This kind of thing blows my mind. If you’re someone who benefits a lot from the status quo, you’re a member of the ruling capitalist class, and you see that populist movements pose a threat to your power… Wouldn’t you want to defang those movements by offering up as many of your ilk as sacrifice as possible? Wouldn’t you want to be able to suggest that the real problem are those people breaking the rules, not the rules themselves that allow you to siphon off so much of society’s wealth? Wouldn’t you want to make a big deal over those prosecutions?
In order to believe that it’s to their benefit to have this lack of enforcement, if you acknowledge that the super-rich have a lot of power, you really have to start to believe that even in a system where they write the rules, they’re all breaking them. Even in a system where they can lobby the tax code into pretzels, they’re still all cheating it.
Sometimes I think I’m not much of a leftist, somewhere in between the Vox readers and edgy podcasts of this world. But… oof.
to me, the largest issue is lobbying. It’s bribery. all the most corrupt and inefficient industries are propped up by lobbyists.
simplifying the tax code would drop an entirely futile industry that is the tax tools. all those people holding those jobs are now able to contribute to society. same with all the fucking red tape lobbyists put up to root out the little guys.
I think distribution of power, simplification of rules, more checks and balances, and stricter anti-trust enforcement as well as disallowing campaign contributions from companies is the key to a greater than great society. Much easier said than done. But instead of playing right vs left, should play establishment vs anti-establishment
