I agree with your *conclusion*, but not your premise.
An America "built and run by billionaire robber barons" would be a much simpler, easier to deal with problem than what we have.Yes, we have robber barons, yes, they are a problem, yes, they are a source of many other problems -- and we have a lot more going on.
I like to use metaphor as explanatory tools, and I'm having a hard time coming up with one for this. The thought immediately on my mind is that America is like an 80 year old man who has been carrying a tumor for decades, and the tumor has finally metastasized. Yeah, the tumor has been with him a long time, and yeah, it's killing him -- and if he hadn't been a two-pack-a-day smoker for twenty years as a young adult, maybe it'd all be fine.
It doesn't fit entirely, because America is the emergent property of all available Americans, and some of us are as gifted as others of us are toxic. Shooting all the billionaires would give us more room to work, but would not solve the underlying problems -- neither the ones created by the billionaires themselves, nor the other incidental problems that come from disparate causes.
So yes, let's get to work and tackle the problems at their sources -- and do note the plural.
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Date: 2020-09-21 05:56 pm (UTC)An America "built and run by billionaire robber barons" would be a much simpler, easier to deal with problem than what we have.Yes, we have robber barons, yes, they are a problem, yes, they are a source of many other problems -- and we have a lot more going on.
I like to use metaphor as explanatory tools, and I'm having a hard time coming up with one for this. The thought immediately on my mind is that America is like an 80 year old man who has been carrying a tumor for decades, and the tumor has finally metastasized. Yeah, the tumor has been with him a long time, and yeah, it's killing him -- and if he hadn't been a two-pack-a-day smoker for twenty years as a young adult, maybe it'd all be fine.
It doesn't fit entirely, because America is the emergent property of all available Americans, and some of us are as gifted as others of us are toxic. Shooting all the billionaires would give us more room to work, but would not solve the underlying problems -- neither the ones created by the billionaires themselves, nor the other incidental problems that come from disparate causes.
So yes, let's get to work and tackle the problems at their sources -- and do note the plural.