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Don't you worry it will cause a Dark Age? Civilizational collapse doesn't seem good for anyone, or do you not expect it will get that far?
Or is the satisfaction of saying, "I told you so," worth what you believe will be European civilization "fail[ing] spectacularly?"
Wouldn't you rather hope that social science develops and we create societies that facilitate the thriving of human nature?
It's not in their interest to care, if you believe there's nothing in it for you as things stand. Would you continue to be part of a system if you thought things would never go your way again?
For some people that's enough. And if that's all they have, they might as well revel in it. "Better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven."
Everyone agrees with that thesis. Nobody agrees on the details. The things conservatives will point to for regarding Russia a success for instance, are the exact same things progressives will point to for regarding it a failure.
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I don't suppose anything resembling that is going to happen. Politicians and academics will propose societal changes, but I think it will be something along the lines of compact urbanism and some sort of Great Society style misguided welfare.
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Oh I don't expect civilisational collapse, I expect things to become more like they are in the third world, which is to say, not that bad if you're near the top of society on one of a multitude of different axes (e.g. you have social elites, political elites, entrepreneurial elites, professional elites, academic elites, military elites, all you need to live a comfortable life is be one of these or close to being one of these or be the family of one of these), however it will be in such a state that the modern welfare state white elephant collapses under its own weight and has to be abolished, alongside all the other currently "fashionable" social theories which all Good Right-thinking People believe.
Indonesia seems like a good goal to me, and nobody would say it is undergoing civilizational collapse, Jakarta is a modern highly technologically advanced city, no reason humanity can't thrive in such a society.
(But yes, getting to go "I told you so" will be very nice too, extremely cathartic after all the shit and excessive taxation I've had to endure).
South Africa is the society you describe and the ANC is full of idiotic and largely falsified progressive theories.
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oh you poor dear. I guess we should destroy our culture to make it up to your poor beleaguered brahmin head. Please sir accept my apologies for the excessive taxation.
That's all well and good, but it's not bringing my money back is it?
Who forced you to stay in the shitty tax-heavy West where you were losing money compared to your homeland?
Back home we don't have the sorts of high paying jobs like the one I do here. These jobs do exist in places like Hong Kong and Singapore and the US but I have family reasons for not wanting to move too far away from the UK, at least not right now. Money is not the only thing that matters.
So you could have gotten a high-paying job somewhere else, but that would have been too far from your family. So instead, you took the high-paying job in the high-tax area, and then blame the people in the area for offering you the choice you freely made.
I don't blame them for offering me the job, I blame them for taxing me a shit load (also note that the people offering me the job were not the same as the people who tax me a shitload).
Your comment reminds me of this comic: https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mister-gotcha-4-9faefa-1.jpg
Just like how the peasant is saying "we should improve society somewhat", I am saying "we should tax people like me a lot less" and am being given the same "and yet you participate in society, curious" response. Now the peasant can very well go live in the wild under the law of the jungle, just like how I can go to a different country, but that is even worse for the peasant (and for me) than the present situation. However that does not at all mean the peasant is not entitled to complain that the current state of affairs is not very good, or to agitate for them to be changed until they are more pleasant, while continuing to live his peasant life. Same with me.
But you have the same chance everyone else has to change the tax rate, convince enough people to vote based on it. If you can't then that is democracy doings its job. No matter how superior you feel, you are constrained by your peers. And whether you like it or not, Bob the lout, and Trevor the aristocrat are both your peers here.
Have you tried to change it? Lobbied? Gone into politics? If not, your complaints ring hollow.
In any case your revealed preferences indicate your peers are right to tax you so heavily. After all you are still better off than nearly anywhere else in the world. And they aren't taxing you so much as to change that calculus. Thus, they are taxing your superiority correctly.
You don't get to have everything as you like, society rules you, not vice versa. That is our strength.
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