Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [134]
At the beginning, I suggested that if this analysis was indeed sound, then solutions should flow naturally from the analysis. While reality is complex, the principles of our response should be straightforward and simple to apply.
Before I lay out the framework, I want to summarize our situation and lay out the pathway which leads to the principles:
Chapter Nineteen: Over-Reach and Inequality
Chapter Twenty: Insurmountable Barriers to Structural Reform
Chapter Twenty-One: Incentives to Opt Out, Disincentives to Protest
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Process of Internal Transformation
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Structure of Change
Chapter Twenty-Four: The Principles of Systemic Response
Chapter Twenty-Five: Applying the Principles
Chapter Twenty-Six: Structuring the New American State
It is tempting to skip ahead and skim the principles, but their power comes with context. Here is the pathway laid out in the above chapters:
1. The ontologically inevitable consequences of over-reach are devolution and insolvency. Without an understanding of this inevitability, few will act on a "Plan B" alternative framework of prosperity and security.
2. Reforming the status quo is impossible; the only prudent action is to construct an alternative prosperity that does not depend on the Savior State or the financial Elite.
3. An internal process of illumination, acceptance and growth is part of the opting out process.
4. Change has structure. Understanding this will help us anticipate the future though we cannot predict its twists and turns.
With this context in mind, the principles of response, as "obvious" as they may be, emerge from the analysis.
Chapter Nineteen: Over-Reach and Inequality
Our situation can be summarized thusly:
1. All civil societies/cultures develop Elites; this is the nature of social animals. Elites are self-organizing groups which share the same self-interests, that is, a higher-order clique; they are not conspiracies or formal organizations.
2. Under certain conditions, the structural obstacles/negative feedbacks which constrain Elite dominance weaken and the Elites (private and public/State), like any other human group, seek to exploit the resulting windfall.
3. This leads the Elites to over-reach which creates positive feedback: the more wealth and influence the Elites/State control, the easier it becomes to control even more. The net result is the Elites and the State's share of the national income rises to historic extremes.
4. Regardless of the exact nature of over-reach--expansionist warfare or financial leverage and looting are two popular choices--the interests of the Elites and the society as a whole diverge. As this divergence grows, the social contract between the Elites and those whose productivity powers the economy and society begins fraying.
5. Over-reach ontologically (inherently) leads to structural imbalances which then threaten to destabilize the productive middle class which supports the Elites. Due to the overwhelming power of the Elites/State partnership's fiefdoms, structural reform is impossible (see Chapter Twenty below).
6. As the productive middle class's share of national income shrinks, a well-concealed, opaque parallel system of dominance with a structure of its own arises to exclusively serve the interests of the Plutocracy/State Elites (apparatchiks). The hidden mechanisms are many: backroom deals, unwritten "understandings," price-fixing and other forms of collusion; cash payments and other "gifts and donations;" political favoritism (special admission to elite public universities for the well-connected); and a cornucopia of financial benefits: access to initial public offerings, special tax laws written to reward a particular enterprise or cartel, and so on.
7. The State, which was intended as a bulwark against the natural dominance of concentrated private capital and Monarchy, has instead become the handmaiden