In praise of class warfare

[kpete]

Society's Ability to Weather Crisis Largely Depends on Leaders' Positions

TRANSCRIPT
Originally Aired: February 13, 2009

Nations with leaders who are keenly affected by their own decisions may weather crises better than those whose leaders are further removed, according to author Jared Diamond. Diamond discusses his new book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" with NewsHour Business correspondent Paul Solman.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Of all the cultures you’ve studied that have tried to deal with severe economic dislocations, what’s the marker of resiliency?

JARED DIAMOND: It seems to me that one of the predictors of a happy versus an unhappy outcome has to do with the role of the elite or the decision-makers or the politicians or the rich people within the society.

If the society is structured so that the decision-makers themselves suffer from the consequences of their decisions, then they’re motivated to make decisions that are good for the whole society, whereas if the decision-makers can make decisions that insulate themselves from the rest of society, then they’re likely to make decisions that are bad for the rest of society.

PAUL SOLMAN: Case in point, says Diamond, the place they call the city of New Orleans.

JARED DIAMOND: One could ask, why is it that, for 10 years, people around New Orleans dithered and they wouldn’t adopt these plans for a few hundred million dollars to build the dikes? And part of the reason is that there’s geographic segregation in New Orleans, where the rich people live on the higher ground and knew perfectly well that they were less exposed to problems from flooding.

PAUL SOLMAN: Compare that to the Netherlands, he says, where the system of dikes is considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

JARED DIAMOND: There aren’t any mansions on top of the dikes. Everybody is living down below in the polders. And they know — the politicians and rich people know that, if the dikes failed, they would drown. <...>

PAUL SOLMAN: But to the extent that this economic dislocation affects the wealthy, that’s good?

JARED DIAMOND: I think I would like to see the rich suffer even more and — and the politicians suffer even more.

PAUL SOLMAN: Because it would be good for us?

JARED DIAMOND: Yes, because they would then be motivated to solve all of our problems, and they wouldn’t have the sense that, “It’ll be OK for us.”

more at:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june09/socstrenth_02-13.html
via:http://thepoorman.net/2009/03/13/in-praise-of-class-warfare/

[tularetom]

1. I would never be an anti-war protester

In the class war.

[rrneck]

2. That's what government is for. If

we let the rich own it, it ignores us.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "I wonder what the proles are doing tonight?" - Corporate Republicon Homelander 'elite'

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6y3xMzPmPYo/RvdLPOdZJFI/AAAAAAAAATE/UxTzvC9lzXg/s320/geoffrey+monocle.png