care about how the Regulation on the Valuation of Asset-Backed Financial Instruments in the Leasing Sector (1987) works or how paragraph 3 of the MONKEEZ Act potentially conflicts with TRIPS.
Agreed. I don’t have the time nor interest to be appropriately informed on all judicial matters. I would like though to vote in someone that is and that shares my ideals, so they can represent me appropriately. What we should get is corporations and lobbying out of politics
I’m curious, is the “tax the rich = tax people earning over 60k” the actual position of the party (as checked on their website/announced by their reps), or is that what the media are reporting ?
There was a very strong push to misrepresent the UK greens push for a wealth tax as being an attack on ordinary people who owned their homes.
It was utterly untrue and fortunately the greens were media savvy enough to subvert it (but not savvy enough to prevent the anti-semitism attack successfully deployed against Corbyn the last successful left leader).
Party representants were interviewed and didnt name a number. When voted into office they taxed everyone over 60k more.
I am fighting socialism because my father grew up in the FRG and my mother in the GDR, and because I was able to talk to my grandparents on both sides, who lived in the FRG and GDR respectively.
My relatives in the socialist GDR had to work more (more hours per week, less vacation days per year) and could afford less (though technically, affordability wasn’t the issue: they had the money, there was just nothing to buy).
My relatives in the west also had more freedom in where they traveled, which media they consumed, and which opinions they voiced.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate capitalism too. But change needs to come democratically. Otherwise things get worse, not better.
The acronyms make this entirely unreadable dude
“My father grew up in the frog and my mother in the Great Darrier Reef” sure man.
You typed out four paragraphs, add the extra four words 😭
Context clues? I don’t actual know what the FRG or GDR are but I was pretty much able to gleam one was a socialist state (presumably part of the USSR) and the other a capitalist one.
(actually GDR now that I think about it definitely stands for German Democratic Republic.
I keep having to look up acronyms on posts about american politics, it’s only fair if it also works like that the other way around 😉
PLEASE do me a favor and start calling them out too. Together we can make lemmy acronym free :3
“Socialism” can mean different things, from European-style social democracy or Keynesian economics to Marxist-Leninist totalitarianism. The Reaganites having spent the past four decades using the word to mean anything beyond an Ayn Rand pipe-dream of pitiless free-market competition hasn’t helped.
Otherwise things get worse, not better.
Eh, it’s a mixed record. The Soviet Union was pretty bad for Germany and co, but for Russia and the rest of them it (at great human cost) brought them into modernity, and ditto for China. On the opposite side democracy didn’t exactly save Weimar Germany.
