Recent comments in /f/Showerthoughts

Dwarfdeaths t1_j6ktuop wrote

I think the problem most capitalist countries are struggling with is the failure to distinguish capital from land. Capital - that is, wealth reinvested to improve the productivity of future work- deserves returns. Instead of enjoying your wealth, you gave it up for a time to be more productive.

Rent seeking - that is, the withholding of land from those who need it to live and work - is pure parasitism. No one created land, they just found it and claimed it. (Similarly, old capital that was made by someone who is no longer alive is indistinguishable from land.)

Henry George proposed a solution known as the land value tax. It effectively rents all land out, and distributes that rent uniformly among citizens. While the owner can still choose how to use their land, the economic value of that land is owned by everyone.

Capitalism in its pure form, i.e. privatized rewards for private investment, is probably fine. But land is not capital and we can't continue to treat it like it is.

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starlightchaser60 t1_j6ktq6c wrote

The world gets something with infinite untapped potential. Then, the world ruins it by being extremely greedy and selfish. Then, after a few years, what could have made human life insanely better is now mostly toxic, with a few good things strewn in here and there.

Multiply this by every potential Earth shattering invention.

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sunflower_jim t1_j6kth0m wrote

I think for the vast majority this sentiment holds true. Just look at your phone time app to see it’s true.

It’s the same sentiment as a library. Vast wealth of knowledge but most people are there to read comics or use the PCs to game online. I’d wager some very good and important books have only been touched by the library staff for decades. Yet if somebody said “libraries are basically pointless these days” I’d have to agree, yet your comment would hold true there as well.

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numbersev t1_j6kr5d9 wrote

It was originally decentralized and gradually became centralized out of necessity. For example we as in humanity don't need 5 different Facebooks, YouTube's or Reddits. We all just use the same one and that's where it strength kicks back as well.

Web 3.0 is said to promote innovative concepts that decentralize power again, but I don't know how it would change the internet as we use it.

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