Here is where I think you are nailing a core issue: "...maintain power and control in the face of a level of income inequality that is causing massive social dysfunction and suffering and threatening economic collapse..." I don't remember when I haven't wondered about the tipping point into revolution. The overlords never seem to have th…
Here is where I think you are nailing a core issue: "...maintain power and control in the face of a level of income inequality that is causing massive social dysfunction and suffering and threatening economic collapse..." I don't remember when I haven't wondered about the tipping point into revolution. The overlords never seem to have the slightest concept of the desirability of stability from supporting the serfs at some level of habitability and survival. They "always," as in down through known history of revolutions, seem to pursue the last eke of wherewithal. There seems to be an essential failing in human nature that allows a divorce in consciousness of interconnection with the actual providers. The oligarchs don't know when to stop; never have yet.
Well observed, I think, Mmerose. I think an economic system tends to create and reinforce itself. In the case of our current, unbridled, unmanaged form of capitalism, competitive forces require that business entities must constantly outpace their competitors. If asked why they are cutting wages, contaminating the environment with waste, cutting health and safety controls, and moving out of the United States to avoid our laws, they say, "I have to in order to compete because the other guy is doing it." And wealth and power are addictive; you never get enough to feel insulated. In this system, wealth automatically accrues to the top because, as there are winner and losers, the winners gain advantage, and the process is accelerated. I think we need to come to a full awareness that capitalism (industrialized, free enterprise) needs maintenance by a democratic government in order to equitably distribute the wealth, benefit the common good, and keep it free..
Here is where I think you are nailing a core issue: "...maintain power and control in the face of a level of income inequality that is causing massive social dysfunction and suffering and threatening economic collapse..." I don't remember when I haven't wondered about the tipping point into revolution. The overlords never seem to have the slightest concept of the desirability of stability from supporting the serfs at some level of habitability and survival. They "always," as in down through known history of revolutions, seem to pursue the last eke of wherewithal. There seems to be an essential failing in human nature that allows a divorce in consciousness of interconnection with the actual providers. The oligarchs don't know when to stop; never have yet.
Well observed, I think, Mmerose. I think an economic system tends to create and reinforce itself. In the case of our current, unbridled, unmanaged form of capitalism, competitive forces require that business entities must constantly outpace their competitors. If asked why they are cutting wages, contaminating the environment with waste, cutting health and safety controls, and moving out of the United States to avoid our laws, they say, "I have to in order to compete because the other guy is doing it." And wealth and power are addictive; you never get enough to feel insulated. In this system, wealth automatically accrues to the top because, as there are winner and losers, the winners gain advantage, and the process is accelerated. I think we need to come to a full awareness that capitalism (industrialized, free enterprise) needs maintenance by a democratic government in order to equitably distribute the wealth, benefit the common good, and keep it free..
Drat! No likes from the likes of me, so here are a potload!