It's not even abstract theory. Literally every single experiment ever run on this shows that the best way to address violence, homelessness, and malnutrition is giving the poor money without strings attached

I didn't know MBAs learn about it. I thought it was more from humanistic psychology.

The thing is, it needs to be applied on the collective level in order to work as a concept. Society should meet everyone's basic needs before it tries providing for the self-actualization of the few. And et cetera, comfort needs, social needs, esteem needs.

Building from the ground up (i.e., grassroots first) is the only way to achieve a flourishing society. If societal resources (i.e., tax money, civil service jobs, etc.) are directed in this way, it wouldn't take very long to reach a point where people can pursue their passions (i.e., art, writing, open-source software engineering, crafts, athletics, spiritual pursuits, and all other hobbies) which is the hallmark of a flourishing society, i.e. a self-actualized society (or more particularly a society of self-actualized individuals).

You won't have a coffee shops where philosophers and poets meet upstairs to share ideas if nobody can fucking afford to get coffee, or when everybody views life as a competition or a zero-sum game where sharing is viewed as losing an edge over your rivals.

No city can be the epicenter of a new artistic movement if nobody can fucking afford art supplies or has the time to spend mastering their technique and developing their style.

The view of these kinds of things as being "luxuries" reserved for the privilege is fundamentally flawed, because every one of these hobbies benefits from a larger community and cultural milieu. Sports thrive when lots of people can train together and play. Literature, art, poetry, philosophy, all benefit when lots of people get to toss ideas around and make a big stew that everyone can ladle from.

So all these oligarchs are delusional when they say "we're going to usher in a new golden age by saying fuck the poor, I'm going to get mine."

That's not a golden age, that's a gilded age. There's no cultural renaissance happening, only sanitation and leveling of all things interesting and unique. A golden age or a renaissance is when so many people are thriving, that the arts flourish like a spring meadow in full bloom.

That's what it means for a society to "flourish," because it could never happen if all those more basic needs aren't already met on a fundamental level. People don't have time to dedicate to their passions if everyone is fighting for survival and mutually distrusting of each other. A golden age is the sign of a society that's already flourishing, not the mechanism by which it comes to flourish.

You don't uproot a fruit orchard because it doesn't blossom in its first year. You give it water and compost, you take care of it, you treat it when it's sick, you train it so the branches all get sufficient sunlight, you mulch it for the winter or even wrap it in burlap, until it's strong enough to stand on its own. You do all these things even without receiving anything tangible in return. And 5-10 years later you get flowers, butterflies, fruits. Because the tree already had everything it needed to grow to that point. The fruit are the culmination of the process, and they can't be forced to grow without the needful conditions.

Like, it seems so obvious, but oligarchs are so fucking detached from reality that they think they can extract all the nutrients from the soil, dam up the water and stingily dole it out, and they think that somehow magically downstream somebody is going to grow some fruit trees, and then they'll give more water and compost to that person, as a reward? It's so fucking backwards. The resources are the precondition for success. The reward is inherent in the act of doing what you love.

But they don't understand that. Because capitalism ruins everything, including people's minds. They think money is the reward, not the means. And that's why they hoard it for themselves. And they treat people's lives and passions as the mere means to exploit.

At a systemic level, it’s more about ensuring you have a large population of people with fewer rights so you can simultaneously exploit them easier and threaten the rest of the population with that fate.

They just sell it to conservatives who get off on the idea of righteous punishment.

A reminder that wage theft accounts for more money stolen than all other robberies, burglaries and thefts combined.

And that’s just the wage theft that is explicitly illegal, not the theft of the surplus value that you as a worker create, which is the true source of capitalist “profit.”

Might I suggest stoking inflation? Or perhaps sneaking civilian clothed police into protests to torch shit? Ooh or trapping anyone acused of crime from getting a job so they can only do crime?

Lots of people feel it's unfair to pay for other peoples expenses! I agree - we should stop funding billionares with tax money 😎