greed

[degringolade]

 

Northern Renaissance / Pieter Bruegel the Elder/ Greed

Guest post today.  I am relieved in a sense because right now I am kinda idling along and this arrived in a manner that relieves me of my self-imposed requirement of 500 words (or so) in the diary.  As I was waking up to my cuppa tea and a blank mind, this arriving in my email was fortuitous in the extreme.

So, without further ado.

 

HOW TO FUND A NATION, NOT

By Michael

The Bible has about 1,300 pages, and the US tax code has 17,000.

The disparity makes sense because the tax code is assigned the task of clarifying the Bible. For example, where the Bible says, thou shalt not steal, the tax code must define all the different ways one might steal; specifically, the ways that one might end up having money that belongs to the government - which is in fact money that belongs to one’s fellow citizens.

The honest taxpayer looks for a new way to avoid paying taxes, when an old way is outlawed. This is the expectation for brutal honesty with regard to taxes owed.

If everybody wanted to be fair, nobody would do this … unless everybody does it because it is regarded as 100% fair; then, avoiding taxes is fair – and doing otherwise is foolish. This is how the US tax code is regarded, and it grows and evolves as honest people think of new ways to avoid being fair – which is fair.

*****

Some say that the bad overall economic situation with extreme inequality is caused by a small population of greedy bastards. But maybe this is wrong.

Maybe the situation is what evolves when everybody is greedy, and in this case, when everybody is greedy because the system wants them to be.

A good question is whether humans prefer this setup; maybe it seems more natural; maybe because it is.

What if the “system” - that makes it fair to be unfair - is a “natural” development? This could be the case if it is true that humans are greedy bastards by nature.

Maybe this is why it has been so difficult (and required so much brutality) to install a “system” that theoretically strives for equal distribution. It might not be easy for man to become altruistic after a 200,000-year evolution into a successful greedy bastard.

On the other hand, there is a theory that says humans are altruistic by nature. This is the type of theory that everybody wants to believe, which is a good indication that it is wrong; but hopefully not. The only way to find out, is to have a system that calls fair, fair, and greed, greed. Having a system where being greedy is not greedy, is confusing. 

Comments

CRITICISM OF GUEST AUTHOR

[mschmidt]

I am honored to be the guest author; but I am also prepared to take on the added responsibility of criticizing what the guest author wrote.

COMMENT: The guest author thinks he is being clever, but he completely avoids explaining how extreme wealth disparity results from a pool of 100% greedy bastards, when ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.

*****

REPLY: I am honored to answer criticism directed at the guest author.

First, it is not necessary to discard the ideal that all men are created equal. This ideal is the bedrock upon which America is built. The fact that the ideal is nonsense does not mean the nation is built on bad bedrock, because the bedrock idea is nonsense too.

What is required is a simple FACT added right after the ideal. Not only a simple fact, but a fact that humans have recognized to be true since civilization began.

1. All men are created equal.
2. Life is not fair*.

* This protects the American ideal (1) in all cases up to and including complains registered by slaves and indigenous people.

The function of (2), is to allow (1) to withstand any challenge. Nobody would have come up with the idea that all men are created equal, if all men did not already know (2).

Note that with (1) God gets what appears to be undeserved credit for producing identical units. And what does God say when the question comes up about why life is not fair? The preacher says the reason is that God has a plan, and life in heaven is much better than it is on earth; but speaking for himself, God might say, “somebody has been bullshitting you son”.

Re: CRITICISM OF GUEST AUTHOR

[degringolade]

I strongly agree with the statement "all men are created equal". The trouble is that after that "creation" thing everything becomes a bit of a crapshoot.