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Interesting piece. There's so much broken in the world. We don't inhabit a true Capitalist society any more ( my term for the current system is Crapitalism )
by tezza 10y ago
Interesting piece. There's so much broken in the world.
We don't inhabit a true Capitalist society any more ( my term for the current system is Crapitalism )
Further it is unclear if our current machine can survive
* peak stuff ( we don't need to consume as much any more ) why would companies invest in new jobs and infrastructure when they are not going to recoup the cost through growing sales ?
* population still on the rise . Where do jobs come from for 10 billion when we've hit peak stuff
* robber barons control the laws, courts and media ( a constant over human existence)
* massive debt load ( unfunded pensions, national debts, private mortgage debts )
But I would ask Tim Bray what I ask everyone else who says radical measures are required.
Namely, how is the transition made without mass cleansing and warfare in the interim.
Often ( Viet Cong, Khmer Rouge, Mao, Stalin ) the middle class and educated are unfairly lumped in with the elite and exterminated.
Is the current brokenness worth millions dead, and proportionally lots of HNers ?
- blahi 10y agoLeftists are not concerned with making good transitions. They are only interested in completing their vain version of the world where everybody is noble and peaceful. They don't care this is unrealistic and cannot be implemented in practice. It's mental masturbation. "Look how sophisticated and compassionate I am. Everybody should be more like me and we shall live in heaven."
- sievebrain 10y agoI would say unfunded pensions and "peak stuff" are contradictions. We clearly need/want to consume more than is readily available due to investments not paying off sufficiently well.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago>* peak stuff ( we don't need to consume as much any more ) why would companies invest in new jobs and infrastructure when they are not going to recoup the cost through growing sales ? We currently have a glut of consumer goods, but they're mostly consumer goods with low marginal desirability, and we actually have a shortage of physical capital, collective infrastructure, and equipment for personal empowerment. To wit: it's better to have affordable, high-quality education and public transit, at the margins, than the N+1st craft brewery.