tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post4517306515534220872..comments2024-02-13T12:50:30.457-05:00Comments on Rants Within the Undead God: Feudalism Reinstituted in Suckersland where One Man owns EverythingBenjamin Cainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-4130506458909334772014-03-28T19:10:25.362-04:002014-03-28T19:10:25.362-04:00Who knows how multimillionaires or billionaires th...Who knows how multimillionaires or billionaires think? They might as well be aliens from another galaxy, as far as I'm concerned. But I'm sure their paramount concern is to rationalize the grotesque economic inequality they benefit from, so they can look at themselves in their Tiffany mirrors. <br /><br />They might say, for example, that once you win in a competition, you've no more need to prove yourself, so you've earned your reward, such as a monopoly or an oligopoly. If they've inherited their wealth, they may that that wealth, too, was originally won in a competition, so again the family's later generations have earned the right to kick back in their private resorts, free from competition with the peons. Benjamin Cainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-16548899237406116382014-03-26T00:03:11.150-04:002014-03-26T00:03:11.150-04:00But of course you would be! Competition gets in th...But of course you would be! Competition gets in the way of winning!<br /><br />The thing is, I wonder if they are so hell bent on winning/getting resources for them that they avoid saying they are opposed to competition because it might very well get in the way of them winning/gaining big resources.<br /><br />Do you think they know they are opposed to competition but avoid saying it for that reason? Or do they even sort of not know and avoid admitting it to themselves, so they can feel like good guys by not even knowing themselves that they are opposed to competition and thus they aren't keeping anything from anyone?<br /><br />Is the second theory too convoluted?Callan S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15373053356095440571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-9802063608686126912014-03-25T10:42:54.064-04:002014-03-25T10:42:54.064-04:00Indeed, big companies are known for merging precis...Indeed, big companies are known for merging precisely to avoid competition. The government is then needed to break up the monopoly and to reestablish competition. So Darwinian competition is a "virtue" only for the little guys who can't buy their way into the heaven of a monopoly or an oligopoly. This is the irony of a capitalistic economy, which is that far from being self-regulating it degenerates. The free market folks are thus effectively opposed to competition.Benjamin Cainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-58614842905321394802014-03-24T20:08:03.111-04:002014-03-24T20:08:03.111-04:00Competition is kind of like petrol - useful in a c...Competition is kind of like petrol - useful in a carefully focused engine, but if you let it leak everywhere, eventually it finds a flame.<br /><br />Also capitalism does not in any way incentivise everyone to work hard to fulfill everyone's needs. Only the suckers think that.<br /><br />Doing so MIGHT be a means to the end of winning. But if there's a better way to winning, then discard it. That's playing to win. Dave Sirlin's e-book on playing to win (http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/) touches on how people tend to be scrubs and ignore certain options as valid play - and so they fail to really play to win. Which explains why they might think capitalism is benevolence. Because they don't know how to play cut throat.Callan S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15373053356095440571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-33341583937891864832014-03-24T11:05:27.529-04:002014-03-24T11:05:27.529-04:00It's hard to say. Of course, the more complica...It's hard to say. Of course, the more complicated they are, the less likely conspiracy theories are to be true. In theory, capitalism is supposed to be paradoxical, because unregulated selfishness and greed are supposed to make for a prosperous economy, since they incentivize everyone to work hard to fulfill everyone's needs. I think there's a kernel of truth here about the value of competition, but it ignores the ethical side of Adam Smith's theory. In short, this kind of deregulation obviously has disadvantages as well. Benjamin Cainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-64307294163581783842014-03-23T19:50:05.003-04:002014-03-23T19:50:05.003-04:00Yeah, it's weird how capitalism is based on wi...Yeah, it's weird how capitalism is based on winning, not living in harmony, and yet they think it'll end in living in harmony?<br /><br />Do they just tell us this crap as all the various moneyed players go about their game of trying to win (and this is just a lie to aid in that game) or do some or even all of them think they can play this world like a game and somehow a just result will indeed pop out of some cosmic hindquarters?<br /><br />Or is it a mix of both? A fact they sort of know, but keep avoiding in the coridors of their mind?Callan S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15373053356095440571noreply@blogger.com