re: #117 Blind Frog Belly White

The other thing? I’m really not cool with the idea of demonizing rich people, because that’s just the flip side of the coin of worshiping them.

We need to stop thinking of whole swaths of people as EVIL!!!!!! It’s what I was getting at with my post about the financial crisis of 2008. So many people want to see folks in jail because it was such a huge thing, but instead of imagining villains, it’s easier to understand if you look at it as everyone thinking SOMEBODY would stop them if it were a bad idea.

If we think of rich people as EVIL!!!!, we’re inclined to think in terms of punishment for being EVIL!!!!. Instead, we should think of them as people who, like all other people, pursue their own self interest, but who have WAY more power in achieving that than everyone else. Viewed that way, the goal becomes not to punish them, but just to limit their ability to make the system work for theeir benefit at everyone else’s expense.

Bingo. Letting a plutocracy form and then trying to deal with it by massive wealth redistribution is a rotten solution compared to not letting a plutocracy form in the first place.

However, that is much easier said than done.

With respect to the banking crisis, I think it certain that some malefactors of great wealth profited enormously from their crimes. That doesn’t mean that all rich people are evil or all bankers are evil, but some are and they can act with impunity in the system we have.