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Comment by throw1234651234 | Hacker News Reader

This is the best post in this thread. This is all very much true. One more thing that most Americans don't admit is that people mostly work jobs they have started out in. When I was in shitty jobs, people started out and stayed there. As I move up, I notice that people also started out and stayed there. Anecdotally, the US has much less mobility than what is commonly believed.

Anyway, I went off topic - don't want to detract from the parent point - you can work 10 hrs a day and not be able to afford anything and barely have a chance to progress because you are ground down by "real life^tm". Tech and MDs are definitely a special little island.

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You're not just having a hunch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_Index

What irks me in a position is when I find out the people in higher paying, supposedly more demanding positions are doing less work with less effort/demand. Think like the one hourly with many salary supervisors or similar.

The solution here is to open up the free markets again. This means: -Right to repair -Abolish the patent system and non competes -Drop the IRS and let the government simply print money it needs... This eliminates all tax loopholes and special treatment. Perfectly fair wealth tax.

> Drop the IRS and let the government simply print money it needs

When the government's "needs" are determined by the rich, what happens to the money that gets printed? That's how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Simplify the tax code, eliminate loopholes, raise tax rates on extreme wealth & income, and fund the IRS to investigate major tax fraud (instead of the nickle&dime shit they go after today). This isn't about funding the government; it's about retooling the government to work for everybody and not just its richest citizens.

You missing your own point here. The 'needs' of the government aren't determined by the rich but rather the imbeciles elected by the masses. If you want change the people have to demand it but instead they simply advocate for more of the status quo.

Simplifying the tax code is a valid idea. Targeting the 'rich' and ramping up tax fraud witch hunts, not so much.

Historically if you want to collect more taxes you lower tax rates and get an increase in compliance. A flat rate is the fairest approach, setting an income threshold or a negative income tax to offset taxes for the poorest citizens provides the progressive aspect.

> The 'needs' of the government aren't determined by the rich but rather the imbeciles elected by the masses

Your understanding of the elections in the US is hopelessly naive, especially after Citizens United opened the floodgates for unlimited, anonymous donations to political campaigns. Politicians do the bidding of the people who give them the most money. Elections are typically between two candidates who wear colors of different gangs, but have been paid off by the same companies. Voting forces a choice between candidates; donating and lobbying allows the rich to get their policies in place regardless of who wins.

No matter what system we propose it can’t handle human greed and abuses of power. Bad actors ruin everything.

We need to figure out how to build high trust societies with a shared culture. There’s a reason large corporations are pushing diversity so hard - it keeps abuses like those described above possible.

Are you advocating for ethno-nationalism?

I would prefer to think he's suggesting that diversity is a representation of cultural background, rather than suggesting that between racially different individuals that have had similar life experiences (upbringing, education etc.) there should be segregation. Agree that the cynical view of the role of measures ensuring diversity in the workplace needs expanding upon though. Perhaps he means that nowadays diversity isn't ensuring equality but rather the quotas can be met in a workplace where the minorities are still discriminated against e.g. in any team there are members who do more work than get credit for and vice versa - perhaps he means there's currently a racial bias at play behind this? I don't know, maybe I'm giving too much benefit of the doubt... or too little.

That's only really true when you have a powerful entity like the government stifling competition in favor of their preferred actors and cronies.

True competition allows people to choose the actors they want, good or bad.

Do you mind explaining your last sentence? I really have no idea what are you talking about

They will find a way around those laws. I think the end state of the US was described perfectly in Ray Dalio's "Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio" video: Namely, the elite will grab as much capital as they can and when the people finally wrestle back control, all that wealth will fly out of the country as it is collapsing. This is probably how they are operating.

[1]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8&t=2147s

I think the patent system could use MAJOR reform, but to abolish it completely would simply allow a larger corporation to bring any novel idea to market cheaper and more widely, crushing any smaller original idea creator in the process.

Patent trolls, on the other hand, who simply patent ideas with no viable or initial product, or even schematic are another thing.

the only thing youbgot right in that comment ia the right to repair. reform the patent system, revamp the irs but letting the givernment print the moneybit wants to spemd is the era we live in now. when that increase in the money supply grows faster than the economy its called inflation...

The proper path is to reduce rhe size and scope of governwmnt so that it needs toboukl less of the existing money supply out of the economy though taxes.

Oh boy...

That a a horrible idea. Simply printing money with nothing to remove it again is a horrible fiscal policy you end up with run away inflation as each dollar you print lowers the value of each dollar. The value of money ends up decreasing faster than pay rates and you hurt the poor more as the rich will just pull their financial assets out into more stable economies the middle and lower class will loose.

You see national level taxes aren't there to fund the federal government in a modern economy. they are mean to remove excess cash from the economy. The government funds it self by borrowing and the printing money to pay it back with interest. This what bonds and like assets are. Why barrow rather than just print and pay, it about having good credit and showing the rest of the world dollar is stable by pay off our debt.

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