POLITICS Inflation /General Finance Insanity

Grapes of Wrath has been relevant for decades.

 

Havent either but not sweating it

 

It's a worthy read and one of my top five all time. I'd caution that if you haven't read Animal Farm, you might want to give it a read afterwards to balance things out though.

 

Eh, grapes of wrath isn't advocating for a soviet revolution, and animal farm was certainly critiquing that. Orwell was a socialist, it is really a recent thing where communism and socialism are conflated entirely. The point of animal farm was that authoritarianism can creep in to anything, no matter the stated cause. I think.

Personal property being taken by flawed systems in grapes of wrath is not a petition against personal property, and authoritarian bullying is not saying a measure of equality is bad. But I guess everyone walks away with something a little different from these stories. That's why we all still read them.

 

I'll admit it's probably been a decade since I picked up Grapes of Wrath, but I recall the first time reading it feeling like the latter chapters bordered on a call to communism. The overall themes were more socialist, but there was a bit of romanticism of the commune life. It was certainly anti-capitalist and preached against ownership of property.

As far as Orwell, he may have been a socialist, but the most grand theme of the novel, for me anyway, was the fact that any government can and will result in the same outcome if not kept in check. I've not read Animal Farm in a while either. I picked up a copy that was packaged with 1984 about 15 years ago. I had not read 1984 and the wife hadn't read Animal Farm. I meant to go back and read it then, but never got past the first bits.

 

The fact that all 3 books make you think is a good thing.

 

I think you could read it that way, but if you swap in "community" it would work too. Or even localism.

I think the last bit with the lactating woman feeding the starving man is the most extreme towards a "communism" sort of message. But I think the principle problem was losing property, so u don't see it as a call to eliminate property.

 

It certainly called for the elimination of private ownership. The biggest takeaway for me was the exploitation of the common people. I was a bit deaf to the elimination of property the first time I read it. The reason wasn't for it not being evident in the writing. The concentration of property seemed to be the more prevailing picture drawn through the storytelling. Despite either Casey or Tom, or maybe it was in one of the turtle crossing chapters, basically out and out calling ownership bad, all of the trouble faces by the Joads was a result of the transfer of property. The Joads and others like them were property owners until only recently. Ownership could be viewed as a good thing at that untold part of the story having served them for generations. It was only once property had transfered that their calamity begins. I saw it more as concentration of ownership as being the problem. Even in a utopian society with no private ownership, property is owned by the government. Whether this is better or worse than ownership by banks or corporations or simply exceedingly wealthy individuals can be debated, but as I see it, once the Joads lose their land, they are completely dependent on the benevolence of whoever controls the property.

There are so many themes in Grapes of Wrath. It's hard to distill it down to one thing. One funny thing, when I was a senior in HS, I got a call from ITT Tech about whether I was going to college, etc. I was polite to the guy, but at one point I asked him if he had ever read Grapes of Wrath.

 

I think one could view it through the lense of less autonomy through these larger systems. Which I think resonates with conservatism today as much as far left "fight against the man" types.

 

There are so many different ways to come after it really, and practically none should be totally dismissed. Sitting here thinking about it for the first time in ages, it just come to me that you could even work up an argument for Casey representing the failure of the church to live up to Christ's teaching and becoming a martyr to explicitly false doctrine as mentioned in the Olivet discourse. I don't for a second think that's really what Steinbeck was going for, but his use of biblical imagery at least hints at it. Of course the more obvious explanation for Casey's story is that he becomes martyred as an apostle to his newfound faith which the reader is intended to feel compelled to hope it is spread as wide as Christianity.

Edit: correcting autocorrect

 

https://www.foxnews.com/media/karine-jean-pierre-warns-house-republicans-want-raise-gas-prices-say

 

They're burying the lede. The bill to abolish the IRS replaces it with a 30% sales tax, which would mean it raises the cost of gas as well as all other goods/services, but would have a magnifying effect on top of that on everything else because it is gas.

 

Home purchases are my favorite. 500K house? Well let's tack on an additional 150K!

 

iT iS gOoD fOr tHe wOrKiNg cLaSs!

 

This is an example of a policy that sounds great in theory but no one has ever thought about it's practical application. Lots and lots of holes in it in reality.

 

I think it has been thought through. It is very lucrative for those whose net consumption/expenses are a tiny fraction of their annual income. It shifts the tax burden virtually completely to the middle, working, and lower class.

 

Taxes. The devil is always in the details.

We have state income tax in NC. As governor, McCrory touted he was lowering our taxes. Campaigned on it. Crowed about it.

True: They lowered the tax rate.

Also True: Capped mortgage interest deductions + personal property tax deductions. Net effect, kicking a butt load of average people into higher tax bracket, thereby paying more taxes.

Also, Also True: gave greater deductions for private planes and yachts. Net effect, kicking the rich and famous into a lower tax bracket, thereby paying less taxes.

I explained the math to my local rep. "Really? I will look into that." I said, "But what are you gonna do about it?"

Outcome: No change.

As a not-rich-and-famous citizen, I trust none of the bastages re: taxes.

 

Would certain purchases not be exempt?

 

And you think that bill will go through? If so I have some ocean front property in Indiana I would like to talk to you about.