Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [151]
Opting out is thus the most rewarding solution in an imperfect and limited field of options. I have addressed the context for the decision to opt out in Chapter Twelve, Squeezing the Middle Class and in Chapter Thirteen, When Belief in the System Fades. At one end of the spectrum of options lies Splendid Isolation, a near-complete withdrawal from the system and from attempts to transform it. At the other end is conscious pursuit of a role in The Remnant, the non-State, non-Elite self-organizing group leading by example rather than by mass media-based exhortation.
Between these lies a wealth of other choices which I term hybrid work: one finger in the wage economy (however marginally), one in growing food, another in creative pursuits, another in trading childcare for elderly care, another in hedging/investing to preserve purchasing power, another in helping to develop locally owned distributed energy (as in "owning one's own source of energy") as either a technical innovator, an investor or provider of labor/supervision and yet another in local schooling.
Once taxable incomes fall to a low level (what I term stable impoverishment), so too does tax support of the failing State apparatus. Once spending in the status quo economy ($300 handbags, $1,000 electronics, $200 per night hotel rooms, $3,000 per month office rents, $2,000 per month mortgages, re-financing, etc.) falls, then so does support of the debt-serf-dependent financial Plutocracy.
Intuitively, we all understand that money is the source of all power. Reduce their money and you reduce their power. While the middle class has effectively zero chance of diffusing the concentrated power of the State fiefdoms and the Plutocracy cartels by direct electoral politics (for the reasons noted above), it has immense power to "starve the beasts" of tax revenues and transactional churn. And since there are no legal disincentives to these actions, there is no punishment/repression which can be meted out by The Powers That Be.
This is, after all, how all empires collapse: the productive class, crushed by high taxes and "necessary sacrifices," its own interests divergent from the State and Plutocracy, finally acts on its own behalf and opts out, leaving the State and Elites to the unenviable but necessary transformation of insolvency. Life on the ground goes on; it is life in the halls of power and wealth which is utterly changed.
The negative feedback loops which protect the State fiefdoms and private-sector cartels are far more powerful than any political movement the middle class could mount; even heroes and heroines who attempt to work "within the system" get co-opted soon enough by the Powers That Be or ground down by the system's inertia, complexity and resistance.
The State/Plutocracy partnership has no feedback mechanisms to force productivity or consumption once the middle class withdraws its support.
Once the middle class opts out of earning large sums of taxable income and the debt-dependent "American Dream," then the ailing dinosaurs (the State and Plutocracy) will fiscally implode. Their only form of persuasion is the mass media, their 24/7 propaganda machine. But that too has no feedback mechanism to thwart non-compliance. Turning off the broadcasts effectively neuters the entire propaganda machine.
These three opt-out options--turning off the mass media, reducing income to the level where taxes owed are modest and refusing debt-based consumption of superficial goods and services--are within reach of every citizen. Each action is legal and carries no disincentive/punishment.
There is a great irony is the Plutocracy/State's lack of negative feedback to counter the middle class opting out. The irony is that the middle class has no negative feedback countermeasure to the concentration of wealth and power of the Elites and State, and that lack of influence and options is what will drive the middle class to opt out.
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