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Old 04-18-2016, 02:28 PM
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ebacon ebacon is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by donquixote99 View Post
Very good question....

Another way of asking it--in the absence of an expanding economy, are the benefits of capitalism for the masses a mirage?
Donquixote99, you posed a notable rephrasing of the OPs question. Nice.

As I see it, a big question is what is considered middle class? If middle class is defined as having running water, toilet facilities, and physical security, then yes, I think the earth could support such a broad middle class.

"Workable, sustainable, stable" are the words in the OP's question that I do not think are achievable. As an engineer I am guilty of participating in the broken kinds of thoughts that slowly lead to big and unsustainable mistakes. My mistake was this simple: I thought that I was doing honest work by making cars more fuel efficient. What I did not see coming was that people would use improved fuel economy to justify moving even further from work and paving over farm land on their way outward.

As I think back to the 1980s I recall the news chattering about Chinese society and their self-restraint with regard to having children. We do not hear that story anymore, but I think it is a story that our society of self-government would benefit from a refresher lesson. It had a profound effect on me. The Chinese story is a big part of the reason why I am content with having only one child. During my procreation years I watched some of my friends continue with traditional big families. While I understand their desire, I could not balance that desire with my engineering understanding and capitalism. I knew then that we were running out of good work to do in the USofA. Our obesity problem is evidence of that absence of good work.

Sigh. Enough words. Back to the OPs question. No, I do not think there is a workable model for a broad middle class. The devil is in the details and too many of us want more of us to have a better lives. The earth talks back and says, um, I can't do that.

IMO it would be better for those of us that have more to relinquish some of our stuff and be happy with less. We complain about maintaining that stuff anyways.

What I can't get my head around is how to unpave farmland.
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