What terrifies me most about this is that those in power will keep getting younger, dumber and more complacent.
I feel like communism is inevitable at this point.
People know communism isn't the solution, but they will still vote for it because at least it pretends to stand for equality.
We're going to reach a point of such extreme inequality that even the pretense of equality provided by communism would be welcomed by the majority.
In a way, the pretense of equality sets a floor on inequality; because, in a communist system which calls all humans equal, any actual inequality has to be either hidden or justified... This requires effort. A system which pretends to stand for equality can only become so unequal before it loses its ability to justify itself; then it collapses.
By contrast, our current system makes no claims about human equality, quite the opposite; it exaggerates and propagandizes the inequality of humans and human ability as a means to justify its failures in terms of human resource allocation.
For example, our current system sees homelessness not as a failure of its resource-allocation capabilities but as a kind of efficiency. It does so by dehumanizing the homeless; painting them as lazy and incapable of value-creation; deceptively conflating 'value creation' with 'value extraction' in the process. Our system keeps trying to portray the 'value extraction' endeavors of the entrepreneur class as being on the same level as the 'value creation' of the working class... They will not acknowledge the reality that 'value extraction' is the main cause of wasted human potential.
It is our current system itself which fails to efficiently allocate the most valuable resource in society; people's time and energy. Our current system implies that human life is of such low intrinsic value, that some people aren't even worthy of having a roof over their heads, all while it deprives them of their right to build their own roofs (with regulations).
Our system loves to blame individuals for its oppression and it loves it even more when they blame themselves for it; it seizes any opportunity it can to demonize beaten-down intelligent people who understand the mechanics of its oppression and it idolizes egotistical idiots who have never experienced struggle and who therefore don't have much difficulty in taking full credit for everything (good) which happens to them...
It's not difficult to take full responsibility for your situation when only good things happen to you... But watch how these people behave when things go belly-up. They're off to the Caymans, never to be heard from again... The system is remarkably lenient on them.
> People know communism isn't the solution, but they will still vote for it because at least it pretends to stand for equality.
Genuinely curious - why isn't communism the solution? And in your opinion, what are some better solutions? I haven't studied much about political/economic ideologies and at this point don't even know where to start. I do agree with some of what you are saying, but I don't understand why communism wouldn't be be a step in the right direction.
It could be an improvement but it's not a solution because those in power tend to embody the worst elements of humanity, regardless of the economic system. The real solution IMO is decentralization. Decentralizing power. Any system which centralizes power will have problems because it centralizes power in the hands of increasingly 'bad' people.
In a large centralized system, those in power are selected from an increasingly large pool of people... Two main characteristics which allow people to gain power include greed and the need for control; these two characteristics tend to override all other characteristics as the pool of candidates increases because the level of competition and desperation increases. Near the center of power, the personal compromises that have to be made to be in such position become significant to the point of 'not being worth it' (for most reasonable people) so those who keep going must have a particularly strong thirst for power and control.
It's difficult to both maintain power and also to do good things; those who try to do good will often sacrifice some of their power to do it; the attempt to do good carries political risks which may be seized upon by one's political opponents who aren't inclined to take such risks.
> I haven't studied much about political/economic ideologies and at this point don't even know where to start.
"The Road to Serfdom" by FA Hayek[0] is a good start. There's also a Wikipedia page outlining the general criticisms of communism[1]. You can also simply look into the recent history of communist countries.
I feel like communism is inevitable at this point. People know communism isn't the solution, but they will still vote for it because at least it pretends to stand for equality.
We're going to reach a point of such extreme inequality that even the pretense of equality provided by communism would be welcomed by the majority.
In a way, the pretense of equality sets a floor on inequality; because, in a communist system which calls all humans equal, any actual inequality has to be either hidden or justified... This requires effort. A system which pretends to stand for equality can only become so unequal before it loses its ability to justify itself; then it collapses.
By contrast, our current system makes no claims about human equality, quite the opposite; it exaggerates and propagandizes the inequality of humans and human ability as a means to justify its failures in terms of human resource allocation.
For example, our current system sees homelessness not as a failure of its resource-allocation capabilities but as a kind of efficiency. It does so by dehumanizing the homeless; painting them as lazy and incapable of value-creation; deceptively conflating 'value creation' with 'value extraction' in the process. Our system keeps trying to portray the 'value extraction' endeavors of the entrepreneur class as being on the same level as the 'value creation' of the working class... They will not acknowledge the reality that 'value extraction' is the main cause of wasted human potential.
It is our current system itself which fails to efficiently allocate the most valuable resource in society; people's time and energy. Our current system implies that human life is of such low intrinsic value, that some people aren't even worthy of having a roof over their heads, all while it deprives them of their right to build their own roofs (with regulations).
Our system loves to blame individuals for its oppression and it loves it even more when they blame themselves for it; it seizes any opportunity it can to demonize beaten-down intelligent people who understand the mechanics of its oppression and it idolizes egotistical idiots who have never experienced struggle and who therefore don't have much difficulty in taking full credit for everything (good) which happens to them...
It's not difficult to take full responsibility for your situation when only good things happen to you... But watch how these people behave when things go belly-up. They're off to the Caymans, never to be heard from again... The system is remarkably lenient on them.