And you thought *I* was an angry individual

[drwex]

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=760992300602302&id=139652459402959

That's the J. Michael Straczynski you might know from the Babylon 5 television series or more recently the first Thor movie. It's a Facebook URL but login is not required. It is, however, Facebook, so you read the comments at your peril.

I'm sure there's a story behind this but I don't know it - I just saw the link being passed around and thought I'd share.

Comments

[psybelle.livejournal.com]

I think more of us need to be angry…

It's already bad enough without landlords pulling illegal crap: http://sfist.com/2014/05/05/lower_haight_landlord_wont_let_you.php

[drwex]

Individual people suck, but what JMS is pointing at is much more systemic.

[drwex]

Also LOVE your icon.

[psybelle.livejournal.com]

Agreed - I read enough of Charlie Stross's rants to know that this rent-seeking behavior is endemic and possibly without a peaceful solution… (although I've backed away from the twitterfeed lately)

[psybelle.livejournal.com]

Danke!

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

*sigh*
I thought JMS was better than that.
oh well. put him in the bin with Orson Scott Card, I guess.

[psybelle.livejournal.com]

Umwhat? To me, that piece read like A Modest Proposal in the first-person-vicious voice… (Is that a problem?)

[dcltdw]

I can't figure out a viable solution other than dividing the Union or moving to a red state.

[drwex]

I'm not sure how either of those would address these problems.

[dcltdw]

Oh, I'm being sloppy, bad me: I did the stupid thing of "GOP bad!!1!" when the problem is capture of both parties. Hmm.

(If it were just a GOP thing, then my answer works: split into jesusland and United States of Canada, or move my blue vote to a red state and tip the balance back.)

I guess this is where I hope Lessig's movement succeeds. And wonder if it'll happen before a French Revolution scythes through the rich.

(Edit: typo)

[sandhawke.livejournal.com]

Here's a wild idea for a solution: extend property tax to cover all kinds of property, not just "real estate". All assets. No deduction for debt.

That would be a simple, natural, progressive tax. If you want to accumulate wealth, you pay the tax. I think if we set the rate around 2 or 3 percent per year, we could get rid of income tax and sales tax. (US wealth is approx $200T, federal budget is around $4T/yr)

[drwex]

I would like to see sales tax abolished or vastly reduced as it's one of our most regressive taxes. Maybe leave in place sales taxes on luxury items and "vice" taxes (though those make me twitch severely).

However, I don't think reform of the tax system would address the core problem here, for which I don't see an easy solution. I might support something like an "education" tax that would be used to fund making student loans interest-free and forgiveness of current loan debt. That would be essentially shuffling money around the Federal books since a huge amount of student loan interest goes to the government anyway, so net revenue impact would be small. And debt relief would potentially do a lot to lift people into more middle-class status. It wouldn't address the issues of the ultra-wealthy escaping the consequences of their acts, though. That would require things like actually going after the perpetrators of mortgage fraud, prosecuting rich white folk who rape, etc.