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Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan continue to discuss “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999) and how it lays foundations for Private Government (2017).
We connect Anderson's idea of democratic equality with Rawlsian liberalism, with luck egalitarianism, Kantian alienable autonomy, Adam Smith, communism, and more. Is her idea of the economy as "cooperative, joint production" sensible or creepy?
Our interview with Anderson starts in Part One. You can get all three parts together, plus (soon) Wes's new (sub)Text episode on Freud, with a PEL Citizenship or $5 Patreon pledge. Please support PEL!
End song: "Straight Job" by Rod Picott. Hear him on Nakedly Examined Music #80.
Picture by Genevieve Arnold.
There is also this: that noone (not even the so-called ‘more talented’) makes it on their own. Even the beach bum had bought into someone’s labor/concept. The beach bum bought a shirt, lotion, sandals, hotdog etc.; believed in the product or idea and invested their capital, risk, belief into it. The idea that one’s wealth is entirely from their own hard work is a fallacy. I, and many many others, had to buy ( practically and mentally) into you* (*general ‘you’) your idea, your product, your marketing scheme – in order for you to succeed. The quality of a product is equally dependent on others. It is a collective effort and therefore an argument for a more collective distribution that provides a certain bottom line for everyone.
We really need to take view point of the world that’s as dark and as terrible as possible to really grasp the work it takes to move us to a society that Liz is arguing quite well for. Would y’all maybe consider having Christmas Hedges or the guy you wrote Inverted Totalitarianism on?