1 min readSep 7, 2016
- The thing about redistribution of wealth is that it can’t be done through the lens of individualism. Me seeking some sort of individual purity via giving away everything I have today does not dismantle the system. It does make me dismissable. If I can be dismissed as “some loony who gave away all his money and lived on the streets” then I can’t organize my people. If I’m not bringing others along with me on this journey, then I am not doing my job. I have to strike a balance between living the values I’m proclaiming and not making myself dismissable to my peers. Plus we haven’t even gotten into what form of assets I have. It sounds like you’re assuming I have control of it all and can liquidate it immediately. Money takes many forms and some of them are quite impenetrable because of capitalism.
- I agree about the value of work, self-reliance, etc. What infuriates me is that our country projects this image of being a land where all of that is possible, while creating a system in which some people can work 2–3 jobs and never accumulate wealth while others can stare at the wall all day while earning significant amounts of money via interest on their investments. So the whole “hard work and self-determination” thing is an amazing aspiration, and our society makes a mockery of it.
