• Trickledown economics doesn't work
• Workers don’t get paid enough - the minimum wage ought to be doubled
• When the middle class makes a fair wage then the whole system is better off
• There are too many people in money-manipulation jobs
• There are too many people in government
• That the economy is a complex adaptive system that can trend towards inequality and collapse
• That capitalism is genius in that it is a solution finding system that rewards people for solving other people’s problems
• That the middle class is the backbone of the economy
• That the giant companies that inhabit the planet have done so much good for us. He actually mentions Amazon and that he was the first non-family shareholder in the business.

It’s worth watching the video as it is unclear as to what his motives really are and there is the sense that it is a partly self-serving, egotistical piece.

But that isn’t the point of this article. His perspective in 2014 made some good and enduring points, but over the past seven years it has become apparent there are now some omissions and things that haven't held true.

Our challenge to you is to consider that perhaps nothing has really improved since then, and that a more realistic view of the challenge we now face ought to include the addition of the following to the list above:

• The fossil-fueled party is going to finish – legal and legislative challenges to the industry abound
• There is a challenging energy transition to do – to a much lower energy economy, industrial system and lifestyles
• Climate change is increasingly impacting the biosphere, economy and population
• Net biodiversity loss continues
• The political and governmental systems are significantly challenged
• AI, automation and robotics are displacing real jobs
• The financial system has been distorted and potentially further destabilized through govt intervention (no-one really understands how)
• There is a rise in climate activism and youth movements
• There is a Just transition movement establishing expectations about how the transition will play out for workers, middle class and wealthy
• Expectations that the future can be one of restored ecosystems and societal inclusion and cohesion

The point made that the economy is a complex adaptive system also applies to systems including those of government, society, academia and so on.  In previous articles we have made that point that complex adaptive systems are non-linear and surprising. This raises the question of who else might be unwittingly lining themselves up for (metaphoric) pitchforks?

We now understand that it isn’t simply the plutocrats that comprise the madness of the BAU system, there are many others perpetuating it, unwittingly, willfully or through necessity. Whether we reach a reckoning day or there is a gradual ushering out of the existing system in favor of a better one is anyone’s guess, but if history is anything to go by, it might be a bumpy ride. 

This week’s quote…..

“Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”

          Winston Churchill