Comment on Gary Stevenson: 'Tax wealth or we'll return to the feudal age'
BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 2 days agoBecause it allows them to increase their wealth, but the assets and properties are not moving or changing hands (well, they kind of are by moving from holding A to holding B, but the holdings are still entirely within their hands). That’s the expensive part which justifies paying experts.
gtrcoi@programming.dev 1 day ago
Look I’m not married to this argument about fleeing capital, I don’t think it’s convincing that everyone will run off to Sweden or whatever. I just think that whatever the solution is will not be the most obvious one that can fit on a t-shirt sold on Gary’s merch page. Imo Gary is a grifter and I don’t appreciate how he denounces the “academics in their ivory tower” while saying he’s got all the answers and it’s so important that the prime minister calls him for help.
BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 1 day ago
I don’t really know the guy, he just pops up on my feed sometimes, so I have no idea if he’s a self important jackass or not. But he raises a lot of important questions with answers we already know to be part of the solution. Raising taxes, destroying inheritance above a certain threshold, the looming threat of extreme Victorian-like inequalities, are all valid points.
gtrcoi@programming.dev 1 day ago
Yea I heard the same arguments from people defending Andrew Tate; “he’s got a good message about putting in the work to better yourself”. My response was always that this is basic life stuff you can get from a thousand other people who aren’t sex traffickers. Likewise Gary isn’t the first person to talk about these issues, he isn’t even the thousandth, he’s just the guy who dressed it up with populist messaging and a victim narrative that the elites are trying to silence him.
He has all the hallmarks of being a grifter like the Weinstein brothers, Jordan Peterson, or Tate. Decoding the Gurus have done a few episodes on him being a weirdo that are fun and informative youtu.be/Ttrab7AMn-M
BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 1 day ago
Yeah because arguing about taxing the rich to prevent kids dying in the streets from tuberculosis is roughly the same thing as human trafficking or defending social darwinism. What the fuck ?..