The Social Contract is broken not simply by wealth inequality per se however by the illegitimate process of wealth acquisition
I do not declare any know-how in social agreement theory, however in broad brush we can define 2 implicit contracts: one in between the citizenry and the state (government) and another in between residents.
We can distinguish between the 2 by considering a rural county fair. Most of the labor to stage the fair is offered by the citizenry for the good of their community and fellow citizens; they are not pushed to do so by the government, nor does the federal government levy taxes to pay its staff members or specialists to stage the reasonable.
The social agreement in between citizens implicitly binds people to complying with traffic laws as a public good all benefit from, not since a police officer is on every street corner imposing the letter of the law.
The social contract between the people and the state binds the federal government to keeping civil liberties, equal enforcement of the rule of law, defending the country, and in the 20th century, providing social well-being for the disadvantaged, disabled and low-income elderly.
Critiques of “trickle down economics” concentrate on earnings inequality as an essential metric of the Social Contract: rising earnings inequality is de facto evidence that the Social Agreement is broken.
I think this misses out on the key difference in the Social Contract in between residents and the state, which is the authenticity of the procedure of wealth production and the fairness of the playing field and the referees, i.e. that no one is above the law.
Couple of people begrudge legally earned wealth, for example, the top professional athlete, the pop star, the tech innovator, the canny business owner, the very popular author, and so on. The source of these individual’s wealth is transparent, and any citizen can decrease to support this wealth development by not paying money to see the professional athlete, not purchasing the author’s books, not shopping at the entrepreneur’s shops, etc.
The Social Agreement is broken not just by wealth inequality per se however by the illegitimate process of wealth acquisition, i.e. the state has tipped the scales in favor of the few behind closed doors and consistently disregards or bypasses the intent of the law even as the state claims to be following the narrower letter of the law.
By this meaning, the Social Contract in America has been totally smashed. One sector after another is controlled by cartel-state partnerships that are created and implemented in odd legislation composed by lobbyists. As soon as the laws have actually been filled with loopholes and the regulators have actually been corrupted, “nobody is above the law” has lost all significance.
Those who break the intent of the law while handling to conjure an apparent compliance with the letter of the law are shysters, fraudsters and thieves who exploit the intricate loopholes of the system, all the while parading their compliance as proof the system is reasonable and just. In this method, the judicial system becomes part of the invalid process of wealth accumulation.
In America, political and monetary Elites are above the intent of the law. Is bribery of politicos unlawful? Supposedly it is, however in practice it is totally and freely legal.
This is the norm in banana republics, whose journals are packed with thousands of codes and guidelines that are regularly ignored by those in power. In the Banana Republic of America, financial criminal activities go uninvestigated, unindicted and unpunished: banks and their management are basically immune to prosecution because the criminal offenses are complicated (tsk, tsk, it’s truly too much difficulty to investigate) and they’re “too huge to prosecute.”
The rot has permeated from the financial-political Upper class to the lower reaches of the social order. The fury of those still working genuine tasks and paying their taxes is grounded in a simple, obvious fact: America is now controlled by scammers, cheaters, grifters and those gaming the system, large and small, to increase their share of the swag.
The honest taxpayer is a chump, a mark who mistakenly ponies up the boodle that’s robbed by the smart operators. Everyone understands that the huge majority of wealth build-up in America streams not from transparent effort on an equal opportunity, however from encouraging the Central State (the Federal federal government and the Federal Reserve) to enforce cartels and grant monopolistic favors such as tax shelters created for a handful of firms and endless credit to private banks.
When fraudsters large and little live much better than those creating worth in the genuine economy, the Social Agreement has disappeared. When the invalid process of wealth acquisition— a rigged playing field, a bought-off referee, and an Elite that’s above the law by every useful measure– dominates the economy and the political structure, the Social Contract has been shattered, no matter just how much well-being largesse is distributed to purchase the complicity of state dependents.
As soon as the chumps and marks understand there is no chance they can ever escape their made use of banana-republic status as neofeudal debt-serfs, the fraudsters, cheats and grifters big and little will be at risk of losing their perquisites. The dream in America is that legitimate wealth creation is still possible in spite of the noticeable supremacy of a corrupt, venal, egotistical, parasitic, predatory Aristocracy. Once that fantasy dies, so will the marks’ assistance of the Upper class.
As Voltaire observed, “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible”: every claim, every game of the system, every political favor purchased is “fair and legal,” naturally. This is specifically how empires collapse.
In broad brush, we can trace the shift from feudalism to commercialism to today financialized, globalized cartel-state neofeudalism and next, to a synthesis built on the reverse of neofeudalism, which is decentralization, transparency, responsibility, authenticity and the adaptive churn of competing concepts and propositions.
New Podcast: Its a Waterfall -Risk, Security & Performance (48 min)
My new book is now offered at a 10 % discount rate ($8.95 ebook,$
18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century. Read the first chapter for
complimentary (PDF)Check out excerpts of all 3 chapters
Podcast with Richard Bonugli: Self Reliance in the 21st Century (43 minutes)
My current books:
The Asian Heroine Who Seduced Me (Unique) print $10.95, Kindle $6.95 Read an excerpt free of charge (PDF)
When You Can’t Go On: Burnout, Numeration and Renewal $18 print, $8.95 Kindle ebook; audiobook Read the first section for free (PDF)
International Crisis, National Renewal: A (Revolutionary) Grand Strategy for the United States (Kindle $9.95, print $24, audiobook) Check Out Chapter One for free (PDF).
A Hacker’s Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Diminishing World (Kindle $8.95, print $20, audiobook $17.46) Read the first area free of charge (PDF).
Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World
(Kindle $5, print $10, audiobook) Check out the first section free of charge (PDF).
The Adventures of the Consulting Thinker: The Disappearance of Drake (Unique) $4.95 Kindle, $10.95 print); checked out the first chapters free of charge (PDF)
Money and Work Unchained $6.95 Kindle, $15 print) Read the first section free of charge
End up being a $1/month patron of my work by means of patreon.com.
KEEP IN MIND: Contributions/subscriptions are acknowledged in the order got. Your name and email stay confidential and will not be provided to any other specific, business or agency.
|
Thank you, Tim B. ($108), for your outrageously generous contribution to this website– I am considerably honored by your assistance and readership. |
Thank you |
, Bogdan P. ($1/month), for your most generous promise to this site– I am significantly honored by your assistance and readership. |
|
Thank you, Edward L. ($50), for your superbly generous contribution to this site– I am greatly honored by your support and readership. |
Thank you |
, Shiu Man W. ($50), for your superbly generous contribution to this site– I am significantly honored by your steadfast support and readership. |