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Inequality for all

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Inequality for all

Unread postby phaster » Mon 03 Feb 2014, 22:25:59

noticed on my Apple TV there was a new documentary release called "Inequality for all" which features a polished lecture given by professor Robert Reich w/ cool graphics.

Basically it illustrates the gap between rich and poor is at its widest point since the great depression of the 1930's. Its a worthwhile movie IMHO because of its content BUT FWIW I have come to the conclusion that what happened in the USA w/ aviation and the sudden explosion of the US middle class (from 1945 to the late 1960's) was an anomaly in global history.

Before the great depression the way I see things there were lots of poor folk, a small middle class and a much smaller group of really rich folk (which seems to be the historical norm)

IMHO Ford w/ the model T basically stared the consumer society and the "growth" of the US middle class.

Also during this period aviation made great leaps and bounds, starting w/ the first flight in 1903, to the development of the DC-3 in the 1930's which ushered in the era of the airlines which allowed people for the first time in history to be able to visit and transport goods all over the world.

Post WW II is where I feel the myth of the US middle class started. I say this because if you think about it the USA was alone (i.e. w/out "global" competition in the areas of energy production, tech development, banking and the ability to produce consumer goods on a massive scale)

Think about it, up until "peak oil" in the USA in the early 1970's the USA didn't have any global Global competition to speak of in individual areas of energy production, tech development, banking and the ability to produce consumer goods. Granted the USSR was a superpower BUT in military might only. Because the population of the USA was a superpower in all areas, the typical un-educated guy on the street could post WW II expect to have a job that paid an un-imagined high wage (pre-1930's depression) and buy all the products of a consumer society.

In the 1980's japan and germany fully rebuilt their industrial base that was totally destroyed during WW II. During this period the USA was no longer the largest producer of "oil" as a group OPEC because the leading global producer of liquid fuels.

If you look at the problem of why aviation and the US middle class peaked years ago in terms of growth and going from no global competition (1945 to late 1970's) to a global community of players that were able to compete with the USA in individual areas, it seems pretty self evident why we in the USA have a shrinking general aviation population and shrinking USA middle class.
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Re: Inequality for all

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Mon 03 Feb 2014, 23:10:32

Pstarr - So true. Maybe a better way to put it is to distinguish between those with sufficient resources and those that lack them. Someone with a $200k/year paycheck would be more self-sufficient then someone pulling in $35k. They could easily afford $6/gallon fuel. But not if they bought a McMansion that eats up a huge chunk of their take home pay. Maybe that's another distinction between current generations and the Greatest Generation: they felt buying a small house by putting 20% down marked success. Today's generation has little margin for miscalculations at a time when the potential for miscalculations may be greater than ever and more so as we tumble down the PO path.
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Re: Inequality for all

Unread postby phaster » Mon 03 Feb 2014, 23:21:32

pstarr wrote:It's not that the rich are getting richer too fast, it's just that the poor are poorer much quicker. thanks to $100 oil.


Its a symptom!!!!

$100 for bbl of oil can be explained using the basic economic theory of supply and demand

the unfortunate fact of the matter is the "poor" are in their state because they lack a skill set to change that condition

granted a poor person could use force/coercion to obtain $$$ to then exchange for oil BUT that is not economically or morally sustainable

the only economically or morally sustainable way for the poor to improve their lot in life (i.e. generate wealth) is to gain skills that are in demand

how that can be accomplished w/out resorting to vice (i.e. vice - selling sex or drugs) is a question I wish I could answer simply

think about it steve jobs for example because rich because he was able to translate his vision of easy to use devices that the public wanted (i.e. the macintosh, the iPod, iPhone and iPad) and he left an economically sustainable legacy

the counter example is a drug lord like Pablo Escobar who during his lifetime was able to amass wealth by force/coercion BUT he was taken out in a hail storm of lead
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Re: Inequality for all

Unread postby sunweb » Tue 04 Feb 2014, 05:46:06

I have written about this various places. Here is from my essay on the new Middle Ages: http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2011/05/ne ... -ages.html
. . . .
However, let me suggest that this future without fossil fuels may not be significantly different from present once we work through the inevitable losses and grieving. In an Excel spread sheet I created in 2000 looking at the per capita use by country of petroleum, natural gas and electricity, some 75 to 80 per cent of the population had very little use of fossil fuels. Many people today work hand to mouth and live on the edge with hunger, low energy accessibility, poor water resources and fragile shelter. What is in process is the great leveling of globalization. Many of us will be joining the peasant class.

Through history there seems to be a distribution of wealth and privilege that looks something like:

0.1% Dynastic Oligarchs
1% Administrators (in today’s world - CEOs, Presidents, Fed chairman, etc.)
10 to 15% Functionary Workers (this would be most who are reading this now)
80 to 90% Peasants (Wage Slaves in debt-bondage)
[I had presented something like this to one of my mailing lists and it was modified close to what I am presenting by someone on the list. I did not keep their name. I thank them.]

Today is no different. As I indicated globalization is the new leveling and pathway to peasanthood given the peaking and ultimate depletion of fossil fuels and other resources.
. . .
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