I don't think the parent poster is saying 'don't try,' as much as countering the very real propaganda from the rich about how "We're the new enlightened rich, a

I don't think the parent poster is saying 'don't try,' as much as countering the very real propaganda from the rich about how "We're the new enlightened rich, are we're not greedy or dangerous, and we're not hurting the working people at all." Claiming 'nothing has changed' in this regard is mostly true. There's some more red tape to get through but we're very clearly moving towards a Gilded-Age level of corruption and inequality in the US. Heck, we even put one of these 'enlightened' billionaires in as president! Wish I had more to contribute to this conversation, but its pretty hopeless as the wealthy can simply propagandize people via their media sources to vote against their interests and can successfully lobby politicians to give them almost anything they want. Trust me, the Koch brothers aren't funding reason.com because they're academics, but because the libertarian philosophy it sells lines their pockets the most. I suspect this is the norm for later-stage capitalist economies that pride themselves on low regulations. High regulatory European economies seem to have a stronger firewall against this compared to the US. This isn't going away barring a massive economic change, perhaps when we can't continue to hide what automation and wealth hoarding are doing to working people. That could be anywhere between 10 and 100 years from now depending on how its handled. I suspect deep automation will simply lend itself to a new economic and social reality. I just don't envy our kids and grandkids who will have this fight against the status quo. The 'enlightened' wealthy aren't going to concede on anything that affects wealth and status easily.