tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post623155244319179634..comments2024-01-29T15:41:12.310-08:00Comments on Rich Puchalsky's blog: Suckers are a boreRich Puchalskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10543499708727953026noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-29518900924064012862011-04-09T18:39:43.970-07:002011-04-09T18:39:43.970-07:00Damn, now i have to work on my blog more, mostly b...Damn, now i have to work on my blog more, mostly because i haven't since the end of last year. I'll get right to that. Thanks for the add.<br /><br />Agree that is a mixture of the two. A few years ago, i had the time to do a NaNoWriMo novel. Among the plot lines was one wherein the very wealthy were forced by natural circumstances to live in shielded burbclaves to avoid the toxicity and heat of the external environment. They were protected by systems of various levels of security, but inevitably it came down to paying top dollar to other human beings to actually guard the portals. I went on ad nauseum about this arrangement, arguing that at some point, that relationship must break down (interesting to see if Quadaffi's will collapse around him). Some human will say enough.spyderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14251017646611361354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-68534445230846344782011-04-06T19:43:38.929-07:002011-04-06T19:43:38.929-07:00I should be reading your blog, spyder. I added it...I should be reading your blog, spyder. I added it to my blog list.<br /><br />The problem with your question, though, is that it is one of those with more than one good answer.<br /><br />1. They aren't competent. This is fairly apparent in any activity that we actually observe them at, so I don't believe that they have some kind of super-competent cadre behind the scenes. They are, generally, people who have inherited wealth who believe their own propaganda, and they don't know what's a real positive in their ledger and what isn't. It's not even that they are responding to short-term self-interest; they're just twits who reflexively attack poor people because poor people aren't like them.<br /><br />2. In disaster capitalism, disaster is a positive. If what you're after is power, then one path to it is shrinking the pie while defending the size of your slice. Increasing rarity of healthy air and water? Not for the 1%. As long as things don't get bad enough so that society entirely breaks down, a big chunk of money to a single person now outweighs, in terms of that person's particular interest, nearly any amount of generalized pain for society later. Because money now means that you don't share the pain later.<br /><br />I'd guess that it's some mixture of the two.Rich Puchalskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13565210317964576866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-46521132006607882302011-04-06T19:20:51.920-07:002011-04-06T19:20:51.920-07:00I've been positing some ideas about the abject...I've been positing some ideas about the abject amoral agenda of the very wealthy lately. Assuming that they (the one percent solution), for the most part, operate in their own best interests, it seems likely that they are fully aware of many factors contributing to both their increasing share of the wealth and the decreasing chances of any hope for the masses. It is quite clear, that many of them are promoting a political agenda, across the spectrum of local to federal polity, that attacks government at its core. <br /><br />When i account for the natural impact of these decisions, i am left with neo-feudal lords of capital ruminating on grand estates across the globe, free of any encumberment of taxation, regulation, restraint of any form, etc. The world is a shambles otherwise, with pronounced global climate change, increasing rarity of healthy water and air, massive die offs of species, and all the rest. I am left with wondering how this is considered, in any regard, as a positive in the ledger of the rich.spyderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14251017646611361354noreply@blogger.com