The One Percent
May 23, 2014
G.D.O'Bradovich III
1
During the last few years there are been increased scrutiny of the one percent. For full disclosure: We are a member of the one percent- we've always been a member of this exclusive club and we always will. We are not the one percent that the media describes as the one percent, who controls [fill in various and ever changing percentages] of the world’s assets. While physical assets may be lost or appropriated by force, high intelligence or social capital is, within reasonable limits, immutable. we believe the the increasing concentrations of wealth among a smaller percentage of the population to be factual.
Let us image any western country until the time of the industrial revolution, that is, before the year 1850. While wealth may not have been static, there was no expectation that the lower classes could ever escape the Malthusian trap that Nature, in her indifference, has bequeathed. Then as now, wealth was concentrated in the hands of the few. Today, the world has 7 billion souls versus less than a billion during the 19th century, and if we assume the absolute numbers of the ultra wealthy has grow modestly during this time, then we would expect the elite to control more assets than in the past- billionaires do not eat or spend 1,00 times more than a millionaire- apart from more extravagant living expenses- what to do with all that income?-they invariably invest it.
We will use the lifestyle and comforts of reigning monarchs from 100 years ago as our standard. This standard of living, while static and enviable by the lower class for centuries, has also benefited from the Industrial Revolution. We compare the poor from any time period to the monarch of a century before their time.
The three distinct features between the monarchy and the poor were better shelter, more food, and less physically demanding work. The poor of today, in the first world, are quickly approaching the standards of royalty of times past. Either past royalty did not have it so good, or our poor are doing really well.
Nature, in her wastefulness and indifference, has divided humanity into the smart, the strong, and everyone else. For mathematical ease, we consider the 1% smart, 9% strong and everybody else the 90%. With expected variations through the millennia, I suspect these numbers were stable until recently.
While personal anecdotes and experiences are helpful, even a cursory Google search for “are people getting dumber” will indicate that researchers agree with personal experience, although we would like to believe this is not so. We must concede that any advances we are experiencing as a society or a species no longer comes from the 1%, but the .1% or, God help us, the .01%. While we’ve never been a believer in a dystopian future, I can no longer discount the possibility that the future of humanity will be populated by Nemos in Utopia.
I am not certain where the genesis to raise wages to $15 an hour for food service workers originated, but we are glad McDonald’s opening day in 1955 and the annual IRS deadline are not later in the month.
We must face the reality of our modern world: there is a higher percentage of people on the left side of the bell curve and these people are historically poor due, in no small part, of their inability to set goals and plan for the future. This explosion of the least capable explains the higher concentrations of wealth and lower standardized test scores. Researchers are noticing the effect [wealth concentration] but are not, for whatever reason, following through to discover the cause [people whose only ability is fecundity] and inundate the media. Of course, this revelation would only have people inquire as to why there are less capable people. This disclosure would decisively end the modern proclivity of promoting “equality” in all of its unnatural forms,
A thought experiment:
We take a society's wealth and distribute it equally to all citizens. Surely this political stance will get us elected to high office, because at least 51% of voters would approve our platform. [“Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.”] In five years where would be this imaginary country be? We ask: Will Michael Jordan be paid more than Yours Truly? The answer is yes, because the market, that is, most people value his proven physical abilities over questionable research of dubious quality. Warren Buffett and others will still have their personal contacts in the world of business and in government after the redistribution of wealth.
After the redistribution of wealth, will this new economy still need managers to create and distribute goods? That is, capable managers with experience? Will those who can be paid more than those who can’t? In our mental exercise, we have destroyed the socialists dream of the perfect city, because there is a natural inequality of gifts, of interests, and of abilities. To prevent this evil of wealth inequality reoccurring, the only permanent solution is wealth redistribution annually. One wonders what kind of production will occur when wealth is reset every year...
Short of cloning one individual [we earnestly suggest Yours Truly] to populate a society, the socialist goal of equality is never going to transpire.
The explosion in the numbers of the least capable can be explained by the unnaturally low infant mortality, modern medicine, and modern sanitation. These unnatural conditions can not be maintained indefinitely, regardless of good intentions or hopes or wishes. The situation will steadily deteriorate until the time that the Superman, not the Batman, appears. He will use Nature’s unchanging standards to remove the unnatural situation that has plagued humanity for generations. The Superman will be described as cruel, but Nature is not cruel, she is indifferent. Man has been described as the bridge to the Superman. The aberration of the last centuries will be swept away, not by the herd mentality of the masses; that will never happen. Instead the will to power, of the One, the Superman, His Will alone, will dominate the majority. The destruction of the mass of humanity will come suddenly and they will not be able to escape their destiny. He declared the events; they came out of his mouth; he proclaimed them. Suddenly he acted, and they occurred.
Let us image any western country until the time of the industrial revolution, that is, before the year 1850. While wealth may not have been static, there was no expectation that the lower classes could ever escape the Malthusian trap that Nature, in her indifference, has bequeathed. Then as now, wealth was concentrated in the hands of the few. Today, the world has 7 billion souls versus less than a billion during the 19th century, and if we assume the absolute numbers of the ultra wealthy has grow modestly during this time, then we would expect the elite to control more assets than in the past- billionaires do not eat or spend 1,00 times more than a millionaire- apart from more extravagant living expenses- what to do with all that income?-they invariably invest it.
We will use the lifestyle and comforts of reigning monarchs from 100 years ago as our standard. This standard of living, while static and enviable by the lower class for centuries, has also benefited from the Industrial Revolution. We compare the poor from any time period to the monarch of a century before their time.
The three distinct features between the monarchy and the poor were better shelter, more food, and less physically demanding work. The poor of today, in the first world, are quickly approaching the standards of royalty of times past. Either past royalty did not have it so good, or our poor are doing really well.
Nature, in her wastefulness and indifference, has divided humanity into the smart, the strong, and everyone else. For mathematical ease, we consider the 1% smart, 9% strong and everybody else the 90%. With expected variations through the millennia, I suspect these numbers were stable until recently.
While personal anecdotes and experiences are helpful, even a cursory Google search for “are people getting dumber” will indicate that researchers agree with personal experience, although we would like to believe this is not so. We must concede that any advances we are experiencing as a society or a species no longer comes from the 1%, but the .1% or, God help us, the .01%. While we’ve never been a believer in a dystopian future, I can no longer discount the possibility that the future of humanity will be populated by Nemos in Utopia.
I am not certain where the genesis to raise wages to $15 an hour for food service workers originated, but we are glad McDonald’s opening day in 1955 and the annual IRS deadline are not later in the month.
We must face the reality of our modern world: there is a higher percentage of people on the left side of the bell curve and these people are historically poor due, in no small part, of their inability to set goals and plan for the future. This explosion of the least capable explains the higher concentrations of wealth and lower standardized test scores. Researchers are noticing the effect [wealth concentration] but are not, for whatever reason, following through to discover the cause [people whose only ability is fecundity] and inundate the media. Of course, this revelation would only have people inquire as to why there are less capable people. This disclosure would decisively end the modern proclivity of promoting “equality” in all of its unnatural forms,
A thought experiment:
We take a society's wealth and distribute it equally to all citizens. Surely this political stance will get us elected to high office, because at least 51% of voters would approve our platform. [“Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.”] In five years where would be this imaginary country be? We ask: Will Michael Jordan be paid more than Yours Truly? The answer is yes, because the market, that is, most people value his proven physical abilities over questionable research of dubious quality. Warren Buffett and others will still have their personal contacts in the world of business and in government after the redistribution of wealth.
After the redistribution of wealth, will this new economy still need managers to create and distribute goods? That is, capable managers with experience? Will those who can be paid more than those who can’t? In our mental exercise, we have destroyed the socialists dream of the perfect city, because there is a natural inequality of gifts, of interests, and of abilities. To prevent this evil of wealth inequality reoccurring, the only permanent solution is wealth redistribution annually. One wonders what kind of production will occur when wealth is reset every year...
Short of cloning one individual [we earnestly suggest Yours Truly] to populate a society, the socialist goal of equality is never going to transpire.
The explosion in the numbers of the least capable can be explained by the unnaturally low infant mortality, modern medicine, and modern sanitation. These unnatural conditions can not be maintained indefinitely, regardless of good intentions or hopes or wishes. The situation will steadily deteriorate until the time that the Superman, not the Batman, appears. He will use Nature’s unchanging standards to remove the unnatural situation that has plagued humanity for generations. The Superman will be described as cruel, but Nature is not cruel, she is indifferent. Man has been described as the bridge to the Superman. The aberration of the last centuries will be swept away, not by the herd mentality of the masses; that will never happen. Instead the will to power, of the One, the Superman, His Will alone, will dominate the majority. The destruction of the mass of humanity will come suddenly and they will not be able to escape their destiny. He declared the events; they came out of his mouth; he proclaimed them. Suddenly he acted, and they occurred.
That day is a day of wrath. A day of trouble and distress.
Who is like him?
A day of wasteness and desolation. A day of darkness and gloominess.
Who can resist him?
A day of clouds and thick darkness.
Who is like him?
A day of wasteness and desolation. A day of darkness and gloominess.
Who can resist him?
A day of clouds and thick darkness.
Gentle Reader, to not end on an apocalyptic tone: I leave you with...
Rainbows
Dachshunds
Zebra Swallowtails
and Rob buzzing
...some of my favorite things.