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Originally Posted by rrsteer Thanks for sharing! Really good thoughts from the interviewee. I think I partly now know why the 'right' side of the political spectrum are gaining/ have gained ground everywhere from our own country to US. The last part where he talked about the capitulation of the Democratic party in US, is just so very true. |
I listened to him a bit, and feel that he has nothing to offer other than plain hate for the rich. The left always recruited from the hate-the-rich minds. This guy seems to suggest that the rich has the duty to keep paying the poor, and if the poor does not become rich it is the rich to blame. I can understand that the poor needs help, but what I don't get is how you gain more rights when you are poor. No, being poor does not give you any right to take anything away from the rich. Not even with a third party (government) involved.
Recently I had been listening to some Alt Right leaders like Richard Spencer and it is clear how they rose in prominence during the last few years. Before you blame Trump you should understand that Trump is only riding on what was a byproduct of the extreme left politics played by the Democrats. As with the left anywhere in the world, they played identity politics to garner votes. Just create virtual groups (poor, black, women, LGBT etc), tell them they are oppressed, show them an oppressor (rich, white, men, straight etc) and offer them free stuff as compensation. Like, hey you are oppressed, so how about some free money. Problem is, every election year they have to better the offer or find new target groups.
There is a growing resentment against this identity politics for quite some time now. Trump was able to successfully use it to his advantage.
Just do a thought experiment. What if we replace all social schemes and go with the Yang Gang suggestion - UBI. Give a thousand dollars to everybody every month. No, I like the idea. At least better than any other social intervention scheme ever invented. I know that there is still a question of who will pay for it. But lets park that issue for a moment. So you give a 1000 dollars to everybody irrespective of whether he is rich, poor, black, white brown, yellow, straight, gay, queer etc. Guess what, next election year what will you promise? Promise to make it 2000 dollars? NO. That will not work. For such "free" schemes to work, you should promise something that is not available to that other group. That is where UBI is going to fail. After a few years with UBI the left will go back to promising perks to target identity groups.
And that is how socialism works. Pit the poor against the rich, tell them whatever money he made was made because of you, he is privileged while you were oppressed, so give me your vote so that I can take money from him and give it to you. Simple, ain't it? No need to create any wealth. Steal from A and give to B and ask for B's vote. Most of the time As are outnumbered by Bs.
Last year when I bought a car, I had a passport copy to be attested by a gazetted officer for registration of the car. There are several govt offices on my way to work. That day I had to visit 9 different offices before I found somebody who attested it. The time was about 11:00-12:00AM and in all those 8 offices (except the last one) I was greeted with empty chairs with just a sweeper or a security guy asking me to come later as they don't know when sir/madam would arrive. Agriculture development board, Milk development board, <some caste> development corp, etc etc. All white elephants leeching money from the taxes you and me paid. That, guys, is the socialism that is prevalent here. The proponents of socialism make it sound like it is some charity scheme that is designed to help some not-so-fortunate individuals who cannot otherwise take care of themselves. NO. No real poor people who needs help gets anything. Look at the adivasis, the homeless, the undocumented who lives on the streets. They get nothing. All the tax we pay are being eaten up by the middle class govt employees whom are paid 10 times more than an average hardworking laborer or a small business owner.
Let me put out some statistics. My state collected Rs 42176 crores in revenue (tax etc) during 2016-17. And spent Rs 43271 crores in just salaries and pension to govt employees. Now where is the money left for social schemes? Where are the money for the roads, bridges, etc? You borrow, and incur debt. This is the kind of socialism that really exists here.
There are millions out there who work hard - on the road, on the fields, in factories, in mines etc - to earn their living. There are daily wage labourers, small shop owners, roadside hawkers, door to door salesmen who work honestly to make a living. And then there are socialists who "fight" for their right to receive free stuff from the government. Free stuff got by taxing people who worked hard to buy their food. Socialism is a disservice to people who actually work for a living.
PS: An elder brother recently gave his younger brother some 550 crores to pay his debt off. The younger brother was a less fortunate guy who is incapable of running businesses. But it is nice that the elder brother thought it was better to keep it within the family. In the socialistic scheme of things, he should have convened a meeting of all business owners and asked them to pool money to bail his brother out because he is one among them. In the post-modernist-left era the younger brother would have claimed that he has the right to receive money from all the other business owners to pay off the debt.