Tuesday, 2 November 2021
Heavy-Duty Wiring
Joshua Taggart has a useful piece in CAPX. He writes about a George Monbiot piece in the Guardian evidently aimed at the naïve middle class.
In his latest piece for The Guardian, George Monbiot argued that ‘Capitalism is killing the planet‘. In it, Monbiot advocates for a ‘degrowther’ ideology, and supports a wealth tax along ‘limitarian’ lines: ‘we need to level down… just as there is a poverty line below which no one should fall, there is a wealth line above which no one should rise’.
The piece is quite short and well worth reading as a reminder that the naïve middle class is an important audience.
The heavy-handed implication is that capitalism is the root of all our problems and if we abolish it we can ‘fix’ everything. Like failed revolutionaries of the past, Monbiot and others like him believe that there is a perfect social system just waiting to be discovered, and all it takes is a revolution to end the evil reign of profit incentives and private ownership forever.
I'm not sure what Monbiot believes, but there are both commercial and political markets for the oversimplified views he peddles. If Monbiot didn't peddle them, someone else would.
As these misguided ideas become more mainstream and popular, the argument must be made for free market environmentalism, as groups like the Adam Smith Institute, the Conservative Environment Network and the Centre for Policy Studies are doing. Bad arguments must be met with better ones.
Not really. It isn't about good and bad arguments but allegiances and simplicity. Even middle class people with a good education are wired to prefer simple over complex. The wiring is particularly heavy-duty when it comes to Guardian readers.
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5 comments:
Thanks AK, but I really don't want yet another excuse never to read that awful leftie rag...
I assume it's produced on some far away planet where unicorns wander, and fairies accomodate the garden!
Middle class Guardianistas envy those with more money than themselves, and fear those with less. By robbing Oscar to pay off Du'Wayne, they hope to maintain their comfortable smug lives.
That's about as heavy-duty as it gets.
The 'perfect social system' is a myth. Even if the majority of people go along with it how are you going to deal with the pluted bloatocrats that insist on making vast profits or the scummy razer boys that would rather benefit themselves through crime? And even the silent majority are likely to quietly work for their own immediate benefit, seeking ways around restrictive laws.
And that all assumes other countries with their own version of perfect social systems won't interfere with yours.
Capitalism isn't the problem, globalism is. Capitalism is what allows mom and pop businesses to borrow investment capital to start up, it's what makes the world to round. Globalism is the constant acquisition of small and successful businesses. Global companies lobby governments to introduce regulations which need lawyers and accountants. Small businesses cannot carry those costs and remain competitive. Global companies have armies of lawyers.
When is enough enough? Should we tolerate multi billionaires becoming more and more powerful? If we were to share out their money we would all have something like £1.47 each. The next day that money would be in the hands of the erstwhile billionaires when we spend it. Wealth is like water, spread it out it will evaporate in no time, concentrate it properly it can have potential energy. The problem is where wealth should be stored and who should administer it. Can we ever trust anyone ever again?
Slightly off topic, I'm reminded of the tale about the American who pitched up in a poor town. He went to the hotel and asked to see the room. Hotelier wanted a $100 deposit. While the tourist inspected the room he went to pay the storekeeper the $100 he owed him, the storekeeper paid the farmer the $100 he was owed, the farmer paid the prostitute the $100 the farmer's sons owed her, she paid the hotelier for the room she used. The American didn't like the room and left with his $100.
Scrobs - yes I ought to put up a warning when the Guardian crops up.
Sam - I think they also fear those with more money as if they see them as dangerously crafty.
DJ - yes we have to accept that the perfect social system is a myth if we are to make a trial and error kind of incremental progress which is really the best we can hope for.
Andy - to my mind global bureaucracy is also one of the problems with globalism. How it will all evolve I don't know because those global businesses need global consumers.
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