Correspondent Kenneth D. recently made the case that the Social Contract in America is broken. Kenneth offered two links for context: Social Contract (Wikipedia) and OECD calls time on trickle down theory.
Here is Kenneth's commentary:
Society has been structured for a few centuries now such that we are expected to voluntarily give up some of our wealth to governing bodies, and in return they will “ honestly and prudently” govern for the betterment and cohesiveness of society, so that we can collectively live in peace with each other. That is the theory of the Social Contract.
As I talk with friends and clients, there is rising anger at how the resources we all “voluntarily” turn over to governments are being squandered, wasted, fraudulently re-allocated, and that a ruling, governing, elitist class is rapidly emerging (Hunger Games) that subsists extravagantly on these taxes, not to mention the entitlement class that also has come to depend on the largesse of the working class.
The anger rises daily, and I am now constantly hearing from people about how they plan on “beating the system” i.e. dodging taxes, legally or illegally. People are rebelling in rising numbers, and it manifests itself in so many ways--working less or not at all, going to a cash economy, making up deductions that don’t exist, giving less to charity, cashing in on the entitlement culture, etc. etc.
The trust in government to do the right thing is rapidly being eroded, so the Social Contract unravels more and more. How much longer can a society survive, living side by side, collectively, under such circumstances? I have started to study the concept of the Social Contract, to better understand the theory behind it, and why more and more people feel it is broken.
Thank you, Kenneth, for addressing a critical topic. I do not claim any expertise in social contract theory, but in broad brush we can delineate two implicit contracts: one between the citizenry and the state (government) and another between citizens.
We can distinguish between the two by considering a rural county fair.
Most of the labor to stage the fair is volunteered by the citizenry for
the good of their community and fellow citizens; they are not coerced to
do so by the government, nor does the government levy taxes to pay its
employees or contractors to stage the fair.
The social contract between citizens implicitly binds people to obeying
traffic laws as a public good all benefit from, not because a police
officer is on every street corner enforcing the letter of the law.
The social contract between the citizens and the state binds the
government to maintaining civil liberties, social peace, defending the
nation, and in the 20th century, providing social welfare for the
disadvantaged, disabled and low-income elderly.
The focus of the above article on "trickle down economics" focuses on
income inequality as a key metric of the Social Contract: rising income
inequality is de facto evidence that the Social Contract is fraying or
broken.
I think this misses the key distinction in the Social Contract between citizens and the state, which is the legitimacy of the process of wealth creation and the fairness of the playing field and the referees, i.e. that no one is above the law.
Few people begrudge legitimately earned wealth, for example, the top
athlete, the pop star, the tech innovator, the canny entrepreneur, the
best-selling author, etc. The source of these individual's wealth is
transparent, and any citizen can decline to support this wealth creation
by not paying money to see the athlete, not buying the author's books,
not shopping at the entrepreneur's shops, etc.
The Social Contract is broken not by wealth inequality per se but by the illegitimate process of wealth acquisition, i.e.
the state has tipped the scales in favor of the few behind closed doors
and routinely ignores or bypasses the intent of the law even as the
state claims to be following the narrower letter of the law.
By this definition, the Social Contract in America has been completely smashed.One
sector after another is dominated by cartel-state partnerships that are
forged and enforced in obscure legislation written by lobbyists. Once
the laws have been riddled with loopholes and the regulators have been
corrupted, "no one is above the law" has lost all meaning.
Those who violate the intent of the law while managing to conjure an
apparent compliance with the letter of the law are shysters, scammers
and thieves who exploit the intricate loopholes of the system, all the
while parading their compliance as evidence the system is fair and just.
In this way, the judicial system becomes part of the illegitimate
process of wealth accumulation.
In America, political and financial Elites are above the intent of the law. Is bribery of politicos illegal? Supposedly it is, but in practice it is entirely and openly legal.
This is the norm in banana republics, whose ledgers are loaded with
thousands of codes and regulations that are routinely ignored by those
in power. In the Banana Republic of America, financial crimes go
uninvestigated, unindicted and unpunished: banks and their management
are essentially immune to prosecution because the crimes are complex
(tsk, tsk, it's really too much trouble to investigate) and they're "too
big to prosecute."
The rot has seeped from the financial-political Aristocracy to the lower reaches of the social order. The fury of those still working legitimate jobs and paying their taxes is grounded in a simple, obvious truth: America
is now dominated by scammers, cheaters, grifters and those gaming the
system, large and small, to increase their share of the swag.
Formidable armies of scammers and their enablers (attorneys and doctors)
are pillaging workers compensation, temporary disability, insurance and
Social Security Disability (the lifetime kind, your claim and condition
are never monitored after your claim is approved), not to mention
Medicare fraud and those gaming the wide array of welfare programs.
The honest taxpayer is a chump, a mark who foolishly ponies up the swag that's looted by the smart operators. Everyone
knows that the vast majority of wealth accumulation in America flows
not from transparent effort on a level playing field, but from
persuading the Central State (the Federal government and the Federal
Reserve) to enforce cartels and grant monopolistic favors such as tax
shelters designed for a handful of firms and unlimited credit to private
banks.
When scammers large and small live better than those creating value
in the real economy, the Social Contract has ceased to exist. When the illegitimate process of wealth acquisition--a
rigged playing field, a bought-off referee, and an Elite that's above
the law by every practical measure--dominates the economy and the
political structure, the Social Contract has been shattered, regardless
of how much welfare largesse is distributed to buy the complicity of
state dependents.
Once the chumps and marks realize there is no way they can ever
escape their exploited banana-republic status as neofeudal debt-serfs,
the scammers, cheats and grifters large and small will be at risk of
losing their perquisites. The fantasy in America is that legitimate
wealth creation is still possible despite the visible dominance of a
corrupt, venal, self-absorbed, parasitic, predatory Aristocracy. Once
that fantasy dies, so will the marks' support of the Aristocracy.
As Voltaire observed, "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible":
every claim, every game of the system, every political favor purchased
is "fair and legal," of course. This is precisely how empires collapse.
Kenneth D. also suggested that we are experiencing a Hegelian dialectic,
an era where the wheel turns and opposing forces generate a new
synthesis.
In broad brush, we can trace the dialectic from feudalism to capitalism
to the present financialized cartel-state neofeudalism and next, to a
synthesis built on the opposite of neofeudalism, which is
decentralization, transparency, accountability, legitimacy and liberty.
Things are falling apart--that is obvious. But why are they falling apart? The reasons are complex and global. Our economy and society have structural problems that cannot be solved by adding debt to debt. We are becoming poorer, not just from financial over-reach, but from fundamental forces that are not easy to identify or understand. We will cover the five core reasons why things are falling apart:
1. Debt and financialization
2. Crony capitalism and the elimination of accountability
3. Diminishing returns
4. Centralization
5. Technological, financial and demographic changes in our economyComplex systems weakened by diminishing returns collapse under their own weight and are replaced by systems that are simpler, faster and affordable. If we cling to the old ways, our system will disintegrate. If we want sustainable prosperity rather than collapse, we must embrace a new model that is Decentralized, Adaptive, Transparent and Accountable (DATA).
We are not powerless. Not accepting responsibility and being powerless are two sides of the same coin: once we accept responsibility, we become powerful.
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