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The age of capitalist decay: (Original Post) applegrove Sunday OP
Hear, hear! TRUTH ZDU Sunday #1
That's how I see it. Borogove Sunday #2
Don't dispair. Teddy Roosevelt and FDR broke them in our past. They can be broken again. flashman13 Sunday #3
Gilded Age repeat. paleotn Sunday #4
Good commentary Paleotn popsdenver Sunday #6
The wealth sucking billionaires have been at it for a while now. thought crime Sunday #10
EXACTLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! popsdenver Sunday #12
Sort of like uranium but it decays a lot faster, and just Uncle Joe Sunday #5
In a nutshell. hay rick Sunday #7
Yup. Personally, I like the 'Nordic Model'. Joinfortmill Sunday #8
You cant have endless growth slightlv Sunday #9
Nazi saluting oligarch Elon Musk disagrees... thought crime Sunday #11

paleotn

(21,297 posts)
4. Gilded Age repeat.
Sun Nov 30, 2025, 11:26 AM
Sunday

The logical end of unfettered capitalism. But if controlled properly, it works. See many of our erstwhile allies. Capitalism isn't good or evil on it's own, no more than fire is or a pipe wrench. It's simply a tool. When well managed, fire keeps you warm, does work, and makes life better. Uncontrolled it will burn your house down. But I don't see anyone wanting to completely ditch fire as a useful tool. Some tried "totally not capitalism" several times in the 20th century with rather poor results. Capitalist ideas were embedded in human brain wiring millennia before it ever got a name. But so are many socialist ideas.

Human brains are so weird. We can be so foolishly binary sometimes, like above, when life is really analog, continuums, and finding the pragmatic best fit from a combination of many ideas.

popsdenver

(1,241 posts)
6. Good commentary Paleotn
Sun Nov 30, 2025, 12:10 PM
Sunday

We are a hair away from the Second GILDED AGE........but with a whole new set of ROBBER BARRONS,.........And the Second great depression like the first Gilded Age and Robber Barrons brought on.........

And, I don't see any Teddy Roosevelt or FDR on the horizon.........

I hadn't re read Steinbeck's GRAPE OF WRATH, since the 8th grade, so recently I re-read it..........This time I was horrified, and chilled to the bone, when I re-read it, sixty years later .............

thought crime

(1,067 posts)
10. The wealth sucking billionaires have been at it for a while now.
Sun Nov 30, 2025, 12:44 PM
Sunday

The second gilded age started on November 4, 1980. They ended the New Deal Era, broke the Social Contract, transformed and financialized the economy, crippled unions, froze infrastructure development, increased national debt, lowered relative wages, and created a lot of glamorous vanity projects. Worst of all, they made it seem normal.

popsdenver

(1,241 posts)
12. EXACTLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sun Nov 30, 2025, 12:54 PM
Sunday

and precisely the exact date it rolled out..........

I have been screaming my head off from the rooftops since that election was corruptly and treasonously rigged to install Reagan in the white house.........

It wasn't the "Reagan Administration" .......he was just a pawn figurehead, it was the HWBush CABAL truly running America. I was appalled at the so called "REAGAN DEMOCRATS".......HW's group did a ton of things specifically designed to OBLITERATE the middle class, and were successful at it, more than most know.......
HELL, HW had to get himself elected president, there were over 100 members of the Reagan years that were facing charges of corruption. By getting in there, as president following Reagan's years, HW was able to Pardon them all the first day he took office....and did...............

Uncle Joe

(63,844 posts)
5. Sort of like uranium but it decays a lot faster, and just
Sun Nov 30, 2025, 11:26 AM
Sunday

as uranium can eventually decay into lead, we know lead can cause brain damage.

Thanks for thread applegrove.

Joinfortmill

(19,705 posts)
8. Yup. Personally, I like the 'Nordic Model'.
Sun Nov 30, 2025, 12:32 PM
Sunday

And, I hope this mess we're in will eventually move us closer to it.

slightlv

(7,164 posts)
9. You cant have endless growth
Sun Nov 30, 2025, 12:43 PM
Sunday

And expansion when you are living with finite resources. And war is not the way to achieve resources!

thought crime

(1,067 posts)
11. Nazi saluting oligarch Elon Musk disagrees...
Sun Nov 30, 2025, 12:49 PM
Sunday

The future Trillionaire is pitching "Sustainable Abundance" driven by Tesla Robots. Just buy a ticket to Mars and enjoy!

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