“Crowning" the landlords and parading them through the villages. This sort of thing is very common. A tall paper-hat is stuck on the head of one of the local tyrants or evil gentry, bearing the words “Local tyrant so-and-so” or “So-and-so of the evil gentry”. He is led by a rope and escorted with big crowds in front and behind. Sometimes brass gongs are beaten and flags waved to attract people’s attention. This form of punishment more than any other makes the local tyrants and evil gentry tremble. Anyone who has once been crowned with a tall paper-hat loses face altogether and can never again hold up his head. Hence many of the rich prefer being fined to wearing the tall hat. But wear it they must, if the peasants insist. One ingenious township peasant association arrested an obnoxious member of the gentry and announced that he was to be crowned that very day. The man turned blue with fear. Then the association decided not to crown him that day. They argued that if he were crowned right away, he would become case-hardened and no longer afraid, and that it would be better to let him go home and crown him some other day. Not knowing when he would be crowned, the man was in daily suspense, unable to sit down or sleep at ease.
—Mao Zedong, Report On An Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan, March 1927
A social torment I would not wish on anyone but landlords and other parasites
And not a single penny of that is used to make jobs like they promised, and they still act like they’re on the brink of bankruptcy.
It is used to “create jobs” (open up new spaces to exploit labor), though. They’re constantly investing the capital to make more money later, that’s what capitalists do. The trick is they do that indirectly by exporting capital to the periphery, where the capital is realized into means of production and more extraction of resources.
Ironic. Once again capitalism hurts even the citizens of the imperial core, because now we’re out of jobs.
Imperial boomerang is fun :D
Vast tracts of the economy are at the discretion of a miniscule portion of the species. According to their media this arrangement is the most conducive to democracy and freedom.
I wonder what they do with all that wealth? I’m sure it’s not to create more power for themselves and less power for everyone else
We should make them play Highlander.
What % of the national debt is this?
