I'm a firm believer in free markets. I believe that at the present development level, when it is still impossible to cover all reasonable material needs of the humankind without expending any human labor, this is the best way to make people better off.

HOWEVER, present-day capitalism (as well as dreams of some libertarians) is anything but free markets, and I'm not talking about government intervention there.

I do not believe it is beyond repair though!

Markets are not free now. For example, it is not a free exchange of labor for money, when one has to choose between selling their labor or dying.

There _should_ be an Universal Basic Income that would cover all basic human needs (shelter, food, health, etc).

It would also be much easier to administer than mish-mash of various safety net policies we have now, and not let people slip through the cracks.

It would also reduce inequality!

So let's say there is a flat 50% tax on all income, wages, capital gains etc. (I would gladly pay that tax!)

And it's redistributed to all people, to every single person. Everybody just receives an UBI, it's 50% of average pre-tax income. That would be enough to cover all basic needs.

Then people would choose to work because they like that work, or because they like that extra income, not because they _have_ to for their survival.

Another problems with markets now is that signals are distorted, there are externalities.

The cost of producing oil might be 10 cents per liter, but the environmental consequences of burning it is 10 euro per liter.

If oil company only considers the former and ignores the latter, we end up with distorted markets, where everybody has to subsidize the oil.

By implementing a carbon tax, government would _fix_ the markets, not break them as some say.

I personally do not have any problems with e.g. Bezos sitting on a pile of money.

My problems are with him:

* sitting on a pile of money while workers are exploited;
* gaining that pile of money _by_ exploiting workers;
* being _subsidized_ by ordinary people (Bezos literally gets some money from state budgets);
* being subsidized by everyone, in form of environmental consequences.

If these are solved? He can swim in money if he wants to, I don't care.

I'm not saying my opinion is the only right one.

I might be wrong, and I would like to hear if there are any problems with my reasoning.

But that's what I think now; does this make me a bad person?

@IngaLovinde
Re tot take on capitalism: from my personal vantage point, your opinion falls well within the bounds of mainstream. Just look at election results and average a bit what is the society (especially German for that matter) telling that way. About the same stuff you expressed. You're ok