Here’s a summary of the provided text with the requested annotations:
The article by Miles Mathis criticizes Infowars and the Mises Institute for defending “obscene levels of income inequality” through what the author deems as “lies.” Mathis argues that Alex Jones of Infowars is not a true populist because he republishes defenses of the rich. He specifically targets a defense of capitalism by David Gordon, who is promoting a new book by Rainer Zitelmann, a Jewish historian. Mathis asserts that defending current levels of income inequality in US and the world in 2023 is dishonest, as inequality has been rapidly increasing since 1980 and accelerating after 2000. He claims that official charts from organizations like PEW and Worldbank hide the true extent of this problem, with the rich accumulating wealth through “bold thefts” while the middle class declines.
Mathis refutes Gordon’s and Zitelmann’s arguments, including the idea that a reduction in poverty justifies inequality, citing homelessness and drug overdoses as evidence against this claim. He also dismisses their justifications for unequal distribution of progress, arguing it’s due to the rich stealing profits from the outset, not a lack of government redistribution. Mathis contends that the rich are not smarter or harder-working but rather benefit from a rigged system, and that their current “stupidity” is due to inbreeding and corruption. He questions the historical comparison of English ducal families’ life expectancy, suggesting their lower lifespan was due to corruption and dissipation, not a lack of inequality.
The author then challenges Zitelmann’s assertion that the Industrial Revolution and capitalism led to increased life expectancy, arguing that it was actually policies suppressing inequality, like graduated income tax, that caused this rise. He claims life expectancy is now falling as inequality increases again. Mathis also dismisses Zitelmann’s and Walter Scheidel’s claims that Communism and the World Wars were necessary for income leveling, asserting that the rich manufactured these events for their own benefit. He claims Marxism was an invention to move people away from Republicanism and lead to fascism, and that the World Wars were orchestrated by bankers to drain economies.
Mathis directly confronts Gordon’s suggestion that war can lead to redistribution through taxation, stating that wars enrich the rich by taxing the lower and middle classes. He also critiques the argument that welfare states like Sweden and Denmark achieve egalitarianism without violence, calling it “blatant misdirection.” Mathis argues that these countries, despite being “welfare states,” remain quite inegalitarian, and that their systems are a form of “fascist collectivism” where the state funnels profits to the richest families and uses subsidized services to mask the true extent of inequality. He uses Norway as an example, suggesting that equal distribution would make everyone a millionaire, but instead, state-collected proceeds benefit the wealthiest, creating a “nanny state” illusion.