Wealth distribution

[HoreTore]

Nothing. But a good look at the mirror should be a good place to position yourselve. If you buy the stuff you should be able to get a good look at it no? Scumbags aren't getting rich on my account, so there's your answer.

I have no idea what the relevance or meaning of this is supposed to be.

[Fragony]

I have no idea what the relevance or meaning of this is supposed to be.

Good, if I make any sense I am doing being mysterious all wrong.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I don't think that material inequality is nearly as important an issue as the social consequences of the current economic system are.

Rampant drug abuse, mental illness, family breakdown, community breakdown, moral breakdown - all these are not consequences of poverty, but rather a specific set of social conditions that have been created by the industrial and post-industrial world. The reduction of a person to a drone if they are lucky, idleness if they are not. The instability of irregular work. The many issues caused by unnatural work and unnatural hours. The indignity of never realising self-sufficiency, of being reduced to a burden for family or the state. The divorcement of wealth from labour. The inability to live a basic, fulfilling life with a family and your own home. To lose your life to the machine, to invisible faces and abstract forces. This is what I am surrounded by every day, increasingly I am coming to realise that this will be my life. When I see people who have been ruined like this, it makes me angry at the world. Those that suffer the most are demonised, only a tiny portion of the problem are scapegoated (see for example the moral outrage of the upper middle classes at bankers). Honesty life these days doesn't even feel real, it's like a bad dream.

[PanzerJaeger]

Wealth distribution is just a symptom of modern productivity demands in industry that negate physical labor. The wealthy are getting wealthier now, but the constant growth demanded by the capital investment driving that wealth accumulation is unsustainable without growing real income levels and employment. Capitalism in its current form will have to be replaced, either by a much more enlightened or much more despotic economic model.

[Lemur]

Capitalism in its current form will have to be replaced, either by a much more enlightened or much more despotic economic model.

The key phrase being "in its current form."

Well-regulated markets are still the best vehicle for a whole host of goods and services. I imagine there will someday be a more efficient, more humane, less-prone-to-panics-and-bubbles system. No idea what it will be, but it will probably come from one of the bastard offspring of Google.

[PanzerJaeger]

The key phrase being "in its current form."

Well-regulated markets are still the best vehicle for a whole host of goods and services. I imagine there will someday be a more efficient, more humane, less-prone-to-panics-and-bubbles system. No idea what it will be, but it will probably come from one of the bastard offspring of Google.

I just don't know where the jobs will come from to keep the market viable. We can't all be software engineers and managers, not that those jobs are any more insulated from automation than any others. We are moving toward a future where most people will not work, at least in the way we think about work today. It's already well underway - corporate profits and thus stocks have skyrocketed since the depths of the recession while the labor force has steadily shrunk and a record 20% of households are on food stamps. The primary driver behind those profits has not been organic growth, but instead easy money and cost cutting - much of it the result of reduced payroll through automation. As stated earlier, this can be liberating or enslaving, depending on how we react and choose to structure our society going forward.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I just don't know where the jobs will come from to keep the market viable. We can't all be software engineers and managers, not that those jobs are any more insulated from automation than any others. We are moving toward a future where most people will not work, at least in the way we think about work today. It's already well underway - corporate profits and thus stocks have skyrocketed since the depths of the recession while the labor force has steadily shrunk and a record 20% of households are on food stamps. The primary driver behind those profits has not been organic growth, but instead easy money and cost cutting - much of it the result of reduced payroll through automation. As stated earlier, this can be liberating or enslaving, depending on how we react and choose to structure our society going forward.

My concern with the idea that there are no more jobs out there is that it may just be too soon to tell if that is the case. The decline of manufacturing in the Western world has taken place within the span of 30-40 years. If you could predict where the jobs would be coming from PJ, lets be honest, you wouldn't be chilling here at the org, you would be making the big bucks and becoming the next Bill Gates.

I am particularly interested in the growth of new forms of entertainment, especially the increasing influence of "YouTube personalities" and channels as well as the growth of eSports such as League of Legends. I doubt the latter will become anything comparing to physical sports given how unprofessional the market is, but you never know how things will develop over 10 years.