Measuring the health of a society based on the gap between the richest and poorest is fundamentally wrong. It is just a convenient way for looters to create resentment, because a gap tells you nothing about whether anyone's life got better.
Run the test. If everyone's real income doubles but the top doubles faster, the gap widens and every person on earth is better off. If the richest lose half their money and nobody else gains a dollar, the gap narrows and not one poor family is helped. A measure that calls the first a failure and the second a success is tracking envy, not wellbeing.
Then look at who we are calling poor. A household below the poverty line in America typically has electricity, running hot water, central heat, a refrigerator, a stove, a microwave, air conditioning, a television, a smartphone and a car. That phone carries the accumulated knowledge of the human race and a map of the planet. A hundred years ago no king had any of it. In 1960 most middle-class families had about half.
That is what a century of production bought, and none of it came from closing a gap. It came from men building things and selling them cheaper than the year before.
The gap gets cited because it never closes and never runs out. A permanent grievance with a permanent remedy attached, which is taking more.
@MarkPenwarden@DanielPriestley I agree.
On a sort of related note, income inequality is actually what is meant by "poverty" in the UK.
Meaning you can make the country poorer, or kill rich people, and just like magic, you've solved poverty.
@MarkPenwarden@DanielPriestley I know it's not super simple, but I think focussing on wealth inequality will always lead to people being poor, it's easier to solve wealth inequality by killing the rich than actually improving anything.
@thetraitorfiles I often swing between blackpilling, believing Britain will be the first to push back, or believing Europe will set the stage for us.
I find myself bouncing a lot between this because in my immediate circles, outside of my parents, nobody cares.
Other VISAs can be made for foreign spouses which allow them to live with their family while the relationship lasts, but I believe what's best for any country that values it's continuity is to never grant citizenship, it can only birth new citizens from it's electorate.
I believe this is on the right track, as it massively prevents the government from importing new voters and changing the shape of the country. The only improvement I would make is to never grant citizenship ever except through inheritance from at least 1 parent.
@sophielouisecc I think about this quote every so often
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
- Nietzsche
"Oh this? This is just an entity from the nether realm I summoned by enscribing runes on magic stones I forged in a sacred kiln, then proceeded to cast certain spells to distill the collective conscious to imbue it into the substrate. Don't worry, it doesn't have a soul."
A big part of center-leftism is people thinking they are good at telling who is trustworthy based on tone, mannerisms, diction, titles, and prestige. So you can show them examples like this, and they’ll say “but the people who went after Trump were good, serious people just upholding the law, while the investigation into Omar is clearly political persecution.”
The issue is that the “good person signs” libs rely on are very simple and easy to fake, and the majority of people they trust have indeed just learned this as a parlor trick, consciously or unconsciously. Whether someone speaks in soothing NPR-ese does not actually tell you whether they are honest or know what they’re talking about, and in fact in the modern day probably anticorrelates with trustworthiness.
@memeticsisyphus Seeing "the good guys" actually dispense justice in this way might be a necessary corrective measure.
I don't know the answer, but I'm willing to find out.
@memeticsisyphus I was saying to someone yesterday that already we see the guilty kill the innocent on video like Charlie Kirk, and Iryna. In the UK we have Wayne Broadhurst and Rhiannon Whyte.
We're already inundated with videos and stories of the guilty "winning".
You execute criminals publicly to show evil men that righteous men are not afraid to use overwhelming force to avenge and protect the innocent
Cowardly letting them perpetuate violence and then hide in the shadows while the victims get forgotten is not moral. Its weak
If the urban ghettos liberalism created were so desirable, liberals would live there - but they don't. If the diverse schools it created were so sought after, they would send their children there, but they don't. If the countries that constitute such locales were such a delight, liberals would holiday there - but they don't.
Liberalism is mewling about inequality and appealing to your better nature even as they pull the ladder up behind them and hector you to separate your papers and plastics. Liberalism is the law of the jungle in a rainbow lanyard.
No wonder they all have such crazy eyes, you don't have to be crazy to believe in it - but it helps.
ICE needs to get out of NYC. Mamdani says you don’t have permission to be here and anyone who doesn’t have permission to be in a place must leave that place immediately.