XEDRI

Imagine...
What if some of our favourite surrealist artists were was still alive? What would they imagine?

This surrealist rendition is a technologically advanced city where technology and nature are in harmony.

Creater by Human & Ai

To read full article see link in bio

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The scourge of upward distribution
Basically poverty exists, because the tax system is difficult, unfair and designed for the benefit of those on the top. (Or is it actually this way? Is the system only a mess right now because of corruption-- or is it catch 22 where corruption is mostly occurring within these wealthy groups, which happen to be the same groups who determine how the system should work? Putting the greatest burden on the working class and the poor.

It's like the current system took the worst bits from different ideologies to create the worst system possible for the middle working class and the poor, but the best system for the 1%.

It's obvious which ideology governs our policy making then!? For example instead of the communist view of the collective sharing of production and wealth by the working class, Instead majority of all taxes are placed upon working class, that's the only collective share we all have. It's almost impossible to be a small business owner and grow your business because any little bit that could be considered profit, just gets taxed. You increase productivity, do everything you can to cut costs, and still profit never happens, because all you do is pay for increasing prices in expenses and taxes. Never allowing businesses to save or invest and build real wealth. The system is designed to push people into debt like loans and credit.

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When you look at the above graph, you can see that social issues are greater in counties with higher income inequality. Japan vs Sweden have 2 different economic systems, and yet, they're both doing something right to ensure smaller wealth gap and higher taxation for fairer wealth distribution. (Also, they have lower corruption)

Psychosocial effects of inequality
Higher inequality results in:

more superiority/ inferiority

more status competition and consumerism

status insecurity

worry about how they are seen or judged

more social evaluation anxiety (threats to self-esteem & social status

It's a vicious toxic cycle> status competition drives consumerism in our society which leads to status insecurity and further reinforces need for external validation

Image source: https://youtu.be/cZ7LzE3u7Bw (graph from 10years ago...but shared purely to illustrate how countries have changed over time)

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From reasons like, people are poor because they're lazy or due to overpopulation--- those reasons are flawed.

"People are poor because they don't have money- They don't have access to the necessities we classify as basic human rights. It is no fault of their own, but because of systemic results of the past (and present) which inhibited the building of wealth

They don't have money because they can't find work. They can't find work because internships are biased and companies hiring criteria is skewed to higher levels of education.

Catch 22- you need money to get a higher education, and you need higher education to get money. The entire system is designed for the "ideal scenario". The system isn't designed in line with the reality of the average person in South Africa. It's designed to the benefit to those who were born with wealth."

- Common Cents

The question isn't about why the poor can't produce wealth, but why the system is designed in a way that doesn't facilitate the building of wealth for everyone?

Poverty isn't related to production of wealth but rather the distribution of wealth

Maybe the Georgists were onto something, their land tax may not be the answer, but the underlying principle of simplifying tax is something to consider. Maybe the way the current tax system is designed is flawed. Did you know in South Africa, we have one of the worlds smallest middle classes, (6.8 million registered tax payers) paying the worlds tenth highest personal income tax to GDP - and continues to receive very little compared to the rest of the world? Let's put this in context... that means, As individuals we pay tax rates of 45% tax which is the same as Norway- and just a little bit less than the Netherlands who pays 49%. Seriously?

Now I'm not saying that the poor, unemployed or that the children should be taxed. But if you look at the current way the system is working, increasing taxes for the working class isn't helping. That's one of the reasons small businesses don't survive. Not only because of the difficulty of admin in business, but the numerous taxes on personal and business side. There isn't even a chance to grow as every bit is just PAYE and VAT and not to mention made up penalties to further make you wish you were dead. And this wouldn't be such an issue if the Taxes we paid turned South Africa into Netherlands. But it isn't.

Despite our high taxes, the state of SA is in shambles with lack of service delivery. The amount of unemployed keeps growing along with inequality. The only thing decreasing is the number of middle class.

Many blame poverty on overpopulation:

"Overpopulation is a syndrome of social problems caused by poverty, not the other way around like malthusian view"

Overpopulation has nothing to do with how many people are close together, we can define overpopulation as a syndrome of social problems caused by poverty. -- populations go through 4 stages-

Stage 1: life is short, food is scarce due to the difficulties of living. Infant mortality rate is high. Population remains steady. eg. traditional societies - "primitive" modes of production.

Stage 2: improved farming methods. Which increase the availability of food. Infant mortality rate declines. Increase in young people. People mature and their children survive therefore reducing mortality rate

Stage 3: In this stage, the economy develops and living standards rise for a large number of the people. Population rapidly increases, People have kids because they want to. Less likely to have children for economic reasons such as raising siblings or to help on the farm or take care of the elderly. Parents are expected to care for their children. Average age in society increases and population growth slows. eg Japan, South Korea, or many of the countries in Europe.

Stage 4: this is where Japan has moved into, where population ages and birth rate declines. Total population may decline or the growth could be sustained by immigration.

The more we look at global population patterns, the more we see that persistent poverty cannot be explained by overpopulation or by any deficiency in our ability (or lack of ability) to produce enough wealth to supply everyone with what they need.

From my experience, the world we live in today is no different from the colour bar in Johannesburg 1930's . If you aren't aware of this period in history, the colour bar was legislation that was introduced to ensure that white labour unions & their supporters maintained high wages, By reserving jobs classified as skilled / semi-skilled for whites only. The only difference is that today your wages are directly influenced by your education. And you guessed it, if you can't pay for "better" education, you won't be getting "better" wages. Our lot in life is directly influenced by what we can afford or more appropriately, can't afford. We are boxed, classified, judged and graded. No different from the Caste System in India or the Social System of Egypt. Or Karl Marx view of Capitalism. The world we live in is designed to the benefit of those who can afford education. (and by default, these are the ones who are already wealthy or rich). Leaving the poor behind. The system is rigged. It only works to the benefit for those on the top.

"The tax upon land values is, therefore, the most just and equal of all taxes. It falls only upon those who receive from society a peculiar and valuable benefit, and upon them in proportion to the benefit they receive. It is the taking by the community, for the use of the community, of that value which is the creation of the community. It is the application of the common property to common uses. When all rent is taken by taxation for the needs of the community, then will the equality ordained by Nature be attained. No citizen will have an advantage over any other citizen save as is given by his industry, skill, and intelligence; and each will obtain what he fairly earns. Then, but not till then, will labor get its full reward, and capital its natural return".
— Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Book VIII, Chapter 3

But is Georgism the answer? Before looking for answers, what kind of systems exist out there?

The Landlords game (the missing original part of the monopoly game)

This was an educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies.

Magie created two sets of rules: The rules you're more familiar with : to create monopolies and crush opponents. And the less commonly known: an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created.

“It may be described as government without taxation,” F. W. Garrison wrote in his 1913 Atlantic article “The Case for the Single Tax,” “for, if the Georgian contention is true, the rent of land belongs not to the individual who would be required to surrender it, but to the community as a whole.”

Georgism / Geosim asks which taxes are the most beneficial vs most harmful to society?

Allow people to keep the wealth they produce themselves, (reap the fruits of your hard labour), economic value derived from land should be taxed. (land is different as it's not a man made invention or like other products coz it's supply is limited --it's a natural and limited resource and it's one which everyone needs).

The game we know today: Monopoly

Monopoly as we know it today, is derived from the anti-monopolist game: The Landlord's Game is a board game patented in 1904 by Elizabeth Magie as U.S. Patent 748,626. It is a realty and taxation game with two sets of rules originally, “monopolist” and “anti-monopolist,”. Passionately against the railroad, steel and oil monopolists of her time, the game was a way to promote the economic theories of Henry George—in particular his ideas about taxation. And to demonstrate that an economy that rewards individuals is better than one where monopolies hold all the wealth. To demonstrate the evils of accumulating vast sums of wealth at the expense of others. She told a reporter in 1906,

“In a short time, I hope a very short time, men and women will discover that they are poor because Carnegie and Rockefeller, maybe, have more than they know what to do with.”

Thinking that her tool for teaching about economic inequality would finally reach the masses, in 1935 Magie, sold her patent to Parker Brothers (eventually Hasbro in 1991) for $500, . However, Monopoly (named after the economic concept of monopoly—the domination of a market by a single entity) Parker Brothers in version which was published in 1935, did not include the less capitalistic taxation rule, which resulted in a more aggressive game. Completely defeating the purpose of the games intended use.

Healthy institutions contribute to any functioning economy or society. Whether they are judicial, financial, public, private or governmental. Their efficiency and effectiveness determines the degree of inequality in each place. Which in turn spreads and permeates throughout society. Inequality is like a virus. It spreads from the top down. Economic inequality is a global problem. Would you say its a human problem or broader system issue?

Perhaps the view we were conditioned with from childhood is the problem. Look at the game monopoly.. the first game we play to learn about business... Key lesson kids learn: 1.Everyone wants to be the bank, with the aim being to take and not give away. 2.Life is a zero-sum game. For one to win, the rest must lose.3. If you don't pay attention, you'll be cheated or ripped off, not all players play fairly.