The wealth inequality is the one I have been paying the most attention to. Having constantly lowered the taxes on the wealthiest it seems to be the one that is the most self-inflicted.
We could lapse into an era much like the Great Depression (where I suppose we will celebrate bank robbers?). Our future could look more like "Soylent Green" - most of us piled into tenement houses with armed guards on the stairs, braving the streets only for our weekly rations while the wealthy live secluded in high-rise luxury.
I worry too we'll become like I perceive Russia to have become — more or less an oligarchy run country where the proletariat merely grumble and get about their thread-bare existence. (I suppose, from the charts, we'll have our toys and TVs though!)
With 1/3 of the country having not even voted I would probably be more surprised if we end up with a French Revolution style future.
Feel free to set me straight, IANAH (not a historian) nor am I an economist or political scientist. Just a layman.
> where I suppose we will celebrate bank robbers?)
The popularity of Luigi Mangione might be a (arguably sickening) sign that the pitchforks are coming (and, remember, it's always very presumptuous to assume you will be on the right side of the pitchforks.)
But also, if history is to be followed, some form of self correction is always possible.
It's going to be popular to run on a "tax the ultra-ultra-rich" platform. The trick is to be very careful on every other topic, to avoid being trapped in culture war.
Basically, someone might run on the single issue of "tax the right", and strive to avoid anything radical on every hot-button subject (as in, be extremely centrist and borderline conservative on gender, immigration, culture, free speech, etc....). When in doubt, shut up and remind everyone you're going to tax the ultra-ultra-ultra rich, purely appealing to the inner sense of justice.
This would work better in countries where the press is not too concentrated. And I am actually curious to see how social media would handle that (it would create engagement, so maybe the merely ultra-ultra rich would play along ?)
> French Revolution style future.
Careful what you wish for - it took us a century to get to a stable place.
If I had to pick which fictional world our future looks most like it would be Elysium. Maybe not a space station, but we're quickly bifurcating into a world where a top elite of billionaires live in absolute luxury, safely segregated away from the rest of the world who scrapes by in misery and poverty. There was no middle class in Elysium. So many people who will be in the misery group support this future because somehow they've been convinced they'll be in the elite group.
We could lapse into an era much like the Great Depression (where I suppose we will celebrate bank robbers?). Our future could look more like "Soylent Green" - most of us piled into tenement houses with armed guards on the stairs, braving the streets only for our weekly rations while the wealthy live secluded in high-rise luxury.
I worry too we'll become like I perceive Russia to have become — more or less an oligarchy run country where the proletariat merely grumble and get about their thread-bare existence. (I suppose, from the charts, we'll have our toys and TVs though!)
With 1/3 of the country having not even voted I would probably be more surprised if we end up with a French Revolution style future.
Feel free to set me straight, IANAH (not a historian) nor am I an economist or political scientist. Just a layman.