For Whom the Rent Tolls

-- by Dave Johnson

The rigged casino,

On the other hand, many of the people who are losing their jobs voted for someone's job to get thrown of the island.

How did they do this? By voting for a lower tax, lower capital growth America, by voting, and continuing to vote, for rent, rather than labor or capital, being the favored sector of the economy. Simple test: until you are willing to repeal the massive deductions for buying or selling a home, don't bitch about your job going to India. You are voting for rent, and have to expect that employers will seek to use convenience (trade) to avoid paying for ground rent (the wages needed to buy said expensive home).

The collision course is this: if people want a society where there can be lucky big winners - that is people who bought in the right place at the right time - then they have to accept there will be unlucky big losers. That's what the egalitarian question means: if you want the right to screw someone else over and be lots richer than they are, then you have to give that right to others. Statisically speaking, you're gonna get screwed.

Posted by Dave Johnson at June 13, 2005 8:32 AM