Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Evanston: three hypotheses


       A number of events over the past several years, from the current U.S. government shutdown, to the reaction of the stock market when Apple made only $34 billion in a quarter rather than the anticipated $36 billion, to the continued murders on Chicago’s south side, to the marked increase in the past twenty years of the concentration of wealth in the hands of billionaires, to the crumbling bridge that carries commuter trains a block from our condo, and many others, have cumulatively caused me to consider three hypotheses. 
        When I write I often look up the definition of a word I think I know to be certain it is the right one.  I did hypotheses, which is defined in its singular form as, “a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.”
        So, three hypotheses:

         The United States may be in danger of becoming a failed state.
        I also looked up failed state.      
        From Wikipedia:  A failed state is a state perceived as having failed at some of the basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign government.
        It goes on to specify:
            loss of control of its territory
            erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions
            an inability to provide public services
            an inability to interact with other states as a full member of 
                the international community
        At the moment I am typing, the U.S. government clearly meets the last three criteria.

         Capitalism is a Ponzi scheme based on the mathematical impossibility of permanent growth of profits whose con has thus far been hidden by abundant natural resources and a population explosion.
        We know what is happening to the resources.
        Japan and many countries in Europe already have declining populations.
        The world population is expected to stabilize in the last half of this century at ten billion, give or take a billion.

        Democracy does not work and never has, except perhaps on a village scale.  
        The United States is a plutocracy and always has been in which the monied nobility maintain their control by political contributions and lobbyists, while giving the masses the illusion of the vote.

        Understand that I don’t believe or claim that any of these are true.  That would be illogical of an hypothesis, much less three.
        But just suppose.

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