HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Predicting “The Withering Of The Affluent Society.”
Hmm. In Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, he talks about globalization smearing things out “into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani bricklayer would consider to be prosperity.” I don’t see that as our future, assuming technology and free markets are allowed to flourish. But should we have a further run of the past four years’ “bad luck,” well, then we just might see the withering of the affluent society. There’s no limit to how long a redistribution recession can last . . . .