A few commentators see the
fault lines and understand the Class War is already rumbling. Correspondent Mark G. submitted these two
articles as examples of the widening divides between various classes in the
U.S.:
In the first piece, Joel Kotkin
describes the political capture of the Status Quo Imperial Democrats by
the Left Coast media and tech culture of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, both of
which have thrived in our hyper-financialized economy of 95% losers and 5%
winners, and the Right Coast financiers, lobbyists, government bureaucrats and
Wall Streeters who have benefited so handsomely from the hyper-financialization
of the U.S. economy, politics, media and zeitgeist.
This Class War is illustrated
by this chart: a tiny financial-political
Elite (the top 1/10th of 1%) now own as much wealth as the bottom 90%:
(To read entire content between the chart and what follows here –
link to full article below.)
The younger workers are
chained to a system that is completely out of whack with the real-world
demographics of an enormous generation of retirees who are living decades
longer than the population the system was designed to serve, with medical care
costs that are the financial equivalent of a runaway train.
As painful as it might be
to retiring Boomers, here's the perspective of those facing decades of taxes to
pay for programs that can't possibly fund their retirement in the same fashion:
All of these fault lines
result from one basic truth: the system is broken and cannot be reformed/fixed. As the pressures of a system that
optimizes inequality, monopoly, cronyism, stagnation, low social mobility and
systemic instability build, the fissures in our economy and society will widen.
Here's what's obvious, but
unacceptable: we need a new system. Not a system modified with tiny tweaks and a feeding trough filled
with borrowed money--an entirely new system designed from scratch to be
sustainable and with opportunities to build capital for all. This is why I
wrote A Radically Beneficial World--to
start the discussion of what a new system could accomplish, not just for the
top .01% or top 10%, but for all of us.
This entry is drawn from my new book A Radically Beneficial World:
Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All: The Future Belongs to Work
That Is Meaningful. Get a 25% discount on my new book this week only
(ends 11/15/15).
