this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
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This is a strawman, or... something similar. No one who wants a more just world is proposing that we get there by reducing the quality of life for large segments of the world's population.
A more reasonable allegory would be "are you willing to make it so that no one can own a yacht, so that everyone can own a washing machine?"
Because we absolutely do have the resources to get everyone a washing machine, they're just not evenly distributed.
As this'll track with reality too, because the people who would say "no" are the people who own yachts and, yeah...those people are the reason we don't have a more just world.
Capital has painted for people this image of poverty that is meant to terrify people into thinking they can't have good things without it.
It's really like an abusive partner who wants to control you by making you think you'll never do better. I would challenge bozos like you replied to, to actually go visit impoverished and developing nations and see how even the poorest people aren't lacking connection and conveniences, but they are lacking access to other basic necessities like water and healthcare.
Washing machines only cost a fortune if they expect you to be able to pay a fortune. Our image of standing in line for bread under a socialist system was painted by Reagan and we never let it go, because everyone who wants to make a lot of money helped him preserve that fear.
The thing is with something like a yacht in your example, that producing one creates a lot of work. Not saying that we shouldn't make it impossibile, just maybe make it so you can't use it as a tax write off. I know that's what we did in NL.
Edit: people working in a business making yachts wouldn't want a rule that would disallow people to own yachts since they would be out of a job and generally people vote for their own interests first.
Sure but if you re-allocating all of the resources that went into the yacht, that includes labor, the jobs. I haven't suggested doing less stuff, I've suggested doing the same amount of stuff, but distributing it equitably.
Yeah that is fair, but I am not sure that it is really a resource issue. World wide we produce enough food, shelter, medicine etc. That's also where social security and things like the EU are for. There are just a bunch of priks who ruin it for everybody else and at the same time there are a lot of people who choice to buy from Amazon instead of something locally.
There is also the issue that people like to work on building a yacht, I am pretty sure.
Yeah, there's enough stuff to go around, but some people are hoarding it, in general.
I'm sure some people like building yachts, and luxury cars, extravagant jewelry, etc., but those industries are so tiny compared to the ones that serve regular people.
Whatever might be lost in terms of cool jobs making fancy things could be made up for so many times over, in an equitable society, for example by allowing people to work less hours and afford the same standard of living, making more free time for hobbies and other fulfilling activities.
we dont. read factfulness by hans rosling. we do not.
A quick search led me to an estimate of 1.5 billion washing machines in existence in 2018, which works out to one for every 5 or 6 people.
I live in a small apartment building with 6 residents and one washing machine. So here I am, in the developed and privileged West, living under global average washing machine conditions.
I remain convinced that the problem is not scarcity, but inequality.