ALL THE VARIATIONS

A central puzzle of democracy is the idea that everyone is equal but everyone is unique.  It's as much a puzzle as "theodicy", which is the idea that somehow a benign all-powerful "god" permits so much suffering and evil.  Neither one has really been resolved so far, but we accumulate evidence.  I'm brain-storming here.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/society/diverse-genomes-open-new-window-into-human-history?utm_content=buffera5290&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Given the notion that there are five "classes" of humans in modern society, what can we say about how they exist and function?

The five are:  the very wealthy; those we used to call the middle class who run businesses, own factories, and manage the capital necessary; those who earn their wealth through education and credentials whom we call "professionals" (the PMC); those who can build and maintain that we call "working class"; and those who have no money -- possibly because they have a different kind of wealth than money, but possibly barely surviving.

The actual physical sources and manifestations of these classes vary by ecosystem.  Until ten thousand years ago -- which seems like the blink of an eye after reading about the cosmos and the unfolding of life on this planet -- everyone was a searcher and hunter.  

Since then there have been waves of change.  One is travel so that something common in one place can be carried to a place where it is worth more money.  Industrialization is recent and has changed the actual atmosphere of the planet.  Communication is progressed to the Internet and computers have transformed knowledge by making incredible data storage possible.  Every one of these waves offers new ways of making a living and takes us a bit farther away from the physical world.

Wealth has been addressed in terms of "money" which each nation invents and backs so that it has value.  The different kinds of money are reconciled through various strategies.  One is through various "stock markets" which record how much people will pay for shares in corporations which are businesses pretending to be persons.  This kind of handling of symbols of value is called managing "capital" and people who do that are called "capitalists" but there are many ways of managing "capital," many kinds of capitalism.  "Venture capitalism" is when wealth credits are invested to pay for starting something new.  If you look at Google lists, there are many characteristics and kinds of "capitalism" including the contrast with what is called "socialism" or communism.  The concept of ownership arises.  One can get rich by merely "owning" something.

Computers and the internet have transformed the way capital is interpreted.  We still don't understand what it does to secrecy, history, translation from one kind of "money" to another, the role of nations in a globalizing world, and so on.  We describe money as "dirty" and needing laundering when money is only imaginary.  Our metaphors take over our reality.  

All we have to do is declare that all money that is not legitimate no longer has any value.  Whatever hidden funds are in bogus banks are simply not money anymore if we say they are not.  Since they were pulled away from taxes meant to provide national health and infrastructure, their equivalent value should  be posted to those accounts.

This stuff may seem silly but I'm trying to get down under the assumptions that cripple us.  We end up arguing about slogans and catch phrases instead of starting from the bottom.  When I was at animal control, Multnomah County  went to "zero-based budgeting."  It was a shock.  We were used to just adding a percentage to what we had the previous year.  It took a little time, study, and argument to figure out the new budget. The US doesn't do zero based budgeting.

This is Elizabeth Warren's list of principles for addressing our calamity.  All practical and do-able.

• Companies must maintain payrolls and use federal funds to keep people working.
• Businesses must provide $15 an hour minimum wage quickly but no later than a year from the end
• Companies would be permanently banned from engaging in stock buybacks.
• Companies would be barred from paying out dividends or executive bonuses while they receive federal funds and the ban would be in place for three years.
• Businesses would have to provide at least one seat to workers on their board of directors, though it could be more depending on size of the rescue package.
• Collective bargaining agreements must remain in place.
• Corporate boards must get shareholder approval for all political spending.
• CEOs must certify their companies are complying with the rules and face criminal penalties for violating them.

It's all dominated by corporations and the stock market. Even insisting on the laws that exist and would have real impact if they were enforced would make a difference.  Instead they are evaded and stymied by clever loopholes and semantic quibbles.  Trump BOASTS of ignoring them.  

A binary system of opposing parties funded by the same corporations and staging opposition to each other dominates our thinking.  "The United States of America initially did not have enfranchised political parties, but these evolved soon after independence."(wiki)   "The Bahá'í Faith avers that the partisan apparatus is not a necessary or beneficial aspect of democracy."  (Same wiki entry)

We are NOT a democracy but rather a republic because of distances and lack of communication.  What if we removed the apparatus of representation (electoral college, gerrymandering, etc.) and became a purer democracy, directly voting?  Could it run without parties, which are an added layer meant to make a republic work?  (I assume.)  Some nations make some parts nonpartisan (let's say the Supreme Court) and other parts partisan.  Unfortunately, authoritarian countries are nonpartisan because all options belong to the "beloved leader."

I'm very uncomfortable writing about this kind of thing.  I just don't know enough.  Can states go nonpartisan while remaining partisan on the federal level?  What about reservations, a big slice of Montana? The Blckft are set up as corporations with the enrolled as shareholders.  Some of the People equate tribes with nations and claim they are NOT US citizens but rather citizens of the original indigenous "nation."  Moving back to the issue of class and wealth, the People now are in an entirely different configuration than they were fifty years ago.  Some are extremely wealthy and nationally influential.  Many are part of the knowledge class -- even possibly "over-educated."  And the poor and the addicted are always with everyone.  Some of the enrolled and fractionated might be hardly Blkft at all, not on the rez, and members of all classes.