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It's partially the gut feeling of rich scions getting to coast on unearned wealth. Underlying that is the fact, to my mind, that most of the rich do not actually benefit society. Our market is far from perfect in that way. Many make their fortunes off the backs of others, or by dumping horrid amounts of negative externality into the rest of society, simply because the externalities cannot easily be quantified.
Many see rich people and ascribe their wealth not to their intelligence or hard work or even luck but to the imposition of negative externalities on others... simply because the externalities cannot easily be quantified.
Again, there is nuance to be had here. Many rich people bust their ass and absolutely deserve the wealth that they have generated, from a cosmic sense. Then again, I tend to think that the way our society is set up is so rotten to its core that even the most 'beneficial' wealth generation will have tons of negative aspects. The most common of which is to destroy human connection, religion, generally the things which make life worth living.
It really depends on how you view the overarching modern capitalist societal structure. I'm not a Marxist by any means, and I think market economies are an incredible tool. But at this point they have ceased being a tool and become our master, for all intents and purposes.
If you look at a rich person and say "Hey, they must have gotten rich by imposing negative externalities on society, let's take their assets", then even if you theoretically admit the existence of rich people who "absolutely deserve the wealth that they have generated", that's not nuance, it's a cynical demand for leveling. If you're wearing a blindfold while searching for your virtuous rich man, you certainly don't want to find him.
I have never once said we should take rich people's assets, I'm not a Marxist or a redistributionist. However I can understand why so many are eager to paint me with that brush.
I'd simply like to raise awareness that wealth and money do not equal virtue, and in many cases are anti-correlated. Instead of redistributing wealth, I think a better path would be having a conversation about negative externalities of the market and trying to figure out how to price those in.
On top of that, I'd like to see a scaling back of certain areas like religion and the sacred from markets entirely, although I'll admit having both at once would be a difficult challenge.
You don't have to connect the dots yourself if you place the points and draw arrows.
I think this is well-understood; the lack of awareness is the other way around. That no, having wealth doesn't mean you committed mortal sins to obtain it. That inequality of wealth is not something that in itself demands solutions.
Externalities are almost by definition hard to measure, and it's very easy to put your finger on the scale by picking which ones to measure and assigning arbitrary values to them. And there's not much point in discussion when you've already decided they net out to "dumping horrid amounts of negative externality into the rest of society".
The point of the discussion, and my favored argument at the moment, is that markets have a use but should not be how we organize all wealth and value as a society. Pointing out critiques of a market system without crying out for the blood of the rich is an important stance from my viewpoint, and one that is sorely missing from the culture war conversation.
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