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 Originally Posted by IowaSkinsFan
Give me an example in a free market where someone has earned a lot of money, but has done so without the voluntary exchange of money for a good or service.
Votes or donations to Republicans, purchasing anything from Walmart, buying a gun, driving a car that runs on oil, Bernie Madoff....
Really, it's everything. I think you misunderstand my point. Yes you're right that when somebody purchases something they are expressing some level of value to it (otherwise they wouldn't buy it, right?), but my point has to do with the real value of that purchase, which is something that people don't fully know.
If every time you bought something at Walmart, you were shown a video of a 6 year old in a Chinese sweatshop, I'm pretty sure you'd rethink your purchase, as would everybody. This is one of the 'values' of the purchase, but it is proxy enough that most of us are not cognizant of it.
Also, in a real free market, it's arguable that it would be impossible to ever get mega wealthy. A free market is much different than corporatism. In a free market that cares about keeping itself fully free for all enterprise, we would see a ton of regulation that effectively redistributes power and wealth from the more successful in order to provide the same opportunity for the fresh and young.
Don't be fooled by what they tell you, US doesn't really have a free market, and in order to actually have a free market you need tons of regulations to keep it free.
If your arguing that people are manipulated to give their money to something they don't value, what do you believe is the solution to this problem?
I think it's more complicated than that
As to solving the problem despite its cause, the initial steps are already well known, well documented factors like strong education system, strong social rights, etc, and I would argue, these rights are a more accurate expression of value in the system
You might like that actually. Think about this: what is the value to our society from waste collection and disposal? Does the guy who comes to your house and dumps your trash in a truck and drives it off provide less value to you than Microsoft?
My answer is not necessarily "no", but "not really", and I believe that social and economic status should reflect that to some degree. I don't propose to go to the extreme and claim that waste disposal service should have the exact same worth as any other service or good, but that at the very least we should recognize that the value of waste disposal is enough that they deserve strong social and labor rights, and if we have to get those rights from acquiring a fraction of the surplus in other more lucrative industry, then that's how we do it. Go to the other extreme where the entire waste disposal labor force goes on strike. Imagine how much we'd all be clamoring to make it worth their while to keep working. Likewise, if Goldman Sachs went on strike I'd rejoice and tell them to go fuck themselves off a cliff
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