Amerika

History will record this as the dumb era. A bunch of people who belong in jobs decided that they could rule better than the naturally talented, and they set off an orgy of bureaucracy and control-scheming that eventually destroyed the group. Obviously they were dumb.

All of this came about because society prospered just enough to get arrogant. We had more free time. We became distanced from nature, with our tools. Most of all, we no longer had to agree on anything, since we were already members of a permanent civilization.

In previous civilizations, people formed small bands. It was libertarian, and fascist. You went with the band that matched your mindset. If you encountered other bands, you would kill them if they were weaker than you. (If they were stronger, you ran like hell.)

Once you get permanent civilization, you have to “accept everyone,” or at least, a market is created for those that do that. In any social group, you will become popular by saying that all are welcome and everyone is at the same level.

This allays the fears of the individual, and in groups, individuals express that collective fear as a demand that all individuals be accepted no matter how lowly their origins or abilities. This makes everyone feel that the peace has been kept.

It also appeals to part of all of us that feels that some worthwhile individuals are excluded because they are socially awkward, nerdly, eccentric, or odd-looking. We hate the injustice of that, and forcing others to quit being so shallow feels like a good solution.

Unfortunately, it also lets evil in the door. When you say that everyone is accepted, you are saying that bad and good alike are welcome, and you remove the need to be good. Why bother striving for adaptation when social acceptance is just handed to you?

People get not just selfish, but self-obsessive when this happens. They no longer have a reason to reach out from themselves anymore; to them, now, every other person, object, creature, plant, or idea is just a tool, a means to the end of making themselves feel good.

That is the basis of the dumb era. We meant well, but forget to think through the logical conclusions of our actions, and by inviting in the misfits, we also summoned demons. Most of these are mundane parasites, but in large enough numbers, they kill the host.

The dumb era makes Karens, those self-righteous women who in internet lore are always demanding to see the manager. They think they have options. They bully their way to the front of the line, only to find out that the situation was worthless anyway.

For example, consider your cell phone store. Most of the world is gravitating toward cheap cell phones, since the gadget is basically well-defined at this point. In America, thanks to government money that the poor spend recklessly, we have expensive ones.

Your cell plan costs twice what it should and your phone, at least five times its worldwide market value. How do they get away with it? Two ways: first, they have lots of clueless people with government money, and second, collusion in the industry.

Think about it. You can leave your cell phone provider and go to another. There you will find basically the same prices and service. Competition fails once government gets involved because people spending free money really do not care how it gets spent.

The cell phone providers are all in on the scam. They do not have to communicate about it; they all know that if they keep prices and service at roughly the same level, consumers will have no options except to keep buying the over-priced stuff and making big profits.

If someone new came into the game, offering cheaper phones and better plans, industry would simply shut this person down by dropping their prices for a few months while hitting him with lawsuits, scare stories in the media, and government investigations.

The cell phone Karens can scream all they want, but the best deal they will get is the manager’s special. Companies figured out the Karens years ago, and realized that the only way to deal with them is to get them out the door quickly.

The Karen might be able to claim victory at her weekly mah-jongg game, but she still spent the money and is still on one of the cellular plans, spending about the same as she normally would. The industry remains safe in its bloated inefficiency.

People like me like capitalism because we see all things as markets, since markets describe the trade-offs that people consider when making decisions. Capitalism describes economics; economics describes human behavior. However, it is not the whole story.

When you have a strong culture, the customer has power. He can point out that certain business practices violate the cultural commitment to fairness and a solid deal, and the business will find itself shamed even more than for not baking a gay cake.

Once government starts handing out money, however, capitalism no longer exists. You have a hybrid market system. This system specializes in keeping business operating as it is so that jobs persist, because voters want jobs and could care less if the economy sickens as a result.

At that point, competition no longer really exists. Whoever gets big, stays big, and works hard to be that way. They use that position as a way to extract more dollars from the herd, and these are basically indirect tax subsidies.

This lets Karens pay their taxes, and governments can then spend the money, pump up the economy with Keynesian market socialism, and then borrow more money so that they can buy more votes. A perfectly efficient parasitic system has resulted.

If you wonder why it seems like we have a “Uniparty,” consider that politics is a market. Politicians offer ideas in exchange for votes. When maintaining the system becomes most important, politicians support it, even where it goes against the ideals of their voters.

As in the cellphone store, you have few options in politics. It takes someone to enter from outside of politics to shake things up by asking the questions, “do we actually need this?” and “is this worth the cost and side effects?”

When you ask those questions, you will end up throwing out most of what government does. We do not need affirmative action, welfare, diversity education, transgender representation, foreign aid, socialized medicine, and social security. They are just vote buys.

Any sensible reform of this society starts by recognizing that government, like the cell phone vendors, is a business, and it exists in a business climate that is more communist than capitalist, therefore aims to keep that nonsense afloat instead of competing.

This same industry finds itself in bed with China, because all of its production is now done in China, and with the progressive Left, since it relies on minorities, soyboys, and boxwines to buy its products.

Viewed from above like this, we can see how dumb it all is. We can visualize how unnecessary most of our activity is, both government and business. We can also see how much of our time it wastes. They fear that, because when we see this, the regime change begins.

Tags: capitalism, competition, keynesianism, regime change, uniparty