Dilbert_X wrote:
Its been an interesting year.
The warmup was when that fraudster and his family asphyxiated in a capsized yacht. No-one gave too much of a shit about that.
Then the establishment was surprised when an awful lot of people applauded Mangione.
The general response seems to have been "Nice shot man, let me know when your gofundme page is up"
I think this has been a long time coming. The wealth of the elite has been growing exponentially, for everyone else life has been turning to shit.
Is this what the start of the arab spring felt like? It does seem to be a turning point, but usually we only know some time afterwards.
i've been ascribing basically every political ruction, especially the growing populism, to the effects downstream of 2008. years of austerity on the poor and quantitative easing – technocrat-speak for socialism for the rich – has led us to this point. i can't remember how many times i've mentioned the gini coefficient and inequality to you on this forum over the years. it's a metric with valid criticisms, sure, and shouldn't be relied upon in any real analysis as the single and sole parameter; but generally speaking, massive inequality and sclerotic social mobility is the first sign that mass social unrest, revolution or coup is on its way. "many such cases ..."
returns on capital and assets have far outpaced returns on labour power for generations. and those salaries are captured in more comprehensive tax regimes (i.e. taxed at source) at higher rates of tax than all that slippery, fluid, border-crossing and haven-hiding capital. that has been turbocharged in the years of zero-interest credit for the superrich and public rescuing of dodgy banks. these have been great, rock-bottom interest, basically risk-free years for the white-collar speculators and occasional criminals. if you're born into wealth, you've basically been playing the game on easy difficulty setting; millions beget millions, leverage is plentiful, capital gains taxes low. meanwhile the little people are being told that their worlds-highest-GDP countries can't afford a local library, or a regular bus service, or affordable bills or food.
Last edited by uziq (2025-01-02 02:47:28)