Reddit reviews Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy

Such an oversimplification to a complex problem.

It's not that rich people are evil (thought certainly the actions of many who have a hand in politics are at best dishonest and unethical); it's that wealth and its influence is VASTLY over-represented in our politics.

To commandeer / paraphrase the thesis of Christopher Hayes' "Twilight of the Elites: America after Meritocracy:" the economic elite have risen to the top and have changed the rules as it applies to them and for others. This is evidenced by 40 years of stagnating wages, 40 years of jobs sent overseas, 40 years of ballooning executive salaries and bonuses, and 40 years of eroding oversight and regulation.

The problem is not that rich people are evil, but rather, that - unlike in the past where being a wealthy member of a community came with certain expected civic duties to that community - nowadays the wealthy see their success or economic status as an indicator of their superiority and as such seek to maintain their advantage over their working and middle class counterparts. Moreover, this is compounded by the fact that many working / middle class folks have been deceived into believing their economic interests are parallel with those at the top... Steinbeck best said it as: "poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

A similar parallel existed in the Antebellum South, as the clamor for abolition for slavery grew, rich Southern plantation owners kept their middle_class Yeoman farmer counterparts in line by wrapping the issue of slavery up into the language of patriotism and (small r) republicanism. It was the American way to support slavery, just as it is now, in the language of the Right, to support immense tax cuts for the highest income earners.

Were the plantation owners evil? That's not really relevant. What is relevant is that these wealthy plantation owners - much like our Kochs, Sheldon Adelsons and Trumps - have made their pursuit of profit margins their highest moral value above all other considerations to ruinous effect. Instead of doing what's right for the country, they did only what they felt was right for themselves.

I don't know if that's evil, I just know it's not good.

Also, Chris Hayes' book "Twilight of the Elites"...
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Elites-America-After-Meritocracy/dp/0307720454

Thanks, sorry, Chris Hayes is a relative lightweight compared. EDIT spooling. 2nd EDIT: From Hayes' new book:
>The argument that I make in the book is that inequality is bad because of what it does to the people at the top of the social pyramid. That it actually makes the people at the top of the social pyramid worse… It just is impossible, in practical terms, to separate equality of opportunity from equality of outcome. The latter subverts the former almost as what I call in the book a kind of iron law.

So, is any liberal system doomed? Hayes may not be as lightweight as I thought.

Long term prices being stable is NOT important. Short term price stability is. People can easily factor a moderate level of inflation into long term planning.

And structural differences in the U.S. economy since the 1800s changes the value of unskilled labor: the U.S. economy in the 1800's was rapidly industrializing, as China is now. There is less of a demand for unskilled labor now in the U.S.. The wage issues aren't due to the Federal Reserve any more than they are due to the internet. Why don't you compare 1879 to 1913 with 1931 to 1970? You'll get a different answer, and the Fed was around in those years. The main difference between 1931 and 1970 to 1970 to 2012.... monetarism, deregulation, and a different kind of elite.... http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Elites-America-after-Meritocracy/dp/0307720454... although I know you will say it was Nixon getting us off the gold standard.


The real argument for the Federal Reserve is made by bankers. If there were no Federal Reserve in this country banks would join together in different arrangements, with a center of power elsewhere in the world, perhaps in England at the Bank of England where such power rested in the 19th Century. A basic concentration of power problem. I agree there is too much power in the hands of wealthy financiers, but going to a gold standard is not the answer any more than the answer is Bitcoin.

I suggest reading this book: The Twilight of the Elites.

It will make you question your perspectives on various topics, including your perspective that being at a good firm means, ipso facto, the people that work there are intelligent.