Oligarchs are only a symptom and not the issue, don’t get distracted. Removing the oligarchs or so called “bad men” won’t suddenly make things right, as capital/wealth concentration are structural features of Capitalism and not some anomaly caused by a group of bad actors.
This isn’t an issue that can be fixed by better taxation or social protections or reformism like that - workers will keep getting exploited and earn less than the value they produce and staying relatively poor/powerless, bourgeoisie will keep getting disproportionately more capital (with reforms only slowing it down slightly) and power as a result, and inevitably will work towards erasing these reforms to have their rate of capital accumulation grow further and we’re back at having oligarchy.
That is assuming these reforms can actually be implemented, which massively overstates the power of boycotts/protests and our liberal democracies in general - sure, they can sometimes happen under pressure like in the case of postwar welfare states, The New Deal, social democracies from back in the day when they actually did things, but these happened as concessions under the pressure of a possible revolution, later got reverted and look where we are now.
Capitalism is also a symptom, a symptom of an intellligence and knowledge imbalance.
People need to be informed and organized to prevent being abused. If they are, they can run a socialist or communist country, or tax their oligarchs without being scammed into losing power.
Some people, e.g. ML, know how to defeat the oligarchs. The majority is not willing to learn and implement it. Even if there has been a revolution, the majority most likely will not stay sharp to prevent a decline.
If the oligarchs are willling to transition into another form of society, they don’t have anything that could take over.
Oligarchs are only a symptom and not the issue, don’t get distracted. Removing the oligarchs or so called “bad men” won’t suddenly make things right, as capital/wealth concentration are structural features of Capitalism and not some anomaly caused by a group of bad actors.
This isn’t an issue that can be fixed by better taxation or social protections or reformism like that - workers will keep getting exploited and earn less than the value they produce and staying relatively poor/powerless, bourgeoisie will keep getting disproportionately more capital (with reforms only slowing it down slightly) and power as a result, and inevitably will work towards erasing these reforms to have their rate of capital accumulation grow further and we’re back at having oligarchy.
That is assuming these reforms can actually be implemented, which massively overstates the power of boycotts/protests and our liberal democracies in general - sure, they can sometimes happen under pressure like in the case of postwar welfare states, The New Deal, social democracies from back in the day when they actually did things, but these happened as concessions under the pressure of a possible revolution, later got reverted and look where we are now.
Capitalism is also a symptom, a symptom of an intellligence and knowledge imbalance.
People need to be informed and organized to prevent being abused. If they are, they can run a socialist or communist country, or tax their oligarchs without being scammed into losing power.
Some people, e.g. ML, know how to defeat the oligarchs. The majority is not willing to learn and implement it. Even if there has been a revolution, the majority most likely will not stay sharp to prevent a decline.
If the oligarchs are willling to transition into another form of society, they don’t have anything that could take over.