Lets take this whole discussion in a new direction. If everybody was being honest than this would be their question.
Any of you starting or planning to start a business?
I would love to start a business and be able to make a living off of it. Not even join the 1%, just make what I make as a teacher so i can quit and do my business. But its super hard to start it with kids. I’m going to have to force myself to start it one day. Its an internet business. The site is almost all built…except a few things and credit card functionality.
business as a hobby? Yes. I would start it and actually, started… but the income is very very low… for now 
I have a vague idea for a business plan, revolving around sanitation services, renewable power, organic farming, and rental property management, all rolled into one!
I have to say I just love the way you answered your own thread title question in your own OP.
I wouldn’t start a business. Good luck with that. I would buy an already established business with my inheritance, or I would steal an idea from someone else that’s going to be huge, with my intelligence. Then I would aggressively squash or buy-out the competition, petition the state for special favors, militantly suppress labor power, set up a pension fund for my workers and then raid it.
… isn’t that how the 1% created themselves?
I’d get a job on wallstreet.
You do realize it only takes about $380k annual income to be in the 1%. Technically you could be an employee and get that. Or just a really good salesman of really expensive high-end goods.
Right, that’s why I dislike these liberal class distinctions based on income. Whom I was really talking about was the .1% lol… and that’s still arbitrary. Football players are in the top .1%. The real problem is with bankers, capitalists, and the politicians that beg at their table… whom would you deny can often be found engaging in just the activities I mentioned?
Of course corporatism exists. That’s partly why most of us are here. But what does that have to do with there being other ways to get into the 1% than engaging in it?
Yes, because capital is abundant and good business ideas are both scarce and obviously good.
Clayton -
Of course corporatism exists. That’s partly why most of us are here. But what does that have to do with there being other ways to get into the 1% than engaging in it?
Can you get there without engaging in aggressive capitalism? If you’re just an employee at Goldman Sachs or Beoing you may not be actively engaging in corporatism, but you still derive huge benefits from it. Even small local business’ get tax breaks and the like from the government (tax breaks regular people don’t get; hence it being a “special favor”).
I don’t know. Ask Michael Moore, since he now admits to being part of the 1%.
I would love to see that on tape. Do you have a link?
Aggressive capitalism? I thought all capitalism was aggressive.
Yes, like Solyndra, the flagship of the anti-capitalistic Greens®.
Aggressive capitalism? I thought all capitalism was aggressive.
C’mon man, I’m at least trying not to partake in overtly socialist language. I was trying to allow him to have his “corporatism,” which I would normally call “just capitalism” by calling it “aggressive capitalism.”
But yes. Private property is aggression.
Yes, like Solyndra, the flagship of the anti-capitalistic Greens®.
Ya. LIke them.
“But yes. Private property is aggression.”
.
Tzu, can you either adopt some cooky form of socialism or pretend to be capitalist? You don’t fit what’s seen as the normal socialist paradigm around here and you have the audacity to focus on the real issue like property and wealth disparity, so it ends up in these long and, more importantly to me, boring debates about the nature of property and the like in which both sides are talking past each other to some extent or other.
COME ON! Either change the quote in your sig to Kropotkin and your avatar to the IWW logo or go home!
JK, but seriously if you’re in an opposing forum for a while you could at least TRY to make it a little more interesting when the inevitable strife occurs.
Tzu, can you either go some cooky form of socialism or pretend to be capitalist?
I like your style
You don’t fit what’s seen as the normal socialist paradigm around here so it ends up in these long and, more importantly to me, boring debates about the nature of property and the like in which both sides are talking past each other to some extent or other.
It does get boring when you cannot engage in baseless caricatures, I know! I’m always trying to call all capitalists murderous pig-dogs. But then they’re humans who’ve not actively killed anyone… oh man, how boring
(To be fair, I have, for years, remained unrestricted on Revleft [despite heavy posting]. So, it seems my brand of socialism is at least acceptable by the community at large.)
You, my good sir, are a winner. In the friendlies and most congenial of spirits I bestow you a humble request of friendship and give you the following.
Edit:
And I like the Kropotkin quote BTW. If you are misfortunate enough to have read “an appeal to th young” then I heartily reccomend it.