Worth the time reading it....

[Penguin]

I hardly ever post a referral to a news article or a blog post. I get bored with the political slant of most people rather quickly, even those who I agree with. But I am going to make an exception. Not simply because I agree with what he has to say here, but because he comes at it from a perspective that I also agree with but so rarely see spoken out loud.

Namely that collapse/deterioration isn't an event, it is a process. And it is happening right now as I type. There isn't an Armageddon apocalyptic nightmare, nor is there a high tech utopia. There is merely more of the same of what we have seen over the past few decades. And that is kind of scary if you are keeping score.

https://eand.co/why-were-underestimating-american-collapse-be04d9e55235

Will

[LJ3]

That was pretty damn interesting to read. I've never been exposed to that kind of perspective before. I need a moment to collect myself!

[BarryBobPosthole]

It is interesting, that is one thing I’ll say for it.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

I’ll check it out when I have a little more time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Penguin]

I've heard about the boiling frog metaphor before and maybe there is something to that. If you look at where we are now and where we were 40 years ago it is attention getting. A lot of it depends on ~where~ you are at. Things look far different out in a post industrial heartland community that hasn't figured out what they are supposed to do with the "post" part of that description, and that of a Ivy League politician meeting with donors and diplomats over prime rib followed by brandy and cigars.

Quote: The predator in American society isn’t just its super-rich — but an invisible and insatiable force: the normalization of what in the rest of the world would be seen as shameful, historic, generational moral failures, if not crimes...

That's the part that sticks in my craw. I am old enough to remember when such failures WOULD have been seen for the moral failures that they are. Now? We sit and watch it happen like that these birds I saw last night a "big animal eats the little animals" show on BBC.

[BarryBobPosthole]

It is thought provoking but I haven’t made up my mind yet how I feel about his conclusions.

He is certainly correct, we’re in the grip of the Information Age and we’ve not adapted to it particularly well in business or society. That doesn’t mean though that the whole thing is on the verge of collapse or has been collapsing right under our noses already. At least I’m not ready to accept that premise anyway. The data is somewhat compelling though.
Young people nowadays are thinking very deeply about the issues he talks about, I’m sure you see it in your profession.
Finally, in business I’ve always been a proponent of his (actually Aristole’s) view that if we valued people in our businesses properly, the long term would be much rosier for everyone, including stockholders.

Still......I’m not ready to don my Guy Fawkes mask quite yet.

BKB

[Penguin]

I wouldn't wear one of those under almost any circumstances.... :)

I started on the path of trying to figure things out when I became convinced that the economy was going to blow up in 2006 or so. I wasn't sure when it would blow but I was dead certain that it would do so. And painfully. I admit that I thought most of the stuff we did to "save capitalism" was illegal and couldn't be done. I was very naive.

There are a lot of people who think we are all DOOMED and apocalypse is just around the corner. I ain't buying. And there are those who believe that we are on the verge of a techno driven fairyland where we all drive George Jetson flying cars and unicorns shit cupcake shaped carbon neutral energy tablets that power the whole thing. Ain't buying that either.

What I am buying is that the global economy has transitioned, to a large degree though not entirely, into a zero sum game. And I have become convinced that part of the reason is that energy has become more expensive. I think just as great a portion of the blame is that the elite in this country very deliberately dismembered the middle class. The middle class was America's secret weapon. Having a large portion of the pie taken by a group who were busy building and buying and doing did more to power the economy than a very small group of the super rich could ever do.

So you have more than one thing going on here I think.

Will

[BarryBobPosthole]

(in my best Bugs Bunny voice) nyah........could be!

Another fork in that road might be global unemployment creating a worldwide poverty class due to.....automation. So what happens then? Lots of ideas about that one too. the rise of the algorithm.

BKB

[quercus alba]

I wouldn't worry about it Posty, the government will just tax the few remaining workers heavier and support them.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Believe it or not, there is a pretty big movement to do just that. Its called Universal basic Income. And it means what you think it does.

BKB

[Hombre]

That even got voted down in Sweden...if they ain't passing it we're a long way off

[LJ3]

Shit... If I'm not sure if I'm an alpha or epsilon, does that mean I'm most likely an epsilon? Asking for a friend.

[BarryBobPosthole]

That even got voted down in Sweden...if they ain't passing it we're a long way off

Didn’t Finland approve it? I thought one scandinavian country was experimenting with it.

BKB

[Hombre]

i wasn't aware of them, but looking quickly it doesn't looked like they passed a law more of an experiment. They chose 2000 people to start recieving it for a period of 2 years to study the outcome. Either way if this becomes law sign me up.....I need some of that gubmint cheddar

[BarryBobPosthole]

Make mine American!

BKB

[Trav]

I like the gubmint cheese, the peanut butter sucks.

[Arty]

I like the gubmint cheese, the peanut butter sucks.

So does the powdered milk.

[Arty]

And now for my serious response...
Stuff like this makes me think in ways, and on things, that I ain’t used to thinking about. And that makes my haid hurt!
But it’s a good hurt!

[airbud7]

Cool Story Bro!

https://i.imgur.com/Jfa2jkh.gif