The Marxist, The Capitalist, and The Jealous

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Marxist looks at another who has what he envies
and says “What an injustice!
We workers of the world must unite.
We must seize the means of production
and distribute
from each according to his ability
and to each according to his needs.
And all will be right in the world
when the party rules
and everyone’s income is equal, (especially the party leaders).”

The Capitalist looks at another who has what he envies
and says “What an injustice!
We innovators of the world must compete.
We must acquire the means of profit
and capture
from each according to his exploitable value
and to each according to his discretionary income.
And all will be right in the world
when the rule is to party
and everyone’s belly is full, (especially the shareholders).”

There's Poor, and Then There's Capitalist Poor

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a lot of self-declared Anti-Capitalists in my social media feeds. Fine by me. I like being exposed to thoughts I disagree with because it sharpens my own thinking, and truth is far more valuable than being right. It forces me to wrestle with flaws in my own thinking, and it forces me to search for strong rebuttals.

So I find that quite often I hear the idea that the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. This simplistic mantra kept rubbing me the wrong way, but I couldn’t quite articulate why. While writing this I wrote this line critiquing Capitalism:

Politics on Daniel Lyons

The Marxist, The Capitalist, and The Jealous

There's Poor, and Then There's Capitalist Poor