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https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/17/lovilee-jubilee/#debts-that-cant-be-paid-wont-be-paid>
"There's a truly comforting sociopathy snuggled inside capitalism ideology: if
markets are systems for identifying and rewarding virtue, ability and value,
then anyone who's failing in the system is actually
unworthy, not unlucky;
and that means the winners are not just lucky (and certainly not merely
selfish), but actually
the best and they owe nothing to their social
inferiors apart from what their own charitable impulses dictate.
It's an economic wrapper around the old theological doctrine of providence,
whereby God shows you whom he favors by giving them wealth and station, and
marks out the wicked by miring them in poverty. And like the religious belief
in providence, the capitalist belief in meritocracy is essential to resolving
cognitive dissonance: it lets the fed winners feel morally justified in
stepping over the starving losers.
The debate over merit and luck has been with us for millennia, and even the
hereditary absolute monarchs of the Bronze Age had to find a way to resolve it.
For the rulers of antiquity, the way to square that circle was
jubilee."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
