As you know, the last time this country was in this position it took Black Tuesday and a Republican administration that couldn't imagine interfering with the economy to break the back of the Guilded Age and the Republican party, and that only lasted 30 years, that long only because of WW2. The institutions set up to prevent it happening again will focus on propping up the top and let the market "purge the rottenness" at the bottom. We'll see how effective that is.
The American voters in their infinite wisdom prefer to alternate the Presidency between parties, and ideally hobble it with a divided Congress. Trump is the wild card in all this, he will do his level best to remain in power, Constitution or no, and the Republican party will back him 99.99%, allowing a few complainers who will be dealt with like Liz Cheney. Nobody has a fucking clue how all this will play out. His health, attention span, and ego, world events, Russian/Iranian/Chinese skullduggery, and the Stock Market will all contribute to events. The Democratic party is a player too, but they need to admit the game has fundamentally changed to have an impact in it. Even of Trump is somehow "out of action" the Republican party will remain commited to the tactics and goals of what we call Trumpism. This is what "living in interestjng times" feels like.
I think that our current Guilded Age will require an equivalent shock to end it. The tech platforms’ won’t revolt so much as “give up” in the form of demand collapse. When wealth is concentrated enough, demand will collapse. I imagine it will have to be worse than 2008 to lead to reform, but maybe not as bad as 1929.
That was my point, such as it was, because I don't see an alternative. TR's "trustbusting" fad migh be an alternate path, but you need an equivalent charismatic leader to drive it, and it didn't have much of a long-term effect. It's not that demand will collapse (though it certainly will if the market collapses first), but a top-heavy economic system is inherently unstable. And look at the specimens we have running ours. These are thoughtful, prudent people? How does Jamie Dimon stack up against JP Morgan? JD Rockefeller agajnst Jeff Bezos? Elon Musk against, well, anything? Our systems and norms cannot remotely handle this level of incompetence and ruthless power. No one knows if crypto or the inevitable collapse of AI will be the equivalent of buying stock on margin, but something will evemtually blow the market up real good, because these people think the system exists for them to game at will.
As you know, the last time this country was in this position it took Black Tuesday and a Republican administration that couldn't imagine interfering with the economy to break the back of the Guilded Age and the Republican party, and that only lasted 30 years, that long only because of WW2. The institutions set up to prevent it happening again will focus on propping up the top and let the market "purge the rottenness" at the bottom. We'll see how effective that is.
The American voters in their infinite wisdom prefer to alternate the Presidency between parties, and ideally hobble it with a divided Congress. Trump is the wild card in all this, he will do his level best to remain in power, Constitution or no, and the Republican party will back him 99.99%, allowing a few complainers who will be dealt with like Liz Cheney. Nobody has a fucking clue how all this will play out. His health, attention span, and ego, world events, Russian/Iranian/Chinese skullduggery, and the Stock Market will all contribute to events. The Democratic party is a player too, but they need to admit the game has fundamentally changed to have an impact in it. Even of Trump is somehow "out of action" the Republican party will remain commited to the tactics and goals of what we call Trumpism. This is what "living in interestjng times" feels like.
I think that our current Guilded Age will require an equivalent shock to end it. The tech platforms’ won’t revolt so much as “give up” in the form of demand collapse. When wealth is concentrated enough, demand will collapse. I imagine it will have to be worse than 2008 to lead to reform, but maybe not as bad as 1929.
That was my point, such as it was, because I don't see an alternative. TR's "trustbusting" fad migh be an alternate path, but you need an equivalent charismatic leader to drive it, and it didn't have much of a long-term effect. It's not that demand will collapse (though it certainly will if the market collapses first), but a top-heavy economic system is inherently unstable. And look at the specimens we have running ours. These are thoughtful, prudent people? How does Jamie Dimon stack up against JP Morgan? JD Rockefeller agajnst Jeff Bezos? Elon Musk against, well, anything? Our systems and norms cannot remotely handle this level of incompetence and ruthless power. No one knows if crypto or the inevitable collapse of AI will be the equivalent of buying stock on margin, but something will evemtually blow the market up real good, because these people think the system exists for them to game at will.