dustyattic

dustyattic, 3 months ago

@wolnelewo Oj tam od razu fliperów. Przecież minister mówi, że dwa albo trzy mieszkania na własny użytek (zwany przez podejrzany element wynajmem) to w ogóle w porządku są.

dustyattic, 4 months ago

@rysiek Even without being nihilistic, one can take a rather cautious approach to this proposal.

Putting aside discussion about feasibility, details of implementation, and the risk of unintended consequences, I'm uneasy about the way some of the desired outcomes of this proposal are framed.
By implying that "a just ecological and social transition" is conditioned on the contributions, albeit involuntary, of the rich, you just reinforce the same ideas that stand behind gold visa / citizenship schemes, EU tax heavens, and the incredible power of philanthropic whitewashing.

They're rich because they're better than all of us; they're better than all of us because they're rich, and if you keep insisting that this is a circular argument, they're the only way to save us from climate disaster and societal collapse. So clearly, they're better than all of us, their wealth is totally deserved, and you should believe whatever e/acc bullshit they sell at the moment.

Taxing can be the beginning of a discussion about wealth inequality (if I recall correctly, that was one of the arguments behind the global wealth tax in Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century) It can be used to adjust the balance of power (hell, if "moving wealth elsewhere" makes even a small dent in their ability to shape policies, then it is a win in my book). However, seeing it as necessary for implementing essential policies is a slippery slope. Ultimately, balance sheets are not the problem. The problem is that we have policies that keep real resources from where we (as in 99%) need them and divert them where they benefit a few by, among other things, giving them control over the policies that make them wealthy.

As @pluralistic wrote in Walkaway (https://craphound.com/category/walkaway/):

"If there are rich and poor, you need a story to explain why some have
so much and so many have little. You need a story that explains this is
fair. Last century, the rich made things stable by giving some money
back, tax and education and so on. Welfare state. People could
become rich. Invent something, you could become rich, even if
you weren't born rich.

But those zottas—not zottas yet, actually, just gigas or megas—only
let their money be taxed because it was cheaper than paying for private
security and official surveillance they needed to keep hold of wealth if
the system grew unstable because of the gap between them and everyone."

Let's push for changes, but speak out loud why we need them.

dustyattic, 4 months ago

And, in totally unrelated news ‒ „More than 250 billionaires and millionaires are demanding that the political elite meeting for the World Economic Forum in Davos introduce wealth taxes to help pay for better public services around the world.

“Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the very richest in society,” the wealthy people said in an open letter to world leaders. “This will not fundamentally alter our standard of living, nor deprive our children, nor harm our nations’ economic growth. But it will turn extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment for our common democratic future.“

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/17/wealth-tax-super-rich-davos-abigail-disney-brian-cox-valerie-rockefeller

@rysiek

dustyattic, 4 months ago

@mxtthxw Nobody expects them to support workers of the world to "organise as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the earth".

But it is quite symptomatic that you don't hear calls for fighting market concentration, regulatory capture, corporate tax evasion, antilabor practices. Not to mention introducing meaningful taxation on inheritance of large estates.

You know, all these small things that make accumulation and preservations of such fortunes possible.

@rysiek

dustyattic, 6 months ago

@danlyke
Assigning responsibility is worth anything only if there is political will to held those responsible accountable.

If there is none now (Hague Invasion Act, anyone?), why would we expect things to be different, when responsibility can be diluted?

@edavies @rysiek