This brings to mind Henry George's 1879 book Progress & Poverty, in which he detailed at length the injustices inherent in private land ownership and how those injustices compound over time, especially over generations. There are many ways to start redressing this, like Land Back and community land trusts, but one of George's ideas gets to what needs to change in our understanding of property and value: it's the community that creates a rise in property value, not individual owners. George's idea of a land value tax was to recognize that community-created value and to ensure everyone in the community had a share in it.
This is the definition of Oligarchy and the middle class getting sucked into supporting the Oligarchy.
To be honest I use Amazon and I am a Prime member mostly for the streaming channel but I also strongly support the workers efforts to Unionize.
Beezos is technically not evil but is exposing the end result of the Reaganism movement that now has morphed onto Trumpnomics.
Beezos is taking advantage after all of the deregulation and out of control Capitalism where he can exploit it. But he is al least honest about it.
We don't need to demonize Beezos. Rather we need to return to the New Deal programs that Reaganism sought to destroy.
Regulated Capitalism. The balance needs to be restored and this years Union movements are a great start.
The Federal Reserve has been doing their job as designed yet find themselves under attack.
Beezos is a symptom of the balance out of balance and Trumpnomics wants to break that balance further.
Biden-Harris isn't perfect but has been the middle classes best Administration since maybe FDR.
We can stop this Beezos venture simply by not participating and pushing for this type of predatory investing to be banned by the United States Congress.
you're not wrong, but ideals are dead in our system.
the Democrats are just as bought as the Republicans, and thinking that they will *fix* things is honestly, naive, and I mean this not as an indictment, but an observation.
I think your last post about a 2nd civil war is pretty accurate, and I'd take it further, that we Will be breaking apart into a loose collection of city-states. I foresee the fed collapsing entirely as people stop paying taxes on mass due to the ongoing funding of literal genocide before our eyes.
I'd venture we need a government based around people, not profit, and that simply cannot happen at the federal scale with the level of legalized corruption (lobbying) that has been enshrined by cases such as Citizens United.
change is our friend. the status quo is decidedly anti-change, and therefore will die. the question is, are boomers willing to let go of their fear of the unknown? fear of loss of control? cause almost noone under 50 has a lick of savings or any hope of "retirement", and we're tired of trying to pretend and entertain our pain away while the politicians we barely have any say in electing to the federal level, do nothing but leech insider traded profit from our diminishing wages.
the American experiment is done, let's see what's next.
as far as billionaires+millionaires? they'll start being treated like the well-to-do in the French revolution. as mother nature smacks us around for out hubris.
we're not gonna avoid those. anymore then we were gonna avoid Trump the first time, or Trump up next. let go my man, let go. seriously. everything is upside down. we do NOT need any federal organization, it's all grift, and in your dream of making it through, it still will be the wrong way to organize. we need to focus on the hyper-local. but it's ok. nature's gonna do for us what we can't do for ourselves, ie, demolish our systems. if you like fiction, go read parable of the Sower. Saint Octavia's take feels very accurate ☺️
I still think our Constitutional Republic if it survives the attack of the Theocracy MAGA movement which includes the Russian Orthodox Christians who have taken over Russia behind Fundementalism and front man Putin and the Chinese Authoritarian philosophy we might pull off a revival of our Constitutional Republic.
But like you I am a realist but I won't give up quite yet. The alternative is about five mini-republics of the former United States that will find themselves at the mercy of the Russian and Chinese super powers and we will be similar to South America territorial countries.
So be it. But for 2024 I am not giving up on what my Great Great Grandfather fought to preserve as a Union soldier from Illinois.
capitalism only works as long as exploitation exist, period. there's no way to 'regulate' it without changing its core tenets. In order for it to be balanced, it would have to be broken and rebuilt into a more equitable system.
We've already been serfs for a long time now. Except serfs had it better back in the day, where all they had to do is work on the plantation. Slave shanty was provided. Now we work on the plantation and pay to live in our shanty.
If you feel investors are "taking up all the housing," you have a fundamental misunderstanding of housing.
All of these problems can be resolved by simply building more housing. Our country's in a massive housing shortage. The best way to screw over investors and landlords is to build more multifamily housing, which would devalue their investments.
Of course. Right now the main people who vote for downzoning are homeowners protecting their assets. If less people own homes and more people are renting, renters are going to (hopefully) vote for upzoning to decrease rents.
Unfortunately in America we have a lot of people who mistakenly believe new construction will raise rents, so who’s to say?
I agree with everything you say. I do think as a culture we also need to deal with human overpopulation as well, or at least discuss it more. If humanity put our brains to this (compassionately and based on understanding of the environmental and human damage we do rather than the silence that comes from capitalism wanting lots of people as cheap labour and as consumers) then we could improve things. I always think how, if humans found peace with each other, and somehow negotiated a way to gradually lower population to 10% of today's figures, there would be ten times more land for people, ten times more resources, a tenth of the cost. We could all use double what we have now, for less cost, and yet leave the other 8/10 parts for nature and wildlife. I can but dream. Everything is connected.
Rent is say $1500/month your gross is fifty cents, less insurance, upkeep, taxes, hoa and "admin" expenses. Let's say net is half that or 25 cents, 0.25% on your investment.
Housing should be a right, not a commodity. I hope people don't get sucked into this scheme and invest in co-operative land trusts instead.
This brings to mind Henry George's 1879 book Progress & Poverty, in which he detailed at length the injustices inherent in private land ownership and how those injustices compound over time, especially over generations. There are many ways to start redressing this, like Land Back and community land trusts, but one of George's ideas gets to what needs to change in our understanding of property and value: it's the community that creates a rise in property value, not individual owners. George's idea of a land value tax was to recognize that community-created value and to ensure everyone in the community had a share in it.
great work, I really enjoy your flow of writing and perspective. I hope you keep it up!
Yes its amazing
I spend so much time complaining about Elon Musk that it sometimes slips my mind what a cosmic nova scale piece of shit Jeff Bezos is
Thanks for writing this! I absolutely hate everything about this venture.
This is the definition of Oligarchy and the middle class getting sucked into supporting the Oligarchy.
To be honest I use Amazon and I am a Prime member mostly for the streaming channel but I also strongly support the workers efforts to Unionize.
Beezos is technically not evil but is exposing the end result of the Reaganism movement that now has morphed onto Trumpnomics.
Beezos is taking advantage after all of the deregulation and out of control Capitalism where he can exploit it. But he is al least honest about it.
We don't need to demonize Beezos. Rather we need to return to the New Deal programs that Reaganism sought to destroy.
Regulated Capitalism. The balance needs to be restored and this years Union movements are a great start.
The Federal Reserve has been doing their job as designed yet find themselves under attack.
Beezos is a symptom of the balance out of balance and Trumpnomics wants to break that balance further.
Biden-Harris isn't perfect but has been the middle classes best Administration since maybe FDR.
We can stop this Beezos venture simply by not participating and pushing for this type of predatory investing to be banned by the United States Congress.
you're not wrong, but ideals are dead in our system.
the Democrats are just as bought as the Republicans, and thinking that they will *fix* things is honestly, naive, and I mean this not as an indictment, but an observation.
I think your last post about a 2nd civil war is pretty accurate, and I'd take it further, that we Will be breaking apart into a loose collection of city-states. I foresee the fed collapsing entirely as people stop paying taxes on mass due to the ongoing funding of literal genocide before our eyes.
I'd venture we need a government based around people, not profit, and that simply cannot happen at the federal scale with the level of legalized corruption (lobbying) that has been enshrined by cases such as Citizens United.
change is our friend. the status quo is decidedly anti-change, and therefore will die. the question is, are boomers willing to let go of their fear of the unknown? fear of loss of control? cause almost noone under 50 has a lick of savings or any hope of "retirement", and we're tired of trying to pretend and entertain our pain away while the politicians we barely have any say in electing to the federal level, do nothing but leech insider traded profit from our diminishing wages.
the American experiment is done, let's see what's next.
as far as billionaires+millionaires? they'll start being treated like the well-to-do in the French revolution. as mother nature smacks us around for out hubris.
let go, let change ✊🏻♥️🔥
So the New Deal 2.0 if we don't break apart completely is what I gleam from your reply.
As a New Deal Democrat if we survive this Civil War 2.0 and the Theocracy Republic is avoided it is time to reset and get a New Deal 2.0.
IMHO
I mean, I appreciate the calm response...
we're not gonna avoid those. anymore then we were gonna avoid Trump the first time, or Trump up next. let go my man, let go. seriously. everything is upside down. we do NOT need any federal organization, it's all grift, and in your dream of making it through, it still will be the wrong way to organize. we need to focus on the hyper-local. but it's ok. nature's gonna do for us what we can't do for ourselves, ie, demolish our systems. if you like fiction, go read parable of the Sower. Saint Octavia's take feels very accurate ☺️
I second this! Parable of the Sower will blow your mind while getting you ready for what's to come
I still think our Constitutional Republic if it survives the attack of the Theocracy MAGA movement which includes the Russian Orthodox Christians who have taken over Russia behind Fundementalism and front man Putin and the Chinese Authoritarian philosophy we might pull off a revival of our Constitutional Republic.
But like you I am a realist but I won't give up quite yet. The alternative is about five mini-republics of the former United States that will find themselves at the mercy of the Russian and Chinese super powers and we will be similar to South America territorial countries.
So be it. But for 2024 I am not giving up on what my Great Great Grandfather fought to preserve as a Union soldier from Illinois.
capitalism only works as long as exploitation exist, period. there's no way to 'regulate' it without changing its core tenets. In order for it to be balanced, it would have to be broken and rebuilt into a more equitable system.
This a horrifying next step in their ultimate goal to turn us all into serfs
We've already been serfs for a long time now. Except serfs had it better back in the day, where all they had to do is work on the plantation. Slave shanty was provided. Now we work on the plantation and pay to live in our shanty.
If you feel investors are "taking up all the housing," you have a fundamental misunderstanding of housing.
All of these problems can be resolved by simply building more housing. Our country's in a massive housing shortage. The best way to screw over investors and landlords is to build more multifamily housing, which would devalue their investments.
Okay yes, but exactly how and where will you do that when zoning rules created by the wealthy elite prevent against that?
Of course. Right now the main people who vote for downzoning are homeowners protecting their assets. If less people own homes and more people are renting, renters are going to (hopefully) vote for upzoning to decrease rents.
Unfortunately in America we have a lot of people who mistakenly believe new construction will raise rents, so who’s to say?
Horrible news, brilliant headline.
I agree with everything you say. I do think as a culture we also need to deal with human overpopulation as well, or at least discuss it more. If humanity put our brains to this (compassionately and based on understanding of the environmental and human damage we do rather than the silence that comes from capitalism wanting lots of people as cheap labour and as consumers) then we could improve things. I always think how, if humans found peace with each other, and somehow negotiated a way to gradually lower population to 10% of today's figures, there would be ten times more land for people, ten times more resources, a tenth of the cost. We could all use double what we have now, for less cost, and yet leave the other 8/10 parts for nature and wildlife. I can but dream. Everything is connected.
Bezos $100 property co-ownership deal
For $100 you get a share in the rental income.
Let's look at the income from a $300k house
You are 1 0f 3000 other owners
Rent is say $1500/month your gross is fifty cents, less insurance, upkeep, taxes, hoa and "admin" expenses. Let's say net is half that or 25 cents, 0.25% on your investment.