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Fast forward a century or so, to a future when it is no longer necessary for human beings to be directly involved in production of goods and services. There would just be a few drone-like caretakers and overseers to read the meters and make sure the mechanical processes are humming along, and turn one off it is looks like it wants to control the universe. How should the wealth be distributed?
If you support the ideal of 1% owning most of the wealth, who gets to be the 1%? If 10 or 20 or 30% (or entire continents) still live marginalized lives in want and relative poverty, who will be the people who will, through their own fault, be designated as the bottom feeders, since "lazy" and "irresponsible" and "unwilling to work hard" will no longer be an identifiable contrasting color, but will apply equally to everyone. What, then, would be the motive for striving for universal plenty, if it's still just for a few?
Or has economic inequality become so hard-wired into our thinking, will we cling to the infallibility of the economic popes and persevere with unequal distribution, and force some to live in poverty, even when there is glorious bounty to be effortlessly had by all? Will we need to create, like in India, an inescapable "untouchable" class within our society, who are untouchable merely because they are called untouchable?
Or, in fact, have we already done so?
if drones work then middle class can get these drones or build them themselves and then they wont even need to buy anything from the 1% they can harvest it themselves
that is the thing which rich and elites fear the most.
you gaining skills where you do not need them anymore
the problem is if the rich will let you even acquire any resources to produce these things.
if the rich pushes too far then well they will blow themselves up.
we will find alternatives away from them.
if they force things too much they will invite assassins as well by the mob regardless of the government
I agree wholeheartedly with the above. Somehow, a way needs to be found to neuter the elite of their power and greed. I don't care how it's done, but it does need to be done if we want to avoid a terribly dystopian future.
Has anyone ever read Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged"? It's a highly unrealistic tale of all the movers and shakers going on strike due to the encroaching tide of communism in the United States, and these "titans of society" go off and form their own little Shangri-La in the Rocky Mountains, trading gold bars among themselves. I found that pretty laughable, as what would a society composed entirely of the rich do for help? They'd have to take out their own garbage and cook their own meals, as there sure wouldn't be anyone around to do it for them....lol.
But what I'd love to see is the working class people going on strike, all at once, worldwide. What would the rich do then? This is what I find so morally reprehensive about our society, that the "rich" fully expect to be supported by the masses of the working poor, toiling endlessly at jobs that most reasonable people would rather not do, just so they can live their high-falutin' lives.
Someday, all of this will come to an end. I just hope that day comes sooner, rather than later. To make that day get here a little sooner, I wish everyone would accept that it's okay to hate the rich. If we could somehow find a way to educate our children, propagate this message through the media and popular entertainment, and make it a fashionable and expected thing to do, that it's okay to hate the rich, then perhaps we really will rid society of these leeches someday.
Or maybe the aliens will come down someday and do it for us...
well not all rich are bad and useless just most of them dont even know how to boil water or cook an egg...
Fast forward a century or so, to a future when it is no longer necessary for human beings to be directly involved in production of goods and services. There would just be a few drone-like caretakers and overseers to read the meters and make sure the mechanical processes are humming along, and turn one off it is looks like it wants to control the universe. How should the wealth be distributed?
If you support the ideal of 1% owning most of the wealth, who gets to be the 1%? If 10 or 20 or 30% (or entire continents) still live marginalized lives in want and relative poverty, who will be the people who will, through their own fault, be designated as the bottom feeders, since "lazy" and "irresponsible" and "unwilling to work hard" will no longer be an identifiable contrasting color, but will apply equally to everyone. What, then, would be the motive for striving for universal plenty, if it's still just for a few?
Or has economic inequality become so hard-wired into our thinking, will we cling to the infallibility of the economic popes and persevere with unequal distribution, and force some to live in poverty, even when there is glorious bounty to be effortlessly had by all? Will we need to create, like in India, an inescapable "untouchable" class within our society, who are untouchable merely because they are called untouchable?
Or, in fact, have we already done so?
I think there will be far fewer humans. I mean when it is no longer advantageous to the 1% to have the population numbers at a high count, they will find a way to do away with what would otherwise be a drain on resources.
It is not like they have any kind of ethics or morality that would prevent some sort of genocide that would be in their own best interests.
I'm on board with that.
The US, as an example, did just fine with 100Million fewer than we have now.
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I mean when it is no longer advantageous to the 1% to have the population numbers
at a high count, they will find a way to do away with what would otherwise be a drain on resources.
If the middle class wants to exist, let alone to thrive, we'll find a way do this first.
Like starting next week.
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It is not like they have any kind of ethics or morality that would prevent some
sort of genocide that would be in their own best interests.
Why do so many immediately leap to the far end of the draconian?
I'm on board with that.
The US, as an example, did just fine with 100Million fewer than we have now.
If the middle class wants to exist, let alone to thrive, we'll find a way do this first.
Like starting next week.
Why do so many immediately leap to the far end of the draconian?
If there are no longer going to be jobs in order for the working class to support itself, do you really think the wealthy are going to want to support them? No, I think as soon as they are no longer useful, they will be disposed of in order to prevent becoming a burden.
If there are no longer going to be jobs in order for the working class to support itself...
Are you still thinking this premise is valid? Go back to page one.
The premise is absurd: Of course there will be jobs.
The question, as today, is about the NUMBER of jobs that actually need doing...
and by extension what we -the middle class- are willing to do to moderate population numbers.
In particular the population numbers of the dependent classes who really have no reason
under the current circumstances to do it on their own. Any ideas?
Are you still thinking this premise is valid? Go back to page one.
The premise is absurd: Of course there will be jobs.
The question, as today, is about the NUMBER of jobs that actually need doing...
and by extension what we -the middle class- are willing to do to moderate population numbers.
In particular the population numbers of the dependent classes who really have no reason
under the current circumstances to do it on their own. Any ideas?
OK I guess I need to simplify my statement.
If the day comes when there is one job per 1000 people than for all intent and purpose there are no jobs.
The only reason we have social programs today, is because the working class can be taxed to provide for the unemployed. At the point where that becomes a financial impossibility, then some other solution will have to be arrived at.
Overpopulation at present benefits the upper classes at the expense of the working class, but as the numbers of unemployed increase, that will not necessarily be the case.
The possibilities for social uprisings increase with the pain and suffering of the unemployed which presents risks and dangers to the upper classes.
The (primary) reason we have social programs today (aside from the bsic decency and humanity their best iterations exemplify), is because the (middle class) can be taxed to
provide for the unemployed (and those others unwilling and/or unable to provide for themselves).
At the point where that (ability to tax the middle even deeper) becomes a financial impossibility,
then some other solution will have to be arrived at.
Some would say we have already passed this point (that's a hint btw)
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Overpopulation at present benefits the upper classes at the expense of the (middle class
aka tax payers), but as the numbers of (low/no skilled dependent and far too often) unemployed increase, that will not necessarily be the case.
By jove... I think you're beginning to get it!
Quote:
The possibilities for social uprisings increase with (rising raw numbers of unsupported idle)
which presents risks and dangers to (everyone above them).
And your suggestion to avoid this sort of outcome... is what?
And your suggestion to avoid this sort of outcome... is what?
The things that will happen going forward are due to 2 things.
The people in power worldwide are predominantly psychopaths who do not care diddly squat about the planet, humanity, or anything else besides themselves and their never ending irrational greed.
And that the vast majority of humanity are so under-educated they do not even understand that the first group exists, much less what their agenda is an what they are capable of .
The solution of course is education. The kind of education that teaches people to think and to understand that we can solve the problems that confront us, but the first step in solving our problems is to reject the status quot and the powers that be.
So long as we allow the world to be run by psychopaths, our mutual demise is a foregone conclusion.
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They'd have to take out their own garbage and cook their own meals, as there sure wouldn't be anyone around to do it for them....lol. 
