This was going to be titled "waiting for the D", but begging made it sound more proactive, as passivity doesn't get many people very far in life. The D I am talking about is Decentralization of course, as that is what we are all waiting begging for to happen, as wealth inequality has driven society to fragment more aggressively than it has done in recent memory, and the discontent has extended past the usual suspect malcontents and into the mainstream narrative.
Effectively now, everyone is a conspiracy theorist of some kind, regardless of what they actually believe or know, as there are so many factions of polarized beliefs that everyone is questioning everyone, with groups that used to be relatively united like nations, fracturing apart and naming their enemies as witches, in a parable return to the Salem witch trials.
The book, The Crucible was written post second world war two, as a narrative on what was happening in the US with people being named as communists. Funny, 70 years later and not much has changed. The difference is that there is not just one enemy, everyone is an enemy of some kind, with every trait and thought an affront to the sensibilities of someone somewhere who feels that their experience is being harmed by others, because they are uncomfortable in some way.
At the core of much of the drama is the concentration of wealth in the hands of the very few who have managed to fit or use the economic systems as they were intended, to generate wealth and continually compound the speed of wealth transfer from the majority to the minority. The saying, Money begets money is true for a reason, as the more one has, the more power can be utilized to influence the game in favor, to create an uneven playing field that will keep tipping until there are a few small groups in an unassailable position.
The world is becoming more and more economically centralized.
I have find this chart interesting and used it before to demonstrate to people how little they know of the wealth of the world, by showing them the derivatives section. But, there are other things of interest in that too, like this:
That is the wealth of the Fortune 500 companies in the US, with each square representing 100 billion dollars. But, what is interesting is the little bar to the right which says that The Big Five generate 24% of the revenue of the total 500. Is it any wonder that those five companies are also the world's largest data collectors, corporations who draw in our activity from all over the world and through a million sources, compile it, analyse it and sell it?
Only two of those companies are over 40 years old, the other three are less than 26 with Facebook only being around for 16 years so far. Where do you think that puts the economy in another 25 years from now and, do you think that on the current path it will bring an improvement to the conditions that society is starting to rebel against, due to the sense of diminishing economic opportunity? It isn't just the poor who are feel repressed, it is everyone outside of the 0.1% and even in that tiny sliver, the wealth disparity is enormous between first and last.
Centralized man-made structures always fail, as they are not suited to the evolution of environmental conditions, as they do not evolve fast enough and will eventually collapse under their own tradition. Every country will eventually fail, every nation. But if we as a species survive, the cities we live in will continue on as they operate under a decentralized organic governance of people living their lives the best they can, making their decisions the best they can. It isn't always pretty, but it is robust and at the best of times, perhaps even antifragile.
But at the moment, we aren't decentralizing our society by fracturing along belief fault lines that follow the slightest of divergences, we are disconnecting from each other in ways that make working together increasingly less likely and rather, we work against each other more often than not. Of course, the Big Five and all the rest do not care about this fracturing as they are able to provide all the goods and services that we need to survive with, and all the weaponry necessary to fight against our enemies, which is ourselves. They don't pick sides and have no moral compass, the direction of North is always wherever profits can be made - and the profits are increasing as the competition narrows, which is why the spread of wealth is narrowing.
What is incredible is that people are fighting over wealth inequality and a lack of distribution, by demanding that those in power change their ways by distributing more wealth and becoming benevolent dictators, while there are viable options for everyone to become an owner themselves, undercutting the need for the dictator at all. It fascinates me to have conversations with people who are constantly appealing to and begging authorities to "be fair" while shunning me for mentioning the potential for them to take responsibility and control for themselves - by participating in building a new economy.
Perhaps this is the problem. While everyone wants all the benefits of the city, no one wants to take responsibility for building and governing it themselves as it is inconvenient, so they palm their tasks off to a government or corporation who will happily do it, for a fee. The problem is, the fees will keep rising, while the relative incomes keep falling to the point, people can no longer afford to live a life that they love, or even like - it is all toil to make ends meet, a life of subsistence.
The world is begging for change, like paupers in the street. But, change comes at a price that few are currently willing to pay, as it means taking responsibility and risk. Ain't no one got the time for that.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]