4 ms·

I thought this has been the course of history for a long time. Elites take more and more for themselves until they push things too far and they get overthrown.

• phkahler 7y ago
  I'm not sure the word "overthrown" is good - nobody is going to do that today. "Until things fall apart" is more general and entirely possible today. See Venezuela for example. Still no overthrow, but it has fallen apart and the leadership would probably prefer that hadn't happened - though I could be wrong about that.
  • maxxxxx 7y ago
    With overthrown I guess I also meant things like antitrust regulation in the early 1900s or the union movement which was reduced power of the robber barons. This doesn’t always have to be violent. Not sure what better word could be used instead of overthrown.
• shakyshakyshaky 7y ago
  Now I don't like the terminology "elites" as it lends itself to populism, but in this framework it's useful. Soon enough, the elites will not be overthrowable. The advantage that the many have over the few is the retraction of their consent; without housekeepers, farmers, maintenance workers, the rich have historically been forced to capitulate because they couldn't maintain their standard of living without the workers. With the rising tide of automation, I can see a very near future where the workers are simply obsolete, and the division between classes will become so wide as to be completely un-transversable. Those in control of the farmland and the machines that tend it will have no use for the lower classes any more. That's why we need to work on decentralized production, with households owning a production factor of their own which will keep them producing value. Think decentralized factories.