Not an inkling of appreciation for sane limits and healthy balances
Mike Shedlock is a Libertarian.
There’s a tendency for Libertarians to start off with some simple truths (like: the large, centralized nation-state governments are too remote, bureaucratic, irresponsible) and wind up promoting the fantasy of laissez-faire capitalism (which has never existed and never will, because mass society is inherently prone toward power elitism and the power elites don’t want competition).
https://mishtalk.com/economics/instead-of-criticizing-billionaires-over-taxes-we-should-praise-them
First he says we should be appreciative of the billionaires phenomenon.
Let’s get some perspective. People vary. Some thrive much. Some thrive less. The former tend to be more socially productive. If there’s sense in paying people in proportion to their productivity (that’s debatable, but let’s proceed on that premise here) then it might make sense for a Very Productive to make, maybe, ten times more than a Less Productive.
Mish, can’t you see how unbelievably ridiculous it is that some people make four or five or ten THOUSAND TIMES what other perfectly hard-working people make? Is the Pretty Darn Productive four thousand times better? ten thousand times more worthy?
Please, it makes no sense and it’s egregiously stupid and actually somewhat demoralizing to observe. What kind of idiot society has absolutely no sense of limits and balances?
Answer: An unecological society that values Big and Much and Fast and Titanic and More.
Next he says Google is Great:
While Google does not publish the size of the Google Scholar’s database, scientometric researchers estimated it to contain roughly 389 million documents including articles, citations and patents making it the world’s largest academic search engine.
Really big. Really awesome.
Impressive. But. It’s part and parcel of, made possible by, something really awful.
. . . a culture awed by Size and Power and Extremes, based on a way of life that has decimated the things that are of real value.
