General Discussion

That only mattered when the government had an actual fear of the people stopping the system which was only a realistic threat as long as the GDP was based mainly on PHYSICAL PRODUCTION OF GOODS ... i.e. - manufacturing stuff.

We live in an INFORMATION ECONOMY and a CONSUMER-DRIVEN ECONOMY...the ONLY way to get the attention of the ruling class, in a way that MIGHT (*might*) make a difference is through prolonged and extended boycott of their economy. A 100% total shut down of ALL discretionary spending.

No new clothes for "this season's must have look"...
No next generation video game system to play the absolute must-play social media recommended game...
Making due with a cell phone that makes calls and allows you to actually speak to people without dropping $1500 for a new outer case and a spiffy logo placement shift...
No more travel to vacation in "hot spots" with Vrbo and Travelocity getting a cut for replacing the jobs that were once a living for travel agencies (or people at the bank we did such things)...
No more buying planned obsolescence durable goods like a refrigerator that dies after 5 years and has parts that cost more than a new unit BY DESIGN and INTENT...taking further jobs away from the public in favor of profits to the owners and boards of directors and CEOs...

Face it.

This country is LOST. We can't unfuck this mess with a march and a few speeches and hope that the bad guys will quake in their boots at the site of people milling about playing ultimate frisbee and sharing recipes for cheese dips while social media influencers are recording their 'lifestyle blog' from the middle of the event and others are just happy that TikTok famous is still a career goal for millions of young girls who shake their ass and bare their bellies and legs to be oogled by disgusting old men who now stay home with their expensive phones instead of heading to live action strip clubs, where at least the performers were (largely) of legal age of consent.

I stopped believing in the power of protests before the Iraq war. MILLIONS of us, across the nation and the world took to the streets and said "NO...Not in MY Name!"....and millions still died, billions in funds were still stolen and the war machine ground on without even so much as a meaningful pause in attacks.

This is a USA problem because of the imbecile in charge, but its a distraction from the global bosses of Blackrock and their ilk. Its nor ideological - left versus right or capitalist versus communist any longer. Its oligarchs versus everyone else and they do not care at all how many billions of "everyone else" has to die, they are NOT giving up their power or their fortunes willingly.

So...that leaves two effective means of inducing change.

1) Mass murders of the elite rulers. Not a insurance CEO, but ALL CEOs from enterprises that extract wealth without providing any real world value (sorry, share price and earnings targets don't count). It doesn't stop there though...it would have to be on the scale and scope of the French Revolutions to have meaningful impact. It would also have to include those who defend these leeches in the press and the public in exchange for $$$ and a seat at the feet of the masters...the crumbs from THAT table being far better than the fare on the tables of BILLIONS of humans across the planet anyway.

or - since I hope many still find the prospects of wholesale murder and executions to be an odious and morally abhorrent thing...

2) Complete divestment and exiting the current 'economy' of the USA - at least the portions of it that rely on spending and specifically discretionary spending to inflate the profits of the owners at the continued expense of everyone else.

We can still see things go either direction, but the longer NOTHING happens, the far more likely outcome is bloodshed and chaos before a new order is cleaved out. This was what happened to remove the LAST Gilded Age from humanity's throat...but that took two World Wars and the deaths of MILLIONS to bring it about. That post-war world lasted for almost 2 generations before it was lost, but do not be deceived into believing that it is not actually lost.

Wealth is an arbitrary concept. But the power that wealth purchases is very real. We can argue about policies and taxation levels and programs and social status and other concepts like inclusion, but the reality is, was and ever shall be thus - HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES. We have allowed the wealth of the world to be accumulated into the hands of a tiny fraction of the population. That distribution - which sees some men building dick-shaped rockets to shoot themself into low Earth orbit while their paid for lunatic government cuts funding to the public for education, programs to protect the air, water and future and even threatens to literally take food away from children (to avoid distributing the resources to the needy from the greedy) - is unsustainable in its current inverted pyramid shape.

It can either be given or it will be taken. There is no human cost to the giving option, but there is horrific cost to the taking option. History does not give one hope for the former in this duology. Its going to get very ugly, very fast...and in the end, those trying to lift themselves above the rest of the species in importance because of their control over the concept of 'wealth' will find that it really is illusory and cannot be held forever while billions suffer or die.

When people are starving for larger portions of the pie, you either cut some of your surplus into small aliquots to feed them, or you can wait until they rise up, kill you and eat YOU instead. "Eat the rich" is not a pithy retort or slogan. It is a prediction aligned with Eastern sunrise and Western sunsets, and its nearly here.