Logical inconsistency of "everyone" owning results in the crisis like this. I am not for limiting rentship in a formal sense - but rentship should not be made as easy as possible. Communal usefulness of ownership "investments" is way overvalued. It we tend to value plain labour at slave wages, then the civilization did not move very far away from slavery yet.
It is indeed easy nowadays for governments to rationalize anything in any way they like. The PR evolution was very one-sided - and human gullibility was driven by the "feel-good" stories of personal versus social welfare. I even think that the mockery state of "regard" towards governments is a part of the viral PR campaign. When governments are controlled by circles that do not want governments function as good as declared, it should be no surprise if governments do their best to look bad. By now it is indeed dangerous to trust governments - except if you consider yourself profiting from the "government-is-a-problem" attitude.
I might want to share, and I might be indifferent, if not contemptuous to material possessions, but most of us aren't, I guess, despite casual spikes of generosity or highmindedness. I might see some sense in history, and direction for progress, but making the point to others is a whole different story. PRists will tell you that eventually they really only give people what they want - I hear that line all day long about reality shows, and I don't agree with it, but you can't argue highminded goals against audience - and profit. As to circles... maybe that was originally a problem of elites. I was looking at a superb chateau in the Berry, in the center of France, two weeks ago, and thinking that it might have been a bit unproductive to drive those people down from their high chairs and into the mob. They and others alike now use democracy and other advances of modern society for their own benefit, in ways the "mob" cannot control anymore. Before, it was easy (well, "easy") to revolt, strangle Paris with barricades, chase them out of the palaces, guillotine some of them. Now they ("they") learnt how to hide their power, protect themselves behind law and democracy. Even revolution will not change this - as long as there are mobs, there will be elites outsmarting them. I'm not being pessimist, just saying that the organization of the society needs the kind of overhaul going far beyond what some imagine. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King)
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
