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Inequality Then and Now: Now It's Too Late November 14, 2025
In refusing to recognize that inequality had the potential to bring down the entire system, our delay has made that reckoning inevitable.
The theme here is problems are not resolved, they're papered over with profitable faux fixes. In my previous post, I described how the problem of our collective health crisis isn't being resolved, it's being milked for profit by faux "solutions" that don't actually resolve the problem, they keep it on simmer because this is the most profitable arrangement for those providing the illusory "solution." I have endeavored to explain why extreme inequality will undo not just democracy, it will undo the entire social order and the economy as well. We currently live in a fantasy world in which finance and market forces operate with impunity, as the focus is on profits and "growth." That finance and market forces have profound social consequences is ignored. This reality has been explored since the 1800s, by critics ranging from Emerson to Marx ("All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned") to modern critics such as Christopher Lasch, author of The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy (1995) and more recently, by Jeffrey L. Degner in his new book Inflation and the Family: Monetary Policy's Impact on Household Life, which is described in The Social Costs Of Inflation (Quoth the Raven, via Rich W.) That inequality of wealth, income and opportunity has reached dangerous extremes in America has been starkly visible since the save-the-fraudsters response to the 2008-09 Financial Fraud Meltdown (a.k.a. the Global Financial Crisis). In the aftermath, a number of incisive essays were published by journals left, right and center on the urgent need to address soaring inequality. These three essays from 2011-2013 cover the many systemic dynamics of this problem: I cannot stress strongly enough that neither the left nor the right have mounted a meaningful response, as this is not an issue that boils down to a strictly partisan / political or economic problem--it encompasses the entirety of the status quo system: culture, society, economy and the political/policy sphere. This not-left-or-right nature confuses many, who automatically seek to compartmentalize the problem and proposed solutions as left or right. Inequality cannot be constrained to stale political boundaries if we are to understand it as a problem that needs real resolutions, not superficial fake fixes. This is perhaps best exemplified by Christopher Lasch, whose nuanced work cannot be pigeonholed as right or left. His savaging of the status quo economy's dismantling of the family can be interpreted as conservative, while Lasch's appreciation of Marx's critique can be labeled progressive. Both labels are misleading, as Lasch's work cannot be understood within the narrow confines of conventional knee-jerk us-them thinking. This applies to all thoughtful discussions of soaring inequality. Mike Lofgren's essay in the August 2012 issue of The American Conservative magazine is a brilliant summary of just how far we've fallen: Revolt of the Rich: Our financial elites are the new secessionists: "It was 1993, during congressional debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement. I was having lunch with a staffer for one of the rare Republican congressmen who opposed the policy of so-called free trade. To this day, I remember something my colleague said: 'The rich elites of this country have far more in common with their counterparts in London, Paris, and Tokyo than with their fellow American citizens'." "Lasch held that the elites--by which he meant not just the super-wealthy but also their managerial coat holders and professional apologists--were undermining the country's promise as a constitutional republic with their prehensile greed, their asocial cultural values, and their absence of civic responsibility. Lasch wrote that in 1995. Now, almost two decades later, the super-rich have achieved escape velocity from the gravitational pull of the very society they rule over. They have seceded from America." Jerry Z. Muller, Professor of History at the Catholic University of America, wrote a dispassionate, thorough essay on the many structural sources of inequality in 2013: Capitalism and Inequality: What the Right and the Left Get Wrong (April 2013) (In 2012): "The central focus of the left today is on increasing government taxing and spending, primarily to reverse the growing stratification of society, whereas the central focus of the right is on decreasing taxing and spending, primarily to ensure economic dynamism. Each side minimizes the concerns of the other, and each seems to believe that its desired policies are sufficient to ensure prosperity and social stability. Both are wrong. Inequality is indeed increasing almost everywhere in the postindustrial capitalist world. But despite what many on the left think, this is not the result of politics, nor is politics likely to reverse it, for the problem is more deeply rooted and intractable than generally recognized. Inequality is an inevitable product of capitalist activity, and expanding equality of opportunity only increases it--because some individuals and communities are simply better able than others to exploit the opportunities for development and advancement that capitalism affords. Despite what many on the right think, however, this is a problem for everybody, not just those who are doing poorly or those who are ideologically committed to egalitarianism--because if left unaddressed, rising inequality and economic insecurity can erode social order and generate a populist backlash against the capitalist system at large." George Packer unpacked the sources of decay that push inequality to extremes in his comprehensive December 2011 essay The Broken Contract: Inequality and American Decline: "Inequality hardens society into a class system, imprisoning people in the circumstances of their birth--a rebuke to the very idea of The American Dream." (in 2012:) "The same ailments were on full display in Washington this past summer, during the debt-ceiling debacle: ideological rigidity bordering on fanaticism, an indifference to facts, an inability to think beyond the short term, the dissolution of national interest into partisan advantage." Muller and Packer dismantle every conventional "solution" as inadequate or worse: more education, more policy tweaks, financial gimmicks--all are fake fixes that avoid the hard part, which is addressing the underlying decay in both our society and economy that has replaced "solutions" with self-enrichment. I elaborate the way this replacement of real solutions with self-enrichment has been systematically normalized in my new book Investing In Revolution. I often reprint this chart from the Federal Reserve because it shows how the wealth (and thus the power) of the wealthiest has achieved escape velocity not just from inflation but from any restraints. 
And I often reprint this chart to show how the bottom 50% of Americans have actually lost ground in the "wealth creation" of asset bubbles. 
The fantasy-fake solutions of both the left and right distill down to financial-technocrat fixes that leave the engines of inequality untouched, as those proposing the faux fixes don't dare upset the gravy train that's enriching everyone in the top tier of the status quo. I composed this chart to illustrate how the usual bag of fake fixes--more tech, technocratic, political policy tweaks, so-called market-solutions--all avoid uprooting the system that increases inequality by its very nature because this system benefits the few at the top at the expense of the many--and the few control the machinery and manage the gearing. 
If we'd tackled inequality in 2012-13 with resolve, regardless of the pain that would cause those currently enriching themselves with impunity, we might have gotten somewhere by now. But we didn't. And now it's too late. Doing nothing is an illusory "solution." Systemic problems like inequality are not unchanging items that await our attention; they are dynamic and self-reinforcing, and in refusing to recognize that inequality had the potential to bring down the entire system, our delay has made that reckoning inevitable. My new book Investing In Revolution is available at a 10% discount ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition) through November. Introduction (free) Check out my updated Books and Films. Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com Subscribe to my Substack for free My recent books: Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases originated via links to Amazon products on this site. THE REVOLUTION TRILOGY: Investing In Revolution Ultra-Processed Life The Mythology of Progress Systemic Problems/Solutions Investing In Revolution (2025) Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress (2024) Introduction (free) Global Crisis, National Renewal (2021) Introduction (free) Money and Work Unchained (2017) Introduction (free) A Radically Beneficial World (2015) Introduction (free) What You Can Do Yourself Ultra-Processed Life (2025) Introduction (free) Self-Reliance in the 21st Century (2022) Introduction (free) When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal (2022) Introduction (free) Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy (2014) Intro (free) Novels The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher Intro (free) The Secret Life of an Asian Heroine First chapters (free) Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free Investing In Revolution print $18, (Kindle $8.95, Hardcover $24 (145 pages, 2025) 
Only now do we see that we've been investing in revolution for decades--not the revolutions we thought we were investing in, revolutions in technology and finance, but in the social revolution made inevitable by the extremes that we've reached in our single-minded pursuit of private gains.
The pendulum that we've pushed to an extreme will swing to the opposite extreme, and the artifices that have propped up a facade a stability for decades will accelerate the disorder rather than reverse it. We now stand at the point of decision, and this book offers a path to a reformation and renewal that serves the shared interests of us all, not just the few. Introduction (free) Ultra-Processed Life print $16, (Kindle $7.95, audiobook, Hardcover $20 (129 pages, 2025) 
Ultra-Processed Life: the substitution of a synthetic, commoditized, very profitable facsimile for what was once authentic.
Ultra-Processed Life is my term for everything that is analogous to ultra-processed snacks: attractively marketed, instantly alluring, easy to consume, addictive by design, tasty in the moment but harmful over time, its origins a black box of unknown processes, the brightly colored product bearing no resemblance to the real-world ingredients, an idealized form of what is inherently imperfect, untethered from the natural world. As with many others, the catalyst for my exploration was a life-threatening medical crisis that did not have a specific cause. This led me to wonder if our entire way of life is like an ultra-processed snack: tasty but not healthy, edible but stripped of the nutrients we need to be healthy, addictive by design. Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress, Anti-Progress and a Mythology for the 21st Century print $20, (Kindle $9.95, Hardcover $24 (215 pages, 2024) audiobook, Read the Introduction and first chapter for free (PDF) 
What if the policies to accelerate growth are no longer working because our fix for every problem--growth at any cost--is failing? We're told Progress is inevitable as a result of technology, but everyday life is getting harder, not easier--the opposite of Progress, what I call Anti-Progress.
What if the real source of the unraveling is far deeper than economics or politics? What if the problem is what we see as the inevitable destiny of humanity--Progress--is actually a modern mythology, disconnected from the real-world consequences of growth for growth's sake? We indignantly reject that Progress is a mythology, but our need for mythology hasn't gone away because we've mastered technology; we've created a modern mythology of technology that is heedless of its own consequences. To truly progress, we need a new mythology aligned to 21st century realities. Read the Introduction and first chapter for free
Recent entries: Inequality Then and Now: Now It's Too Late November 14, 2025 Did the "Solution" Solve the Problem, Or Did It Just Make Somebody Rich? November 11, 2025 The Risk of AI Isn't Skynet November 6, 2025 The Inevitable Drift Down from "Can't Lose" Owning Stocks to "Can't Win" November 3, 2025 Yes, Everything Crashed--Just Not For You October 30, 2025 Anatomy of AI Cold Turkey October 27, 2025 ZIRP or ZAP? Will the Fed's 'Zero-Interest Rate Policy' Return, and Will It Work? October 23, 2025 Could a Rip-Your-Face-Off Rally in the Dollar Trigger a Global Financial Crisis? October 21, 2025 The Crisis and Revolution Hidden in Plain Sight October 20, 2025
If We Measured the Economy by Quality-of-Life Instead of GDP, We'd Be In a Depression
October 16, 2025
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"There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity." (Douglas MacArthur) "We are what we repeatedly do." (Aristotle) "Do the thing and you shall have the power." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." (E.F. Schumacher, via Tom R.) "He who will not risk cannot win." (John Paul Jones) "When we drink coffee, ideas march in like the army." (Honore de Balzac) "Progress is not possible without deviation." (Frank Zappa, via Richard Metzger) "Victory favors those who take pains." (amat victoria curam) "The man who has a garden and a library has everything." (Cicero, via Lee Bentley) "A healthy homecooked family meal and a home garden are revolutionary acts." (CHS) "Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything." 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Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1: If the citizenry cannot replace a kleptocratic authoritarian government and/or limit the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation is a democracy in name only. The Smith Corollary to Metcalfe's Law (The Network Effect): the value of the network is created not just by the number of connected devices/users but by the value of the information and knowledge shared by users in sub-networks and in the entire network. (CHS, 4/6/16) My Credo of Liberation: I no longer care if the power centers of our society--the distant, fortified castles of our financial feudal system--are changed by my actions, for I am liberated by the act of resistance. I am no longer complicit in perpetuating fraudulent feudalism and the pathology of concentrated power. I no longer covet signifiers of membership in the Upper Caste that serves the plutocracy. I am liberated from self-destructive consumerist-State financialization and the delusion that debt servitude and obedience to sociopathological Elites serve my self-interests. (Thank you, Klaus-Peter L., for reminding me) "We've become a culture of excuses rather than solutions: solutions always require sustained effort and discipline." (CHS 4/9/16) "Fraud as a way of life caters an extravagant banquet of consequences." (CHS 4/14/16) "Creativity = problem solving = value creation." (CHS 6/4/16) "Truth is powerful because it is the core dynamic of solving problems." (CHS 7/21/17) "We live in a system of human emotions that masquerades as a science (economics)." (CHS 1/1/18) "Always remember, your focus determines your reality." (George Lucas) "Diversity is for poor people. Sameness is for the successful." (GFB) "When power dissipates suddenly, it dissipates completely." (CHS 7/14/19) "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." (Henry David Thoreau) "Markets cannot price in the value of non-monetized natural assets such as diverse ecosystems." (CHS 7/14/19) "Magical thinking isn't optimism, it is folly." CHS 1/3/22) "Tune in (to self-reliance), drop out (of hyper-consumerism and debt-serfdom) and turn on (to relocalizing capital and agency)." (CHS 1/5/22) "The path to everything you desire starts here: like yourself as you are right now." (CHS 11/20/22) "There are only two signals: how many essentials you produce and share and if you're consuming less with better results. Everything else is noise." (CHS 12/17/22) "Liberation is no longer needing any confirmation or feedback from others or the world for one's sense of self. Wealth, fame, recognition, admiration, praise, prestige, approval, sainthood, martyrdom, success: none are needed, none are desired." (CHS 12/26/22) "When fame, wealth, prestige, status and glory are out of reach, you're free to pursue other more valuable things." (CHS 2/6/22) "It is the sacred duty of every activist who seeks to better their community to grow and share as much life-giving food as is humanly possible." (CHS 6/15/23) "Being anonymous, gray and unknown is the ideal state of freedom." (CHS 3/15/24) "We seem to have entered a world of anti-leisure and anti-productivity in which the unpaid shadow work demanded to keep all the complicated digital bits in motion obliterate our leisure and productivity." CHS (5/22/24) "It is axiomatic that failing systems work the best just before they fail catastrophically." Ray W. "Looking younger is mere technique; thinking younger demands creativity." CHS (10/16/24) "Tell me what's taboo and I'll tell you the truths that threaten the status quo." CHS (12/15/24) "This is the core of the Attention Economy: the ultimate addiction is the addiction to ourselves." CHS (1/28/25) "If You Seek the Truth, Look for What's Taboo." CHS (7/18/25) "My definition of self-reliance: the less you need, the easier it is to get what you need." CHS (7/26/25) "Mastery requires reading and doing." CHS (7/28/25) "The replacement of authentic value, quality, agency, choice, trust, legitimacy and experience with self-serving facsimiles is the key dynamic of Ultra-Processed Life, my term for the present-day human condition." CHS (8/12/25) "Ultra-Processed Life replaces an authentic experience with a synthetic, simulated, commoditized, highly profitable version that's superficially attractive but destructive over the long term." CHS (8/12/25) "What we see everywhere is the replacement of authentic things--including democracy--with synthetic facsimiles designed to maintain the illusion of choice and value." CHS (8/12/25) "Sometimes certainty is the enemy we don't even see and uncertainty is our most faithful ally." CHS (9/20/25) |
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