Tag: class
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Elites Explain Why Class Warfare is Good for Productivity
On September 12, 2023, Tim Gurner, the owner of Gurner Group, addressed a crowd at the Australian Financial Review’s Property Summit: I think the problem that we’ve had is that people decided they didn’t really want to work so much any more through COVID and that has had a massive issue on productivity… They have…
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Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class
If you’re looking for a non-Marxist critique of Capitalism and modern society in general, then you need to read Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class. Published in 1899, the book is an economic treatise and detailed social critique of conspicuous consumption, as a function of social-class consumerism, which proposes that the social strata…
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The One Constant in Communist, Capitalist, and/or Liberal Democratic Societies
Hi. I want to share an interesting theory about the modern world: Communist states and Liberal Capitalist societies are actually quite similar. At their core, they both share the theory of a privileged elite class who must rule over the masses. The systems are actually more alike than they are unalike. This is obviously an…
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The Founding Fathers vs. the “Dangerous Influence of Those Multitudes Without Property”
Hi. Following up on my article The True Purpose of the US Senate The proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 are full of interesting information. Let’s read some of the commentary on the discussion concerning Article 4: The legislative Power of the United States shall be vested in two (Branches a Senate and a House…
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Property: The “Unmovable Concernment” of Government
In 1691, John Lock wrote a letter of a Member of Parliament in London titled Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value of Money. Locke wrote in his letter: The multiplying of Brokers hinders the Trade of any Country, by making the Circuit, which the Money goes, larger,…
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John Adams On Reasons for Restricting Democracy
26 May 1776, Philadelphia, USA. Letter from John Adams to James Sullivan (Lawyer and politician of Massachusetts) Adams is responding to Sulliavn’s claim that “Laws and Government are founded on the Consent of the people, and that consent should by each member of Society be given in proportion to his Right. Every member of Society…
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Plato on the Evils of a “Government Resting on a Valuation of Property”
Hi. Here is a very interesting and timely exchange between Socrates and Adeimantus in Plato’s The Republic, ~360 BCE, Book 8: ADEIMANTUS: And what manner of government do you term oligarchy? SOCRATES: A government resting on a valuation of property, in which the rich have power and the poor man is deprived of it. ADEIMANTUS: I…
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Jefferson on Wage Slavery
In my recent article, Wage Slavery: A Quick History, I gave several historical references to the term “wage slavery”. I came across a letter form Jefferson to his friend Thomas Cooper where Jefferson was comparing the population of England to that of the United States. In the letter, Jefferson does not use the term “wage slavery”, but…
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The BBC Defines “Working Class”?
The BBC published an article titled The shame of Afghanistan’s virginity tests on December 29, 2017. While the subject is truly depressing, I was struck by the following line: Coming from a working-class background, Neda says her weekly pocket money didn’t cover her everyday costs. Her mother often asks her to go without lunch if she has…