Some fascinating stuff in this great lecture. One bit that I wasn’t aware of was the idea that the US drive for home ownership comes from the idea that people who own homes can’t afford to strike. Thus you get home ownership numbers in Germany of 22% compared with 60% in the USA. The corporate interests have been calling the shots in the US for a very very long time.
Neat! But he kinda doesn’t address one thing: why the system persists the way it does. That’s because people will do ANYTHING and accept a LOT of crap if they think it’ll one day facilitate their getting the proverbial X-Box. That’s what politicians and pundits sell: “OUR system will let you get stuff!” (Be it material, spiritual or whatever….) It’s dogma. And it also sells the reconciliation for the problems it causes. Case in point: I know a guy who’s a diehard (almost stereotypical) US concervative. He follows that line of thinking ‘cos he always wanted to be rich and figures a conservative mindset will facilitate it. ‘Course, he doesn’t actually DO anything towards that end, but conservatism sells him the safety on that: when he invariably doesn’t become rich, it’s not ‘cos HE was lazy or unmotivated…. it’s ‘cos them evil liberals didn’t want him to become rich.
So the problems persist ‘cos nobody thinks there’s a problem. Cognitive dissonance makes ’em into solutions. Even when they’re not.
Don C.