Thought: high inequality today means the world will be run by failsons and faildaughters for a few decades starting ~2035
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High inequality coupled with an anarchic elite lacking structures of discipline, resulting in direct maladaptive nepotism. Maybe. The wheels sure seem to be coming off for the political and traditional elites in the United States.
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This is clearly the trajectory we are on but I suspect it’s a point that you never reach, because at a certain point this turns into instability and corrective mechanisms kick in. In the short term the cure is probably worse than the disease.
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Failson ages are followed by devious minister ages as the failsons outsource securing their power base to the meritocracy. This phase can limp on for a long time without much tangible backlash—legitimacy barely matters but protracted economic dysfunction or a failed state can.
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Or maybe not, maybe the place run by failsons does not stay on top of the world ; failsons are pushed out by the chip on the shoulder
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Equality and mobility are different, though. To some extent, we can have unequal individual outcomes but still have economic mobility between generations. As long as everyone gets to buy a lottery ticket to 1%. (Which is obviously not the case.)










