SomaliNet Forums

NoAngst. wrote:Building egalitarian society is political choice countries make. Societies can choose not only whether to be egalitarian or not but to what extent. I recently saw a report published by the UN about the most equal/unequal cities. You wouldn't believe me if I told you Beijing was first or top 5 while New York, New Orleans and London were among least unequal. How come Beijing has less inequality than London or New York?

There's nothing inevitable about social inequality. In Japan, an engineer makes about the same salary as McDonald worker. The implication of this is that you won't find many luxury stores in Japan compared to other countries of similar income. Instead, Japanese buy from their own companies who don't tend to produce luxury goods since there aren't many super rich Japanese. How many Japanese you see in Forbes Billionaire list? Not many. To give another illustration, the CEO of Toyota -- the most successful car maker in the world -- makes under 1 million while his counterpart, the CEO of General Motors -- a company going to the dumps faster than you can say GM -- makes over 8 million.

gurey25 wrote:
it appears that padishah is a burgeoning libertarian, possible even ancap.

gurey25 wrote: The root cause of extreme social enequality is interest based econmy and currency.
remove interest, and allow real free trade and you will increase the incomes of everyone including the poor.

gurey25 wrote:nfact we need inequality becuase there will be people that will produce more and contribute more due to thier talents and oppurtunities.

gurey25 wrote:The purpose of zakat is to gaurentee the basic rights of the poor, i.e food, clothin and shelter.
Islam does not support the welfare state, in a truely islamic state the poor will find good employment

Padishah wrote:

gurey25 wrote:
it appears that padishah is a burgeoning libertarian, possible even ancap.

I have Libertarian leanings, I admit. I think of myself more of a Classical Liberal.

No, I have not become an anarcho-Capitalist, although their argument is very, very seductive. I am intrigued by the possibility of the idea, and Somalia would be a suitable place to run the experiment. In fact, most anarcho-Capitalists like the idea of moving to Somalia intellectually to establish their 'free society', but haven't actually done it because its full of uncivilised brown people with guns.

gurey25 wrote: The root cause of extreme social enequality is interest based econmy and currency.
remove interest, and allow real free trade and you will increase the incomes of everyone including the poor.

Hallelujah!

gurey25 wrote:nfact we need inequality becuase there will be people that will produce more and contribute more due to thier talents and oppurtunities.

I have to admit, I completely agree.

gurey25 wrote:The purpose of zakat is to gaurentee the basic rights of the poor, i.e food, clothin and shelter.
Islam does not support the welfare state, in a truely islamic state the poor will find good employment

The man speaks TRUTH!

Why aren't they accusing you of being a cold, unfeeling bastard like they accuse me? You seem to be no less Laissez Faire than I am.

Padishah wrote:

zulaika wrote:China's emerging middle class is no joke.

That has diddly squat to do with Marxism.

zulaika wrote:so in other words...let's not equate China with "Marxism"?

Padishah wrote:

zulaika wrote:so in other words...let's not equate China with "Marxism"?

Are we having a blonde moment?

The reason China is the way it is now is because of the abandonment of Marxism in favour of State Capitalism.

Padishah wrote:My sincere apologies Zulaika. That was uncalled for. You did not deserve such a response. Do not stop asking questions on my insensitive account.