While politicians themselves and their backers tend to be in the highest wealth percentages, it should be interesting to note that there has been an ongoing shift over the last few decades where they appeal to the lowest income brackets, the poorest, the economic losers.
That sounds terrible, right?
But it makes absolute sense, because as the wealth gap increases between rich and poor, the population of the poor is increasing. More and more people are falling toward poverty, which means the poor population size is increasing relatively and since politics is now a popularity contest, they are the groups that will hold the largest sway. This all should be pretty obvious I believe, but as I was talking to someone about this today, it seemed that they hadn't thought about it at all, despite being well-versed in the political scene.
And what is then quite interesting to consider is that while there is growing number of people who are voting from a position of economic suffering, the same people aren't necessarily economically-minded themselves. This means that their decisions are less likely to be based on the actual situation, or solid theory of the situation, but rather there emotional reaction to their current conditions and who they see is to blame for their suffering. Rather than looking for a solution to improve conditions, people today are more likely to look for a way to punish who they believe is responsible for their predicament.
The irony is though, that no matter how anyone votes, whether they are an economic professor or pack shopping bags at the checkout, or both, nothing will change. This is because the economic practices are fundamentally broken, and disparities and gaps will keep widening at increasing speeds.
The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
Money might be endless as it is infinitely inflatable, but material resources are not. There is always scarcity. Money is a great tool of trade for goods that are not alike and of varying values, but control of resources is not a theoretical concept that requires belief and trust - it is physical, it is real. But because the world's resources are tied to the concept of money, and the rich get richer, it means that control of the resources are concentrating into fewer hands, while more and more fall into the category of resource poor.
Yet, instead of recognising this fundamentally flawed system for what it is, the majority are convinced that some political party or other is going to save them from the tyranny of their oppressors, whether the oppressor be the billionaire, the migrant or the robot. But, no political party can save anyone, because the party itself operates within and is dictated by the very system that needs to change in order to improve conditions. Voting left or right, black or white, capitalist or socialist is an altogether ridiculous attempt at generating positive change, as it can only ever keep on facilitating the system that has created the negative conditions.
But even the people who see this, keep on supporting it.
Because it is easier to support what doesn't work, than to attempt something that scraps what is known and tries something unknown. We despise the unknown because it makes us uncomfortable and fills us with fear. Many people can't even think about things that make them uncomfortable, let alone bring themselves to act in ways that they haven't acted before.
The "biggest loser" has become a badge of honour.
We have created an environment that rewards mediocrity, puts bad outcomes on pedestals, protects poor behaviours and encourages people to accept themselves, even when what they are doing is making their life, and the lives of others, worse. We have incentivised being a loser. And this means that people who are struggling can learn to accept that their life is getting worse with some kind of perverse satisfaction, laying blame on others and seeing themselves as hard done by.
And yes, in the economy we have there will be an increasing number of people failing, and a decreasing number of people succeeding. But those who succeed will do so at an increasing rate. Fewer winners, but the amounts they win will be getting larger.
The growing number who are getting milked and whose lives are getting degraded, become the targets of campaigns that will look to save them, by punishing the others. It isn't about improvement, it is about revenge. It isn't about increasing wellbeing, health, happiness or opportunity - it is about taking it from others. But it is all a ruse, because he only place this path leads is to where we are already headed, which is more people dropping financially away from the top, and falling closer to the bottom.
Appeal to the lowest common denominator.
This is the way to win votes, because people economically suffering or feel they are suffering are a growing group. So in a system that relies on voter support with no cross-check traits like knowledge, skills, income or anything else, it makes sense to target the largest groups. Populist parties do this and they don't even have to have a coherent approach, as they can contradict themselves on topics and still target groups granularly, because the groups they target don't interact, or don't see the conflict.
Target all the different loser groups with resonating messages to each, and win.
The economy has changed a lot in the last hundred years, because in the past in order to make money, you generally had to provide a good or service that delivered clear material value to the market. That is no longer the case and delivering value is actually counter-productive, if that value is human improvement. Instead, the most valuable companies and wealthiest people, don't make people's lives better, they cost it.
There is an opportunity cost to everything we do.
Spend an hour scrolling a social feed or in front of another pointless series, and the cost of that hour isn't what you could have earned working in shop, or at the office. The cost is time you could have spent improving yourself, improving your relationships, health, mind, body - whatever. And we keep on trading our potential to improve by spending our finite resources on what takes away our opportunity to improve.
We are becoming massive losers.
Easy targets.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Be part of the Hive discussion.
And you may be rewarded.
