A global study led by a researcher at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and published in the journal Scientific Reports finds that economic inequality on a social level cannot be explained by bad choices among the poor nor by good decisions among the rich. Poor decisions were the same across all income groups, including for people who have overcome poverty.
Yeah, that’s generally how I understand it. Capitalism works fairly well when everyone is on an even playing field, but then some people find ways to exploit human psychology to hoard wealth beyond the value they contribute. When money (capital) is considered a proxy for personal value/status, having large amounts of money grants power over others and the ability to bully your way to the top if you’re cruel enough.
So we need to implement regulation that keeps capitalism in check by ensuring access to opportunity. Wealth taxes to avoid unconscionable amounts of accumulation. Guarantees of access to affordable (non-debt burdened) higher education, affordable healthcare, and affordable housing. Basically, the moral underpinnings of socialist ideology can be used to give capitalism a conscience by keeping the end game at bay. But that requires us to continuously battle against the greedy, power-hungry monied interests who will fight those regulations (and have defeated them, on many occasions).
This might be a tangent but I have actually been reading “hell’s paradise” and been introduced to the idea of “the middle way” of Taoism. And it does make a lot of sense to me. Because I have seen the extreme left and I’m starting to see what extreme right could be. That the logical conclusion I get is a middle mix way. But I do see how in human nature it’s hard to grasp this concept, because we tend to be more extremist and black or white tipe of thing.