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Post by Darth Stateworker on Jul 16, 2012 22:17:20 GMT -5
OK - I agree on that point. Our current poverty stricken people are not living in the same manner that poverty stricken folks would have lived back in the Gilded Age. Touche.
However, are we not actually warehousing them in a similar manner, even if their lives are more comfortable than that time? Look at low income housing like Ida Yarborough, or Ezra Prentiss, etc. We're basically warehousing them all.
Personally, the only difference I see is the times. As a more modern society, we're doing things differently and even the poor have a few of lifes little luxuries and better access to health care. But I don't think that is any excuse for continuing to allow for Gilded Age like income inequality and wealth inequality. In fact, I'd say the only reason why the poor of today are treated a bit better than the poor of yesteryear is so that they don't rise up and outright rebel like the poor of yesteryear did by doing things like forming unions and demanding a bigger piece of the pie. They're treated just well enough to keep them complicit - at least that's the way I see it when looking at the big picture.
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Post by NYS Techie on Jul 16, 2012 23:19:26 GMT -5
My point is, we don't have to say that we're returning to the gilded age to justify hating the rich for being a bunch of spoiled, cheap, selfish assholes. In fact, since it's obvious we're NOT returning to the Gilded Age, we make ourselves look silly by making such a poor comparison. The rich WANT us to make comparisons like that. They find it flattering. They WANT to think of themselves as robber barons. They think robber barons were great men.
So forget about that particular comparison, it doesn't work. Focus on what the rich are doing wrong NOW. Hate them, sure, but for the right reasons.
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Post by Darth Stateworker on Jul 16, 2012 23:31:25 GMT -5
Do you see my point though about giving them just enough to keep them complicit and not angry enough to start demanding more by protesting, voting and demanding changes in the law, and re-forming unions? People are angry - but they just aren't angry enough to get off their asses and do something. I was hoping Occupy was that anger finally starting to bubble over, but it just fizzled out instead.
I agree with you that it is not *exactly* like the Gilded Age of old. But I think to say that it is a modern, updated version of the Gilded Age, where the wealthy are being smarter about how they treat those at the lower end of the income scale is pretty accurate.
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Post by NYS Techie on Jul 17, 2012 12:48:22 GMT -5
I don't like comparing it to the Gilded age at ALL. This is a new thing, not seen before. You can't examine it in a historical framework and expect to understand it or predict its result. For a better analogy, how about Aldous Huxley's Brave New World? In that novel, there were Alphas (highly intelligent people doing rigorous technical work and research), Betas (people who as infants were dosed with alcohol to make them stupid and docile), and a secret third group of highly gifted Alphas who were allowed to live on an island, doing whatever research they wanted without interruption from the rest of society. Finally, there were native Americans on a reservation, who were the only people who were still born the traditional way and lived old-fashioned lives. Think about how prescient that book was. The higher level alphas are the researchers in Silicon Valley and world-famous colleges. They live in their own bubble, surrounded by other highly intelligent people, and aren't troubled by the outside world much. The normal level Alphas are you and me, doing our tech jobs, getting paid well, and generally enjoying life. In the book, as in real life, alphas got over their boredom with recreational drug use and entertainment. For me, it's more about video games and TV (Big Bang Theory), but whatever. The Betas are Joe Sixpack, who didn't need an alcohol injection to be born stupid and docile. In the book, the Betas were on drugs ("soma", basically a euphoria-inducing pill). In real life, Joe Sixpack has Miller High Life and Jim Beam. In the book AND in reality, Betas love their bread and circuses (that's "Sports" for the layman). I think there are a lot more parallels in my analogy than the Gilded Age one.
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Post by Darth Stateworker on Jul 17, 2012 13:02:05 GMT -5
I actually find current events to be more in line with 'Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein TBQH.
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Post by NYS Techie on Jul 18, 2012 9:54:51 GMT -5
I haven't read that one... Was it good?
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Post by Darth Stateworker on Jul 18, 2012 10:19:56 GMT -5
I thought so. It seems to totally outline how crisis after crisis are being used as an excuse to roll back most of the 20th century.
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