Degeneracy is a Symptom: On Conspicuous Despair, the Ponzi stage of being alive, and why your grandparents are wrong about you.
tl;dr: Wealth consolidation and oligopolies have stagnated economic growth. This you probably know, but the author amazingly shows that the rise of “social degeneracy” is merely a symptom of this problem. He tracks this phenomenon around the world and throughout history. We either tackle the problem early and directly or–my words, not his–the rivers will flow with blood.
How far does that go?
Like I don’t need to drive a Mercedes, but I would like to have a professional identity. It’s nice to say, “I’m an X” instead of “I work at Y.”
A professional identity outside of property owner is provisional. Source: I am a jaded software developer who is experiencing pressure from the property class to redefine our professional identity to “meat puppet”.