You can’t. Literally no matter what system you have, corruption is never fully preventable, but it is punishable. Neither capitalism nor socialism can prevent corruption. The separation of powers, checks and balances and solid education are the safer bet. What’s needed is anti-monopoly laws, high taxation for the wealthy and so on and so forth, applied firmly, the entire time giving the general population room to breathe. (EDIT: The issue with this is “how do you find the people who are willing to pass and apply these laws in the first place?” It almost seems like these laws need to precede those people themselves. It feels like a paradox. That’s why some people break down and resort to ideas like revolution. But even after that, how can you be sure the new leadership won’t be corrupted by power? And it goes on and on like that in circles until you realize how uncertain and “made up” everything around us is and sink into your couch and stare at a wall for an hour)
I mean, try explaining to the average person that THEY don’t get to own a home anymore and that their country will give them one and they should trust their country to never take it away, all because a bunch of deranged sociopathic oligarchs tried to buy the whole country. A lack of trust in the government is one of the things that legitimately keeps people in favor of private ownership of all kinds of things. I think the average person would prefer we just jail the billionaires instead.
I’d actually be curious to know how many “capitalism-loving social-democrats” like myself are in favor of a firm cap on an individual’s wealth, cause I know I am. And I’d set it way the fuck below a billion. But I will fight for private ownership of everything from homes to computer software to the day I die. I don’t want everything to be given to me “on a subscription” unless I’m struggling, because I know I’ll never fully be in control of the terms of that subscription.
You can’t. Literally no matter what system you have, corruption is never fully preventable, but it is punishable. Neither capitalism nor socialism can prevent corruption. The separation of powers, checks and balances and solid education are the safer bet. What’s needed is anti-monopoly laws, high taxation for the wealthy and so on and so forth, applied firmly, the entire time giving the general population room to breathe. (EDIT: The issue with this is “how do you find the people who are willing to pass and apply these laws in the first place?” It almost seems like these laws need to precede those people themselves. It feels like a paradox. That’s why some people break down and resort to ideas like revolution. But even after that, how can you be sure the new leadership won’t be corrupted by power? And it goes on and on like that in circles until you realize how uncertain and “made up” everything around us is and sink into your couch and stare at a wall for an hour)
I mean, try explaining to the average person that THEY don’t get to own a home anymore and that their country will give them one and they should trust their country to never take it away, all because a bunch of deranged sociopathic oligarchs tried to buy the whole country. A lack of trust in the government is one of the things that legitimately keeps people in favor of private ownership of all kinds of things. I think the average person would prefer we just jail the billionaires instead.
I’d actually be curious to know how many “capitalism-loving social-democrats” like myself are in favor of a firm cap on an individual’s wealth, cause I know I am. And I’d set it way the fuck below a billion. But I will fight for private ownership of everything from homes to computer software to the day I die. I don’t want everything to be given to me “on a subscription” unless I’m struggling, because I know I’ll never fully be in control of the terms of that subscription.