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Class war disappeared from public debates, replaced by intersectional BS, I am worried.


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On 6/20/2021 at 1:31 PM, QuebecOverCanada said:

During this pandemic, the super wealthy enriched themselves extremely quickly, while the downtrodden made little to no gains due to inflation. This is coming in a delicate and dangerous era when a seemingly weak and proven to be an unhealthy Democratic President is elected in the midst of quasi war with China, tensions have mounted since his short tenure as president in the Middle East and a major chip shortage which could shape America's level of sovereignty -and dignity- in the XXIth century, is far from being won in the American perspective. This comes at a time where a divorce in the upper class warrants you being the richest female the world has ever seen. Jeff Bezo's ex, who contributed to nothing except maybe cooking an omelette when Jeff was tired, made a fortune doing approximately nothing. This comes when Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $150B, and still manages to pay his employees $15/h, and they don't get toilet breaks. Jeff Bezo's employees, while they are working very hard and putting in the effort to make the biggest delivery corporation in recorded history, are pissing in bottles and rely on food stamps for living. Food stamps to subsizide the sh*t wages Bezos is offering. Meanwhile, Democrats and GOP Congress cut down the $2000 stimulus for every american to a short $1400.

The upper class is making a lot of money on the back of their workers, who in turn get close to jacksh*t. Wages are extremely low, competition is very high; an immigrant will replace you for a bowl of rice, if not, they will robotize your position. Corporate establishments are buying houses by the hundreds of thousands to control the Housing sector, increasing prices of said houses.

And what do we hear in the public discourse?

RACISM. SEXISM. TRANS RIGHTS.

What do you think will happen in a society that completely ignores its own internal problems? What do you think happens when the populace becomes more and more hungry and the upper class lazier and lazier, and worse; making their money in immoral or unjust ways?

Well, for the most part, "public discourse" is completely captured by the same rich forces who have been grabbing the lion's share of the covid relief. I gag every time I see references to "The Left" in American politics these days! Whether it's from rightwingers looking for an enemy, or centrist corporate Democrats, they want all of the debate and arguments to be over identity politics issues and NOT economic class issues, because the political parties, mainstream media, along with hand-picked and promoted voices in social media, rarely if ever, venture in to asking questions about the wealth and income divides, growing debt levels, poverty, let alone interrogating the often repeated assumption of the Wall Street pundits...are you really certain that inflation will drop after the pandemic ends?  

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On 6/21/2021 at 11:11 AM, QuebecOverCanada said:

In its current proportions, income inequality is the widest we have seen in the West, it is way worse than before the pandemic. Plus, the rich gets to travel and being above restrictions compared to the poor, and may avoid rules imposed to everyone. Inequality is also increasing with inflated prices for housing and inflation in general. How come have you completely ignored the effects of the pandemic in your previous answer^

By the way, yes, public discourse shifted from class war before; Nazis came to prominence because of the Class war that was, ultimately, ignored by German higher society to the point where literal Commies and Nazis were fighting to death in the streets for a decade because the Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives loved their privilege. 

My own reading and research on earth sciences and economic forces, leads me to agree with the pessimists or doomers who see our general condition today as living in "late stage" capitalism. Meaning that up until now, every time capitalist systems have been running short of energy or essential resource building blocks to make stuff with, someone manages to pull a rabbit out of the hat, and find enough alternative sources to keep capitalism functioning, though doing less and less for lower classes as the years drag on.

A quick example of diminishing returns would be the declines in EROEI (energy return on energy invested) for oil as the years and decades have dragged on. It started at 100 to one for recovery costs. As typically happens with resource exploitation, developers began many years ago, exploiting deposits closest to the surface and therefore, cheapest to exploit and develop for market. 

So,, with oil, the first oil wells to be set up were in Pennsylvania and Ohio, where easy to access near-surface deposits were being pumped out and shipped to market. When those reserves started running low, and deeper wells had to be drilled, it was time for many of the first oil companies to move on to Texas and Oklahoma, where large oil deposits could be exploited. But, even as far back as the 1920's, it was recognized that those reserves were limited, and that's when some of the major oil companies started setting up in Arabia and the Persian Gulf...where petroleum was believed to be virtually inexhaustible, and cheap, with the major costs being shipping to markets in the west. 

Now, even the Sauds have to acknowledge that they have already pumped out at least half of their reserves. As the oilfields are pumped down, whether in Texas, Saudi Arabia or Alberta, it becomes more and more expensive, and that's how we ended up scooping up tarsands deposits and cooking them down for heavy, poor grade oil at an energy return  of 5 to 1, that's only affordable as long as oil prices are high enough to justify the costs. 

What has been a continual pattern in the past few decades is for economic growth to be slowed or stopped whenever oil prices rise to high for easy growth to continue. So, we're in a series of diminishing returns caused largely by increasing energy costs. And I am highly skeptical of claims that "green renewable energy" is going to both save the environment and maintain economic growth. The only thing that is actually growing today is inflation! And that is a sign of declining currency values, not increasing actual wealth. This is why the owners and controllers of capital are even more desperate and ruthless about maintaining economic gains for those at the top of pyramid, and diminishing returns for everyone actually working for a living. 

And this is why I believe, the people who are really in charge of the system are so hell-bent on keeping us all in the dark about just how bad our predicament is today. It is an empty facade, and if most people really find out how bad things are today, this system that almost collapsed back in 2011, when OWS demonstrations were going on, will collapse under its own weight of unpaid or unpayable debts!

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12 hours ago, Right To Left said:

1. What has been a continual pattern in the past few decades is for economic growth to be slowed or stopped whenever oil prices rise to high for easy growth to continue. So, we're in a series of diminishing returns caused largely by increasing energy costs.  

2. And this is why I believe, the people who are really in charge of the system are so hell-bent on keeping us all in the dark about just how bad our predicament is today. It is an empty facade, and if most people really find out how bad things are today, this system that almost collapsed back in 2011, when OWS demonstrations were going on, will collapse under its own weight of unpaid or unpayable debts!

1. Interesting, and born out by this:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/International-crude-oil-prices-and-global-GDP-growth-Source-IEA-World-Energy-Outlook_fig3_268751657

International-crude-oil-prices-and-globa

 

2.  Actual collapse seems to be a leftist pipe dream, to me.   Liberalism includes open discussion of economic problems, as well as self-organizing solutions.  What would collapse look like in our current world ?  Would we fall back 50 years ?  70 years ?  So ... relative wealth as it was in 1971 or 1951 ?  It's not hand-tools and community gardens, right ? 

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