We are just reverting to the historical mean society: oligarchy.
Just a few years back I was very optimistic that we would correct our course back to democracy, but a cursory review of history shows incontrovertible proof of our destination.
Humans are primates, and primates fight viciously to form status hierarchies using any mechanism available to them. In the 21st century, that mechanism is capital. And its power and influence know no bounds.
The brief democratic blip we witnessed was a result of three massive wars (WWI, WWII, Cold War) which forced cooperation from the oligarchs due to the threat of existential annihilation. The world is quite peaceful now, and with technology and globalization the average citizen has a severely reduced utility to the oligarchy. Hence, capital buys policy, and votes are meaningless.
Capitalism dictates that one optimize one's own desires above all others ("Greed is good"). Economists are only now noticing the bitter aftertaste from the fruits of their labor.
EDIT: I post this a lot, but just in case you've missed it, most of my conclusions come from Thomas Piketty's new book, Capital in the 21st Century.
I'd argue that your argument about capital is correct, except it's not just the 21st century ... it's every century before that. Even in societies that aren't capitalist / democratic / free-market per se, it's the golden rule: the one with gold makes the rules (or, gets what they want). It's not always like that; just most of the time.
I'm not saying that's good or bad; I'm just saying it's like gravity.
Just a few years back I was very optimistic that we would correct our course back to democracy, but a cursory review of history shows incontrovertible proof of our destination.
Humans are primates, and primates fight viciously to form status hierarchies using any mechanism available to them. In the 21st century, that mechanism is capital. And its power and influence know no bounds.
The brief democratic blip we witnessed was a result of three massive wars (WWI, WWII, Cold War) which forced cooperation from the oligarchs due to the threat of existential annihilation. The world is quite peaceful now, and with technology and globalization the average citizen has a severely reduced utility to the oligarchy. Hence, capital buys policy, and votes are meaningless.
Capitalism dictates that one optimize one's own desires above all others ("Greed is good"). Economists are only now noticing the bitter aftertaste from the fruits of their labor.
EDIT: I post this a lot, but just in case you've missed it, most of my conclusions come from Thomas Piketty's new book, Capital in the 21st Century.