Thank you for the comments, which touch on many important topics.
Carl, that is a very telling quote, thank you. It reminds me of commentary from the Ming Dynasty in its decline phase. This seems to be a pattern of decay and collapse.
Timmy, many people share your POV on the pandemic response. Those of us who had already been shadow-banned weren't very surprised that skeptics were immediately banned or marginalized.
Joel, I am wary of opining on any topic that has been hyper-politicized, and I defer to local experience, i.e. I'm more interested in what people are reporting / experiencing in their own community than in abstractions. That said, my general sense is that "membership" is important to humans and citizenship is a key form of membership. It has to mean something or the bonds of the membership fray. The US has experienced numerous waves of immigrants, and none were universally welcomed. Being 45% Irish in origin, I love the line in the Mel Brookes comedy "Blazing Saddles" where a character reluctantly agrees to letting ethnics join the town but ends by saying: "but no Irish!"
Irish immigrants built the eastern section of the Transcontinental railroad, Chinese immigrants built the western section, cutting through the Sierra granite with dynamite and hand drills
When there is high demand for low-skill labor, then the economy can generally absorb immigrants. But when there is little demand for low-skill labor, social discord arises. If immigrants are too successful, this also generates social discord. The Chinese were excluded not just from immigrating, they were the only ethnic/national group that had a domestic passport / ID. The actress Anna May Wong had her domestic passport in the 1920s despite being a native born-in-America citizen.
"When self-interested insiders no longer care about the organization's under-competence, this is toxic to social trust. On a society-wide scale, this decay erodes the social contract, the unstated but implicit understanding that the system is functional and fair, i.e. a level playing field, and we "get what we pay for," i.e. we will receive fair value for our work and money."
Charles Hugh Smith - Substack 2024
“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed.”
David, that's a great idea, an index of precarity would be useful but it would be difficult to measure "shadow work," insecurity, etc., with the same ease that we measure GDP and corporate profits. Precarity is the flip side of well-being, which is also difficult to measure. Economists love to mimic the "hard sciences" with data collection, but all economic data is squirrelly, limited, easily gamed, deceptive: is "borrowing our way to prosperity" possible or wise? According to GDP, it is.
Precarity and well-being are real, but not conducive to easy measurements, and so they're ignored.
My "Social Trust" died during the four plus years of Covid Con. People here in California still refuse to face the fact that they were idiots and criminals who forced the masking, injections, and schools to close. Children are way behind socially and in basic reading, writing, and math.
A society that abuses children and the elderly does not deserve my trust.
I find dealing with shadow work very burdensome but have to work through it as it can be dangerous if don’t
Example is getting a medication approved by doctors and insurance provider
All the forms that need to be submitted in any dealing with dentists doctors etc
Then government forms. For example if become a USA citizen then social security does not know unless you go through a process of filling out a form and submitting supporting documentation
No communication between government agencies
Whether social security knows are USA citizen or not has financial implications
CHS, thanks for your general comments on immigration history. I respect your hesitancy to comment on today's illegal immigration crisis and it's effects on our social and economic climate.
Thank you for the comments, which touch on many important topics.
Carl, that is a very telling quote, thank you. It reminds me of commentary from the Ming Dynasty in its decline phase. This seems to be a pattern of decay and collapse.
Timmy, many people share your POV on the pandemic response. Those of us who had already been shadow-banned weren't very surprised that skeptics were immediately banned or marginalized.
Joel, I am wary of opining on any topic that has been hyper-politicized, and I defer to local experience, i.e. I'm more interested in what people are reporting / experiencing in their own community than in abstractions. That said, my general sense is that "membership" is important to humans and citizenship is a key form of membership. It has to mean something or the bonds of the membership fray. The US has experienced numerous waves of immigrants, and none were universally welcomed. Being 45% Irish in origin, I love the line in the Mel Brookes comedy "Blazing Saddles" where a character reluctantly agrees to letting ethnics join the town but ends by saying: "but no Irish!"
Irish immigrants built the eastern section of the Transcontinental railroad, Chinese immigrants built the western section, cutting through the Sierra granite with dynamite and hand drills
When there is high demand for low-skill labor, then the economy can generally absorb immigrants. But when there is little demand for low-skill labor, social discord arises. If immigrants are too successful, this also generates social discord. The Chinese were excluded not just from immigrating, they were the only ethnic/national group that had a domestic passport / ID. The actress Anna May Wong had her domestic passport in the 1920s despite being a native born-in-America citizen.
warm regards, Charles
As per immigration the sociologist Karl Polanyi was hired by Rockefeller to analyze best solution for USA in social policy
The book the Great Transformation came out of that
So FDR used some of those ideas
The idea was that USA had enough population and bringing in additional peoples in a massive scale was no longer beneficial
It was better to invest in social development of the USA population
Education industrial policy Medicare social security etc
But with Reagan they tried to go back to the old model used when America was short on people
Or some would say just financialization of the economy
As someone told me without an underclass Amazon would have no warehouse workers or delivery drivers
Just some observations as I know nothing lol
"When self-interested insiders no longer care about the organization's under-competence, this is toxic to social trust. On a society-wide scale, this decay erodes the social contract, the unstated but implicit understanding that the system is functional and fair, i.e. a level playing field, and we "get what we pay for," i.e. we will receive fair value for our work and money."
Charles Hugh Smith - Substack 2024
“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed.”
Ayn Rand; Atlas Shrugged, 1957
David, that's a great idea, an index of precarity would be useful but it would be difficult to measure "shadow work," insecurity, etc., with the same ease that we measure GDP and corporate profits. Precarity is the flip side of well-being, which is also difficult to measure. Economists love to mimic the "hard sciences" with data collection, but all economic data is squirrelly, limited, easily gamed, deceptive: is "borrowing our way to prosperity" possible or wise? According to GDP, it is.
Precarity and well-being are real, but not conducive to easy measurements, and so they're ignored.
warm regards, charles
My "Social Trust" died during the four plus years of Covid Con. People here in California still refuse to face the fact that they were idiots and criminals who forced the masking, injections, and schools to close. Children are way behind socially and in basic reading, writing, and math.
A society that abuses children and the elderly does not deserve my trust.
All the rest is noise in my opinion.
Social Trust is gone for good in my mind.
Nice article Charles
“Precarity”
Charles have you seen an index of “precarity”?
I find dealing with shadow work very burdensome but have to work through it as it can be dangerous if don’t
Example is getting a medication approved by doctors and insurance provider
All the forms that need to be submitted in any dealing with dentists doctors etc
Then government forms. For example if become a USA citizen then social security does not know unless you go through a process of filling out a form and submitting supporting documentation
No communication between government agencies
Whether social security knows are USA citizen or not has financial implications
Every day have to deal with some shadow work
Once are infirm can be easily victimized
CHS, thanks for your general comments on immigration history. I respect your hesitancy to comment on today's illegal immigration crisis and it's effects on our social and economic climate.
Continued good writing CHS. Could you share your views on how illegal aliens are shaping our social and economic systems?