04-29-2020, 01:21 AM
(04-28-2020, 02:45 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:(04-28-2020, 12:35 PM)David Horn Wrote: Look at history.
When I look at history, I see concentration of power reaching a maximum at the beginning of each Crisis period, with the crisis war destroying some of the elites, making room for upward mobility again. By 1850, field slaves were heavily concentrated on large plantations, and the industrial powers of the North were also concentrated; destruction of the South and elimination of slavery facilitated upward mobility first by carpetbaggers and then by the rest of the Gilded. Concentration of wealth and power again peaked around 1930 - there's plenty of statistical evidence for this - and things stayed stagnant until World War Two destroyed Europe and again made room for growth. Most recently, concentration of wealth and power again reached a peak around 2000, resulting in the current stagnancy. One way or another, some of that is again going to be destroyed, again making room for others to grow.
The extreme concentration of wealth (and wealth and political power go together) at the 3T/4T cusp creates far more hardship and distress than prosperity, In the 3T. Trickle-down ideologies become acceptable for what they promise: in return for more glaring inequality and more demanding management the economy will produce so much wealth that the added inequality will be worth it. People accept privatization and monopolization as 'economic discipline' by rooting out 'destructive' competition. At the end the methods that allegedly promise unprecedented wealth culminate in a financial bubble that devours capital more than it creates it. Paper prophets disintegrate, and the economic elites suddenly claim to be unaccountable for the failure.
I am old enough to remember people who were adults in the 1920's, and although they considered the early 1920's horrible, they had no nostalgia for the 1920's except for youth. I suppose many of us would like to have our youth back so that we could enjoy it more fully or not make the same mistakes. (Oh, would I do many things differently!) But given the choice between the late 1930's and the late 1940's they saw the late 1930's as better in practically every way. Of course these people were farmers or factory workers, and things got better for them with farm subsidies or union wages as opposed to what preceded. OK. Gershwin wrote some music that well stands the test of time... but all in all the 1920's were a slum of a decade. Prohibition did not make life more fun' it made drinking more costly, dangerous, and troublesome. The perverse combination of self-righteousness and cruelty gave America the fascistic 1915 Klan that we can all be glad imploded before it had a chance to do genocide and war as did causes with similar viciousness and bigotry. Economic distress that began in rural areas ensured that any semblance of a consumer boom would implode.
A 4T begins or culminates with political leadership not up to the challenge. This one began with such and will probably approach its end with such. People who thought Dubya awful recognize Trump as far worse.
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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.