Quote of the Day: Capitalism and Socialism

 

“Under capitalism, the rich grow powerful. Under socialism, the powerful grow rich — and everyone else grows poor.” – Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit)

Why is socialism growing more powerful in the United States? Because it directly benefits the gentry class: those running the country and those supporting them. This includes not just the political elite, but also the upper-middle-class, credentialed workers who work white-collar jobs – management and technology. The folks who can work remotely and get all their wants and needs delivered to their door.

(If you have not already, listen to Peter Robinson’s latest Uncommon Knowledge: What Happened: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya On 19 Months Of COVID. While primarily about the Covid lockdowns, it addresses the same issues I address here: how an elite can advance themselves at the expense of others. Go on and listen, I’ll still be here.)

Some might say I am nuts. The upper-middle class is the group in the highest tax brackets – the ones on which the burden of paying for government falls upon the most heavily. The working class and poor pay little to no income tax. Except part of that burden is s sleight-of-hand illusion. The top 10% of income earners have many ways of sheltering their income from taxes, which are often entered into the tax code in the interest of “fairness.” (An example is the recent attempt to remove ceilings on SALT tax deductions,) But more than that, those high tax rates are how they maintain their position in society. We do not have wealth taxes. Those who “have theirs” do not get what they do have taxed. They only get taxed on their income. As do their potential competitors.

Those potential competitors are the ones to whom high marginal tax rates are targeted. These are the Horatio Algers of American society. Those that arrive in this country penniless and through hard work, intelligent choices, and a little luck, build a business and amass wealth. But making money takes capital. High tax rates slow the accumulation of capital. Until capital grows to a critical mass, it is difficult to take the risks associated with starting a business unless you are willing to gamble everything on a low-odds effort. High tax rates ensure most of those who could potentially enter the top ten percent age out by the time they get there.

Additionally, for the first time in our history we are developing a rigid caste system. It is disguised as meritocracy, but it really is not. Credentials are now far more important than capability, If you don’t go to the right schools, get the right degrees, and have the right credentials, you are often not allowed to compete in the marketplace of ideas. The gentry class is the ones best positioned to see its children go to those schools and get the appropriate credentials to assume influential positions. (Can you imagine the uproar that would ensue if someone without an Ivy League education and the appropriate internships were nominated to the Supreme Court? Has not happened since I was a child.) The children of the gentry class get into these schools and gain these credentials regardless of their abilities. Unless they are short-bus dumb they pass through on “gentlemen’s” A’s. (Since everyone gets an “A” nowadays, Except for those attempting to push in from the outside, who somehow slipped in. They are still graded on performance.)

We complete the creation of an aristocracy by discouraging those outside of it from gaining the tools to enter it. We sabotage the public education system (in the name of making it “better” for the disenfranchised), defund the police (allowing looters to prevent the accumulation of capital through theft – all while providing private security and gated communities for the gentry class), and increase regulation (again in the name of fairness, but in actuality to prevent individuals from working for themselves or any company not large enough to afford the overhead to deal with the regulation). Regulation has the double benefit of providing the gentry class with plentiful opportunities for graft – enriching themselves while reducing the capital of those desperate to start their own businesses.

What we are evolving to is the Soviet model, with an elite Nomenklatura lording over an impoverished peasantry. We are not yet there. (Ricochet will cease to exist once we get there – or become a completely neutered site posting only what the government approves,)  But we are approaching it. The peasants wear masks in public while the aristocrats preen for each other – maskless – on the runway. We are forced to accept vaccine mandates to keep our jobs, while the elite ignore them. And soon, we will have travel restrictions for the mass of the public, which do not apply to the elite.

Tell me, what is the difference between a socialist country and a medieval kingdom? I fail to see a substantive difference. That is why so many running this country and running its big businesses like socialism. It allows them to be feudal lords again – with divine right of kings replaced by socialist dogma.

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  1. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    Not the present Queen Elizabeth. She became queen in 1952.

    The Queen Mother was also (confusingly) Queen Elizabeth. And apparently five staff were injured, one of whom died – so….[eats crow].

    What did the young woman who became Queen Elizabeth II do during the war?

    Say it sister. 

    • #31
  2. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    Not the present Queen Elizabeth. She became queen in 1952.

    The Queen Mother was also (confusingly) Queen Elizabeth. And apparently five staff were injured, one of whom died – so….[eats crow].

    What did the young woman who became Queen Elizabeth II do during the war?

    I think, though I’m not sure, that she worked with the air raid wardens.

    • #32
  3. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    Not the present Queen Elizabeth. She became queen in 1952.

    The Queen Mother was also (confusingly) Queen Elizabeth. And apparently five staff were injured, one of whom died – so….[eats crow].

    What did the young woman who became Queen Elizabeth II do during the war?

    She served in uniform in the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a mechanic and a driver. She achieved the rank of junior commander (equivalent to a captain) by war’s end.

    She is the only surviving head of state that served in uniform during World War II.

    • #33
  4. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    Not the present Queen Elizabeth. She became queen in 1952.

    The Queen Mother was also (confusingly) Queen Elizabeth. And apparently five staff were injured, one of whom died – so….[eats crow].

    What did the young woman who became Queen Elizabeth II do during the war?

    She served in uniform in the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a mechanic and a driver. She achieved the rank of junior commander (equivalent to a captain) by war’s end.

    She is the only surviving head of state that served in uniform during World War II.

    Both of them, during the war.

    • #34
  5. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Percival (View Comment):

    Both of them, during the war.

    Looks like she is working on a vehicle for one of the Polish units in Great Britain.

    • #35
  6. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    They stole the election when Trump was President, do folks really believe, especially as they see what the Democrats, the giant digital companies  and the bureaucrats are doing,  that there will be a fair election Republicans could win?  They’ll be more or less ready for what follows a stolen election, as the Chinese will help.  The Chinese, after all, will be the winners.  

    We must have a dual strategy.  Try to win the election but also plan concretely for the theft and the following accelerated move toward totalitarianism.     I’d prepare for both concretely  using national guard from border and non border states to close the border.  If we can’t do that, we don’t have a chance anyway.   They can support the move and try to share in the positive results, or they can fight it, but at great risk as it could and should split the country in two, a totalitarian bureaucratic inept but rich big piece and states that choose freedom and the original constitution.  Sort of a historical replay in reverse.  They don’t have Lincoln or Grant, we could along with the best chunk of our military.  I’d guess they’d watch ineptly.

    • #36
  7. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    I’ve heard socialism described as “Simple enough so the average person can understand it, but complex enough to require a ruling elite.”

    • #37
  8. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    I Walton (View Comment):
    They don’t have Lincoln or Grant

    As near as I can tell they make Jeff Davis and Braxton Bragg look like giants in their fields by comparison.

    • #38
  9. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Seawriter: Tell me, what is the difference between a socialist country and a medieval kingdom? I fail to see a substantive difference.

    There’s a difference because socialism is godless and medieval kingdoms were Christian (or, at least, had the veneer). Nobles sometimes lived up to their descriptor, practicing noblesse oblige (like the Queen Mother mentioned above, who wasn’t pretending to be the equivalent of East Enders, but said she would be less embarrassed by her privileged position if she suffered some loss in the war effort).

    Socialism is such an easy sell to the underclass because it’s a Big Lie that fallen humans are predisposed to believe. It’s downright biblical.  I’m reminded of the Exodus during the 40 years in the desert when the Hebrews wanted to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt (slavery) because their desert diet lacked “diversity.” Or the book of 1st Samuel when they’re clamoring for a king.  Sounds a lot like “we want to be like our neighbors the European socialists!” In fact, that could be a campaign motto for the Democrat socialists here: instead of MAGA — MAES (Make America European Socialist — pronounced “mess”). ‘Cause it’s working out so great for Europe in cultural freefall.

    • #39
  10. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    JoshuaFinch (View Comment):

    “Unnoticeably, through decades of gradual erosion, the meaning of life in the West ceased to stand for anything more lofty than the pursuit of ‘happiness’, a goal that has even been solemnly guaranteed by constitutions. The concepts of good and evil have been ridiculed for several centuries; banished from common use.

    Atheist teachers in the West are bringing up a younger generation in a spirit of hate for their own society. Amid all the vituperation, it has been forgotten that the defects of capitalism represent the basic flaws of human nature, freed from all limitations. Such incitements to hatred are coming to characterize today’s free world. Indeed, the broader the personal freedoms are, the higher the level of prosperity or even abundance, the more vehement, paradoxically, is this blind hatred. The contemporary developed West thus demonstrates by its own example that human salvation can be found neither in the profusion of material goods nor in merely making money.” A. Solzhenitsyn, 1983

    Solzhenitsyn saw the decline of the West as a result of turning away from God. It’s worth noting that increased enthusiasm for socialism in the US has paralleled a rise in atheism.

    Ten Likes here!  I watched a PBS segment with Rick Steves where he was highlighting Africa and how climate change was affecting them. I agree the climate is changing – no I don’t believe it’s all manmade. But with the massive drought and people having to pick up and leave large areas, they learn to adapt. The kids go to school, the poor learn how to irrigate and grow crops, then that evolves into bank loans and businesses starting and so on. They don’t sit around waiting to be handed money or live off the parents. It was very interesting.

    • #40
  11. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    JoshuaFinch (View Comment):

    Lenin once said that the world would not be truly reformed until the last capitalist hung from a rope. When asked where the communists would get so much rope Lenin said not to worry, the capitalists will sell it to us.

    I think some of these leaders got their wish – the rope……..

    • #41
  12. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    Not the present Queen Elizabeth. She became queen in 1952.

    The Queen Mother was also (confusingly) Queen Elizabeth. And apparently five staff were injured, one of whom died – so….[eats crow].

    What did the young woman who became Queen Elizabeth II do during the war?

    She served in uniform in the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a mechanic and a driver. She achieved the rank of junior commander (equivalent to a captain) by war’s end.

    She is the only surviving head of state that served in uniform during World War II.

    She may be the only surviving head of state who was old enough to serve in WWII.

    • #42
  13. JoshuaFinch Coolidge
    JoshuaFinch
    @JoshuaFinch

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):
    Are the horrors of socialism ever taught in school?

    Once (until 1962) kids said a prayer every morning at school. That’s when communism was considered evil.

     

    • #43
  14. GLDIII Purveyor of Splendid Malpropisms Reagan
    GLDIII Purveyor of Splendid Malpropisms
    @GLDIII

    Zafar (View Comment):

    BillJackson (View Comment):
    One of my favorite stories is how, at one point, the Germans bombed one of the royal palaces, causing only minor damage, and Queen Elizabeth said, “I’m glad, because now I can look the East End in the face.”

    Imagine her joy if somebody had actually been killed.

    In hindsight she might have accepted that the Duke of Wales be offered up as a sacrifice when he still had promise, rather than the dismal failure he turned out to be…

    • #44
  15. BillJackson Inactive
    BillJackson
    @BillJackson

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    BillJackson (View Comment):
    One of my favorite stories is how, at one point, the Germans bombed one of the royal palaces, causing only minor damage, and Queen Elizabeth said, “I’m glad, because now I can look the East End in the face.”

    Imagine her joy if somebody had actually been killed.

    I can’t imagine such a thing. You must have a special talent.

    Imagine thinking that some minor damage to (one of) your palace(s) puts you on the same footing as an East Ender who’s lost their home to a bomb. Special talent indeed.

    Not the present Queen Elizabeth. She became queen in 1952.

    Thank you for the correction, it’s appreciated

     

    • #45
  16. BillJackson Inactive
    BillJackson
    @BillJackson

    Zafar (View Comment):

    BillJackson (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    BillJackson (View Comment):
    One of my favorite stories is how, at one point, the Germans bombed one of the royal palaces, causing only minor damage, and Queen Elizabeth said, “I’m glad, because now I can look the East End in the face.”

    Imagine her joy if somebody had actually been killed.

    Well, there’s a point in my comment. You missed it. So I”ll try again: It’s easier to follow leaders who show they, too, are sacrificing.

    We’re all in it together. I understood.

    If that’s what you think, then, no, you don’t understand. 

    • #46
  17. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    BillJackson (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    BillJackson (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    BillJackson (View Comment):
    One of my favorite stories is how, at one point, the Germans bombed one of the royal palaces, causing only minor damage, and Queen Elizabeth said, “I’m glad, because now I can look the East End in the face.”

    Imagine her joy if somebody had actually been killed.

    Well, there’s a point in my comment. You missed it. So I”ll try again: It’s easier to follow leaders who show they, too, are sacrificing.

    We’re all in it together. I understood.

    If that’s what you think, then, no, you don’t understand.

    You’re sacrificing? So did the Royal family! You’re in this war effort together, they aren’t tax avoiding parasites.  That’s what I got. 

    • #47
  18. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Zafar (View Comment):

    BillJackson (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    BillJackson (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    BillJackson (View Comment):
    One of my favorite stories is how, at one point, the Germans bombed one of the royal palaces, causing only minor damage, and Queen Elizabeth said, “I’m glad, because now I can look the East End in the face.”

    Imagine her joy if somebody had actually been killed.

    Well, there’s a point in my comment. You missed it. So I”ll try again: It’s easier to follow leaders who show they, too, are sacrificing.

    We’re all in it together. I understood.

    If that’s what you think, then, no, you don’t understand.

    You’re sacrificing? So did the Royal family! You’re in this war effort together, they aren’t tax avoiding parasites. That’s what I got.

    They may be tax avoiding parasites, but the Brits seem to be happy with the situation.  Who are we to tell them different?

    • #48
  19. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    They may be tax avoiding parasites, but the Brits seem to be happy with the situation.  Who are we to tell them different?

    The Royals and the NHS.  Fair call. Plus my mother watches a lot of Royal related telly. 

    • #49
  20. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    They may be tax avoiding parasites, but the Brits seem to be happy with the situation. Who are we to tell them different?

    The Royals and the NHS. Fair call. Plus my mother watches a lot of Royal related telly.

    I guess she’s your queen, too.  But do you pay taxes to support her?

    • #50
  21. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    They may be tax avoiding parasites, but the Brits seem to be happy with the situation. Who are we to tell them different?

    The Royals and the NHS. Fair call. Plus my mother watches a lot of Royal related telly.

    I guess she’s your queen, too. But do you pay taxes to support her?

    Thank goodness no. 

    • #51
  22. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    They may be tax avoiding parasites, but the Brits seem to be happy with the situation. Who are we to tell them different?

    The Royals and the NHS. Fair call. Plus my mother watches a lot of Royal related telly.

    I guess she’s your queen, too. But do you pay taxes to support her?

    Thank goodness no.

    I assume there’s a governor general in Australia, the same as Canada.  Who pays for him?

    • #52
  23. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    They may be tax avoiding parasites, but the Brits seem to be happy with the situation. Who are we to tell them different?

    The Royals and the NHS. Fair call. Plus my mother watches a lot of Royal related telly.

    I guess she’s your queen, too. But do you pay taxes to support her?

    Thank goodness no.

    I assume there’s a governor general in Australia, the same as Canada. Who pays for him?

    We do, but it’s one person’s salary plus work expenditure (and maybe a house?).  Not a gaggle of honking geese.

    The last few years, after I file my taxes I’ve gotten this reconciliation sheet from the Govt that sets out (broadly) how my taxes were allocated ($X of your taxes went to Defense, $X went to health, etc). Can you imagine if the Royals were a line item? That’d to do more to make the UK a republic than anything else I can think of.

     

    • #53
  24. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    They may be tax avoiding parasites, but the Brits seem to be happy with the situation. Who are we to tell them different?

    The Royals and the NHS. Fair call. Plus my mother watches a lot of Royal related telly.

    I guess she’s your queen, too. But do you pay taxes to support her?

    Thank goodness no.

    I assume there’s a governor general in Australia, the same as Canada. Who pays for him?

    We do, but it’s one person’s salary plus work expenditure (and maybe a house?). Not a gaggle of honking geese.

    The last few years, after I file my taxes I’ve gotten this reconciliation sheet from the Govt that sets out (broadly) how my taxes were allocated ($X of your taxes went to Defense, $X went to health, etc). Can you imagine if the Royals were a line item? That’d to do more to make the UK a republic than anything else I can think of.

    They probably couldn’t keep theirs either.

    • #54
  25. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    They may be tax avoiding parasites, but the Brits seem to be happy with the situation. Who are we to tell them different?

    The Royals and the NHS. Fair call. Plus my mother watches a lot of Royal related telly.

    I guess she’s your queen, too. But do you pay taxes to support her?

    Thank goodness no.

    I assume there’s a governor general in Australia, the same as Canada. Who pays for him?

    We do, but it’s one person’s salary plus work expenditure (and maybe a house?). Not a gaggle of honking geese.

    The last few years, after I file my taxes I’ve gotten this reconciliation sheet from the Govt that sets out (broadly) how my taxes were allocated ($X of your taxes went to Defense, $X went to health, etc). Can you imagine if the Royals were a line item? That’d to do more to make the UK a republic than anything else I can think of.

     

    I think the president costs way more than the queen.

    • #55
  26. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    I think the president costs way more than the queen.

    Get rid of him! It’s not just the Queen, it’s all the Royals. 

    • #56
  27. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    I think the president costs way more than the queen.

    Get rid of him! It’s not just the Queen, it’s all the Royals.

    We have our own royalty, though we aren’t supposed to.

    I mean, we have our own Praetorian Guard, for heaven’s sake.

    • #57
  28. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    ??

    • #58
  29. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Zafar (View Comment):

    ??

    The Secret Service.

    • #59
  30. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):
    with arguably similar health outcomes

    Arguably by what argument? This is the first time I’ve seen the idea suggested, but I would be surprised if it could be argued except with false facts. (Based on the misinformed arguments that I HAVE read about the “great” outcomes in England, Europe, and even (heaven help us) Cuba.)

    Fudged stats on infant mortality, maybe?

    Zafar,

    As you probably figured out already, knowing how perfectly gracious and civil I usually am, this Comment was a CUI infraction.  You were kind not to take offense at it before I had a chance to enter my plea.

    • #60
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