The problem facing the Western world, and America in particular, is that the attributes and skills required to get and maintain a job are orthogonal to what soc

The problem facing the Western world, and America in particular, is that the attributes and skills required to get and maintain a job are orthogonal to what society needs to survive. Being handsome, tall, white, heterosexual, male, aggressive, assertive, ruthless and remorseless can make you an exceptionally successful person within the business world. It's also not the sort of thing you'd want society made out of. Every day would be a struggle for survival for most, but for the tiny few that've fought their way to the top and can now have others do their fighting for them. There's no room for things like wisdom, intelligence, for care or concern, for the pursuit of long-term goals instead of chasing short-term gains. Management doesn't care that you've saved the company a billion over ten years if your project makes them come up 5% short on the Wall Street projections this quarter. Politicians don't care that they're destroying an institution that's saved millions of lives if they can get re-elected because they saved money. People don't give a shit if their neighbour gets thrown in jail because they're an "illegal" even when they're the one committing crimes: Dodging taxes, stealing from their workplace, bribing a school executive to admit their stupid kid... It's a rough world out there, and the thing that's killing us is a lack of long-term vision.