RabidHexley t1_jaef09w wrote on February 28, 2023 at 9:02 PM

Reply to comment by Ok_Garden_1877 in The XIXth and the XXIIth century: about the ambient pessimism predicting a future of inequality and aristocratic power for the elites arising from the singularity by FomalhautCalliclea

>Everyone keeps screaming "Dey tooker jerbs!" but the market simply won't allow it in the big bang everyone's expecting.

This is the thing that gets me. Societal/economic collapse isn't some fun thing the rich can just "ride out" by hoarding their imaginary pennies.

One thing I also feel people don't necessarily discuss; rich people and the "elites" in power don't necessarily want to live in a dystopian hellscape either, despite their greed. A thriving population creates a world that you actually want to live in. There are forces of self-interest that work in our favor, not just altruism.

FomalhautCalliclea OP t1_jaepa7r wrote on February 28, 2023 at 10:08 PM

Well put (same for the comment above).

People that think that rich people can ride the collapse remind me of some XVIIIth century economists that would make "robinsonnades", meaning that they would create fictional stories that sound like Robinson Crusoe, with economical agents starting in a non existing pure land with no previous inhabitant, out of nothingness, completely ignoring social structures, anthropology, etc.