Will There Be A Millennial Revolution?
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- čas přidán 27. 05. 2021
- This is a tale of three revolutions. Revolutions past - twin revolutions that served as lessons. The second was a counter-revolution, a result of not learning those lessons. And the third, well it begins in 2030, but stirrings of it are already being felt.
I look at the causes of revolutions and state crises in the past, looking specifically at the English Civil War and the French Revolution, to argue as historian Jack Goldstone does, that we're following a dangerous path to potential revolution. The Baby Boomers were the most heavily invested in generation in history but as the population boomed, debt has grown with it. Millennials, on the other hand, are underinvested in, under-housed, and are experiencing wage stagnation.
This is a tour of generational debt, neoliberal revolution, tax cuts, plague, stagnant incomes, Kings, the guillotine, and more.
There’s a growing consensus on both sides of the aisle: neoliberalism has failed. And history teaches us that if peaceful social solutions designed to mitigate against excess and injustice aren’t implemented, then more chaotic, violent, and revolutionary solutions will inevitably follow.
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Sources:
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Jack Goldstone, Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World
Jack Goldstone, The New Population Bomb
Bruce Gibney, A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
Joseph Sternberg, The Theft of the Decade: Baby Boomers, Millennials, and the Distortion of Our Economy
www.hepi.ac.uk/2020/02/17/the...
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpo...
www.businessinsider.com/mille...
www.brookings.edu/opinions/sp...
www.vox.com/2019/3/19/1824037...
money.usnews.com/money/blogs/...
www.reuters.com/article/us-us...
www.epi.org/publication/chart...
Credits:
Laffer Curve Napkin, americanhistory.si.edu/collec...
National Debt Graph: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... SColombo (based on style and sources of Ninjatacoshell's previous version), CC BY-SA 3.0. creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
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This is one of your WORST videos so far. If for you a revolution is the re-implementation of Keynesian policies and higher taxes then we are fucked. What about instead of asking how much we tax the rich we start to think about what's the real source of value, who produces it and how the relationships of production are established in our society.
The solution is not located in how much or less we tax people, if you think fiscal policies are gonna get us out of capitalism then we have no hope. The illusion arises from the fact money owned by capitalist is legitimate and the only thing we can do about it is to make them pay more taxes. To tax the capital is to legitimate economic speculation and the system as a whole. Value is produced by us, workers, and this value needs to come back to us directly. Value is produced collectively, thus it must be redistributed through social contribution.
Thanks for the video, cheers.
The song played at the beginning of Chapter Two has a heavy Tom Waits vibe. Had you not given the proper credit to the proper musician, I legit probably would have assumed it was taken from some obscure Waits album I had never heard of.
I think you should talk about Peter Turchin. Take him away from the shallowness of the quasi-fascist James Lindsay. Turchin uses ideas from Jack Goldstone whom you've mentioned. He also creates the notion of secular cycles, which is an improvement on the Kolmogorov cycles.
@@OjoRojo40 Value is most viewed as property, land, and resources. The planet we all live upon which has a limit of all of these resources, are what the strategically wealthy are working towards. This all happens with wars, financial manipulation, tyranny, and you name it. Those are all, obviously, far more valuable than any of the labor of anyone group! If you think workers can produce wealth for themselves with labor, juxtaposed, with more productive tools that exist that has an impact to society? Then you're sadly mistaken!!
Does anyone know where I can find the music in this video? It looks like Kevin Nolan doesn’t have any tracks on his Spotify and the website is not functioning at the moment. Particularly looking for the Tom Waits inspired song that bookends the video. Amazing video, definitely warrants multiple viewings!
Boomers benefitted from the post WW2 consensus then turned around in the 80s and trashed the same policies that helped them so much.
Sausage McMuffin. The whole idea of pitting one generation against another generation is a nonsense. It’s completely contrived by modern media, internet etc. No, what really matters now is the same as what’s always mattered, namely what class do you come from, that’s the real divide. The idea that a whole generation acted in a certain way in the 80s is frankly laughable. I remember the 80s as a time of massive conflict, particularly class conflict. The working class did not come out of these conflicts as winners. That’s what you’re really referring to.
@@davidpryle3935 well said. Not very boomer is riding off into the sunset on a golden chariot. There were winners and losers. I come from a family of trades people and I have relatives that have literally worked to death. Never retired, never stopped, just worked and died. My mom used to tell me the rules never changed, only the titles, it will always be aristocrats, merchants, peasants.
@@rickybev3078 Yes of course it’s all nonsense. We only have to look at our own families and see how the older ones help the younger ones any way they can, and indeed vice versa. Unfortunately all this nonsense about baby boomers and generation x and millennials is clouding the real issue of class. Perhaps that’s what it was intended to do.
You don't know Jack.
@@charlespeterson348 oh! Indeed I do know jack, wasn’t I only talking to him last night.
I have sensible, educated, and economically successful grandparents who think they had it harder, and want to argue with the statistics that state they had much more proportional wealth at the same age as millineals. Regardless of how much I love them, I just look at my watch and hope this bias expires naturally so we can finally move on.
I think the best thing to do in all these sorts of debates is to expose the underlying silly idea as quickly as possible. It’s pretty obvious that this one is the everyone is lazier now cliche.
Funny. Get rid of all the boomers and people younger in their 40's. You can do all the work yourselves. Then we will hear you complain that you have to do all the work. We youngest of the boomers have plenty of resentment towards those in their 70's. Don't know how you put a 20 year span into one group. We do not get along.
As if money in the bank accurately measures such things.
My biggest fear, is there are far too many Ayn Rand followers juxtaposed to humanists in this world.
@@kwahujakquai6726 Rand appears to be particularly big among young people. This is scary, but hopefully this situation will reverse.
I think one thing that everyone descended from the Baby Boomers has experienced is that we were taught ways to move in the world that just don't work anymore and our parents' and grandparents' generations don't accept that the world has changed rapidly in their lifetimes.
The horse drawn carriage was invented in the Bronze Age. The first car didn't show up until the 1880s. A century later, we had been to the moon six times. Now, the phone in writing this on is more powerful than the computers that calculated the equations for the last moon landing. The people in power are still following rules that worked when we had just landed on the moon.
Well said!
Agreed. I try to explain to people all the time that the world is changing much faster than they realize and it will continue to do so exponentially. Then after I say exponentially they get a glaze in their eyes and I can tell they've stopped listening.
I like to use the examples of, up until like 1990 or so, we only knew about the planets in our solar system but now only 30 years later, we know about thousands outside of it.
As a somewhat strange parent, who does understand math, logic and computers: you are right.. Go invent your own rules. What do you need us for? If you think about it.. what is holding you back? Information.. You own that...
@@sammehlberg6664 And we lost pluto.. So...
@@Ludifant wut
I like how the assumption is that the ratios of workers to non-workers are based on an idea that anyone after the Boomers will actually be able to retire.
It's not about being " able" to retire, it's about losing your job because of no longer being physically able to work! Working until you drop dead is not a retirement plan. Save and invest now.
@@3namechangezalowdevry90day7save and invest what fucking money, and in what? I don't even make enough to pay my rent, how the fuck am I supposed to save money for fucking retirement?
You make a great case for a broader redistribution of wealth & increased taxation. Neo Liberalism is unsustainable
Capitalism is unsustainable
Capitalism as whole.
@MP-ut6eb no that is a great mistake that if history has proven will be a huge tradegy!
@@athelstan927 Which history?
Today in the US the social security payroll tax is capped at around $130,000. There is legislation being pushed to raise that cap to $400,000. That would go along way to staving off Social Security insolvency. The US is the only advanced country with no price control on pharmaceuticals. Putting in price controls like what exists in the Veterans Administration and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices would also go along way towards alleviating future problems. The problem of future funding for retirees can be solved. It is not technical but political. At the moment America's population is declining along with 50 other countries either losing population or flat. Younger Americans are not producing children largely because of economic reality and there is an epidemic of suicide and drug overdoses recognized as "deaths of despair.:" Welcome to corporate dominated America.
The gen Z and gen Alphas has expressed their discontent with the system, unfortunately their numbers or not high enough. But I do think 3 billion people united can rock the world.
Americans have always reproduced around 1.8. we need 2.1 - meaning each mating pair is replaced by a mating pair. The extra .1 is for accidental death. The US, despite what you think, is the land of women's rights. This means we have always had a problem with maintaining our population levels. The reason you don't know this is because it's a problem solved by the immigration policies the US usually had stemming from the - "Give us your weak, your poor, we will make them strong" ideal. Too bad it's easily usurped by "Give us your weak and poor because we are not allowed slaves anymore".
Or maybe we just dont put a cap on social security? I'm sure someone making 150k+/year can absorb that cost w/o much trouble & would simplify taxes enough it'd prob save some money
@@alexiahurley2250 except the richest people often have very little actual, taxable “income”. The system is so rigged. I peripherally am aware of someone who’s main ‘income’ is loans against his wealth which he then sells some stocks (the ones he can at a “loss”) and has almost zero tax.
@@JamesDecker7 Agreed. It's bull. Wealth tax & put a portion of it into social security
I’m definitely sensing this feeling of revolution in the whispers of my generation through the internet
Not all boomers were like that. My pop didn’t act like that and neither did I. We both worked hard and cleaned up naturally. Everybody seems more attracted to having their own social page or wandering the streets as an auditing hall monitor.
People have become way too comfortable and passive to actually be of any real value. If anything, todays generation of young people are lazy and way too comfortable. This peaceful stretch that they have been enjoying will soon end. It has to, there’s no way of sustaining this kind of life style for free.
Definitely. This is going to be an E-revolution
We can share information, ideas and anti propaganda info, we can dream share our dreams and one day fight back the power
@@matthew7849 I never put all of you in the same barrel.
Besides that, you have no idea how many people I’ve pulled out of the gutter.
As far as explaining how lazy you are, the only person that can truly answer that question is you.
Homer, you’re not qualified to argue with me.
Sincerely, “the live one”
Now go adjust the flaps on your blue tent and quit blaming me for your bad days. 🤧🙄
I've been saying that this country echos the pre-Revolutionary France for, something like nigh on 8 years or so now. I spiraled when I realized what was happening back then. It drove me into alcoholism, it broke me down until I was trying to flail and scream about it at people. But now, I want it. Because if history must repeat itself, then it must, until it doesn't anymore, until people learn. And harsh lessons have harsh consequences. I just hope people know how to stay safe during times of ubiquitous violence.
@@jaylol7226 some days I despair and some days I get so angry I hunger for revolution, I just hope I live to see the system change or I'll feel like I was born to live the worst and not receive the benefits of the change that has to inevitably come
My husband was in the Navy to go to College, when he graduated there were no jobs so he learned to program computers. That was about 1973 or so. I took a couple of computer classes and had the good luck to work for AT&T which believed in promotion from within. So, I was promoted to Managment 🎉 before my 25th birthday.
One our sons was able to find a spot in one of the big tech companies and is doing well. Our other son is a blue color worker whose body was destroyed in various jobs. He was an excellent logistics manager who had a coworker drop a load of lumber on his back in 2008. His best friend is a journeyman plumber who was on a job site when an an electrician dropped an overhead fixture that damaged his almost everything in his abdomen.
In my career when our company was managed by either the Greatest Generation or the Korean War silent generation every thing was very well managed. When my Boomer Generation took power about 1985 on going my job switched from training and coaching to figuring out who to layoff. It switched from network stability to Executive Compensation and greed.
If our son wasn’t living with us we may not have understood what it is like. His daughter has worked really hard and just graduated in her important field.
For someone growing up in the ‘50s and 60’s.
This is very well done and easy to follow. What struck me was that this video didn't even take a future climate crisis into consideration. It feels like my older days will be tough....
Don't forget about the tropical disease and human migration that will come with it. :)
Most people's older days are tough. The tougher they are, the less there are of them. So it all balances out.
@@Ludifant what are you talking about?
@@sunesnigel relative stoicism
That's not real, climate science is not accurate at all, we do not understand some several thousand variables we can measure, but not explain. This means it's luff, another script and you're the audience it's tested and approved thereby.
Post term limits with 90% super majority exception for a longer term. Enact an age limit of 75 and many of the problems we have with our politics would improve greatly. Watching these last 2 presidents hobble around has been a real pain.
But Trump is still clearly a natural blonde!
In all we seriousness, we need people that have different perspectives, in public offices. The current conventional perspectives are trash, and those of younger generations have a much better chance at thinking differently.
Term and age limits won't fix the actual problem though. If you want to improve the system, get money out of politics. Pass laws making it illegal to finance elections and replace private with public funding of elections. Also, eliminate the revolving door by putting hiring restrictions in place on ex politicians, preventing them from taking "consultant" positions after their terms.
I would say an age limit of 68
Agreed, though I would say no older than 60, in my opinion old leaders are to quick to send young people off to war.
Term limits might have helped 20 or 30 years ago. We’re back to fighting over 50 year old issues we thought were settled.
Thank you for the great content. Unfortunately such longer and valuable videos doesn't make a lot of revenue, which is awful for the creator, but I admire that you and like minded people continue do it. And I hope one day CZcams to start reward quality as well.
It’s heartbreaking knowing their creating efforts rewarded in coins... YT business model is designed to exploit amateur independent content creators. I got my MBA 10 years ago & that’s exactly why I couldn’t stay in that inhuman vicious field. I’ve been working for small nonprofits organizations for years... Not much better ethically but at least tolerable ;(
Ahhh …. Someone else pays for it - this proving this documentary’s point
He does have a Patreon. If anyone can help support, I bet he'd appreciate it. (Just saying as a fellow fan.) Cheers.
The fall in savings since the 70s is directly related to the neo-liberal policies enacted since then. Modern Monetary Theory explains this very elegantly. The repeated attempts to run public fiscal surpluses have directly driven private sector debt. Also, you need to distinguish between public and private debt.
Sad thing is that monetary policy isn't even in the public consciousness. You ask the average person about healthcare or tax policy and they'll always have a strong opinion of it. You ask them about the fed fund rate and their eyes glaze over.
a neo-liberal would support a pension. Reaganomics is what go us here. 401ks are garbage savings tools run by greedy criminals. My own stocks perform nearly 200x better than my 401k. We cannot even insulate ourselves from recessions like I have with my own stocks which are now in inflation and recession proof investments. Then, you have anti-labor laws and a rising wealth gap related directly to Reagan and Bush era policies. Record profits, record prices. Where is the Sherman anti-trust law? In a Republican yacht. The facts are not with you.
@@Kitten_Stomper isnt MMT against monetary policy? As in they don't think it's all the important? They're more for fiscal policy if i recall from their lectures.
modern monetary theory is a joke
@@Charles-pf7zy It's not so much a prescription for this or that, but rather a description of how the modern economy actually functions.
I am getting angrier too and I am in my mid-40s.
As a highly educated but poor Millennial, I say the time to uprise is now.
I can't recommend the book _Generation of Sociopaths_ enough.
Epic lol 😂🤣
🤪
A book by a rich man deflecting his own complicity in the shaping of today's messed up world.
Here's an interview with the author
czcams.com/video/Wh6hesHk6yE/video.html
@@DanDeLeoninthefield Gibney's 47. That's a Gen X. Tiny generation that rebelled against the Boomers. Do you have a laundry list of grievances against the Gen Xs too?
when i was a young man college was free in california. when i was a about 25 ronald reagan became governor of CA. he and the republicans started the tuition for colleges, universities, community colleges. nixon attacked unions. then when reagan was president he went after the unions, as did all republicans and some establishment democrat politicians. costs for education continue to rise faster than inflation. wages have remained stagnant since nixon was in office. no unions, no one fighting for workers having a meaningful share of the economic pie. right to work laws destroying unions are in republican states.
you vote republican, don't cry about how unfair things are. you are the problem. fight for a share of the economy. fight for saving the planet from climate change. demand we live in a fair society. anyone in charge who doesn't agree with those stances is the enemy and believe it they are the enemy. anyone who promotes the big lie and denies climate change is the enemy. class warfare is a reality. join the fight and defeat the super greedy at the top. spread the wealth and save the planet. quality public education for all and quality public health care for all.
Canada where I live the same things have happened, and we’ve had mostly liberal governments. I mean Trudeau Sr. (currents prime ministers dad) increased the national deficit by 3400% in one year alone in the 80’s and tried to wipe out indigenous culture with the White Paper.
@@steveo20007 Trudeau Sr., let's see, first What disastrous things did Trudeau do? There were his four election victories, three of them majorities. There was his monumental Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It need also be recalled that when Trudeau arrived in power, Lester Pearson had just put in place major components of the welfare state - the Canada Pension Plan, the Canada Assistance Plan, medicare supplements. It was the Trudeau government that had to pick up the tab. Pearson had established a super-expensive matching formula of 50-50 with the provinces on education and health care. It was left to Trudeau to pick up the tab. In the Trudeau period there were two globally triggered recessions. People who think any prime minister would not have run major deficits through this period are simply deluding themselves.
Standards of living grew appreciably in the Trudeau years, far more so than in the three decades following when they have flatlined. Under Trudeau, the percentage of Canadians living in poverty dropped from 23 per cent in 1968 to 13 per cent in 1984. Repeat, from 23 per cent to 13 per cent."
so not so bad, i'm thinking reality paints a better picture than your comment implies.
What a load of cr^p, mate!
I will do just that… If you apologize for sitting on your ass while allowing Bill Clinton to destroy Glass-Steagall, for the telecommunications act, and for generally proving that your generation can't govern its way out of a paper bag.
The thing that escapes you is that it was a joint effort of both sides of the aisle, and neither side has ever apologized. We, your kids will have to clean up the mess, and out kids after us. And you kept waiting for table scraps to be thrown your way like a dog, when the hard truth is that simply because a bunch of your cohort read Galbraith in college, they thought they were smarter and better men than my grandparents, men who starved in Hooverville and lived through one of the most hellish periods of human history.
One thing he doesn't mention in this video is that the older generation often lost the moral high ground right before revolution struck. The Boomers are dangerously flirting with that right now, too busy pointing fingers at each other and Balkanizing Congress while not realizing that it is not the 60s anymore and it isn't just a matter of blaming the other guy when corruption has become systemic and a cancer, discrediting the whole system to anyone stuck under it. We really DO NOT CARE who started it if we can see right through the game of spy vs. spy politicians have used on you since we were babies. *IT ACTUALLY MAY BE TRUE THAT THEY BOTH NEED TO BE THROWN OUT OR THAT INSTEAD OF PLACING TRUST IN YOUR OWN, ADMIT YOU HAVE F'ED UP SO BADLY THAT POWER NEEDS TO BE ABDICATED FOR THE GREATER GOOD.*
you are beyond saving....you still think liberals are the good guys 😂
As Slavoj Zizek said about our current dilemma: "There is a light at the end of the tunnel, it's just that it is the light of an incoming train".
The only way out of this tunnel is to be realistic and demand the impossible... or if the elites won't peacefully yield (which is the most likely scenario) revolution. Whether that revolution will result in a new form of fascism or in an order that breaks apart from capitalism in the form of some sort of socialism or anarchism is another question, but one that can only be determined by our ability to imagine new futures, to revive the past and our memories of it, the lost tomorrows and shoot them straight into the future
It's truly a transfer of wealth from the future generations to the soon deceased.
And our overpriced medical system
@@mbburry4759 The wealthcare system will extract the majority of it no question. Straight from a lot of boomers on their way out of existence.
Sadly the boomers aren't croaking off quick enough to begin fixing things.
Parasitism
If I were ever to commit to the fear, danger, & pain of a revolution, it would not be for a new tax code. It would be to put an end to capitalism once & for all.
Capitalism will never end.
@@Kitten_Stomper That's a silly perspective. Of course it will, just like every economic system that came before & every system that will come after.
@@Kitten_Stomper I can’t even imagine thinking that capitalism will never end even if capitalism was not currently beginning to fail before our eyes.
capitalism bad
I'm honestly tired of seeing y'all commies on the Internette
While I do think capitalism will end, and that it is failing at the moment, it is still a very new concept. Feudalism, the system before, failed multiple times and stuck around for nearly as long as civilization. I think capitalism will stay for at least another 100 years, but in a way so different that it would be unrecognizable. Remember too, that many policies that would be called socialist now such as public healthcare, transport companies, and other such state run things were once the core of what the term capitalism meant to the people.
I was born in the 1980s. My parents told me if I work 40 years, I can retire comfortably. When I came to working age most jobs were gone and the only thing around was precarious low wage work. Housing had trippled in cost since I was younger and the requirements for a mortgage or even to rent became unattainable with what was available. Somehow lawyers, doctors, and tech people came out on top despite the most unhealthy, over regulated and horribly entertained generation ever. I wonder why someone who recommends harmful medications makes $300k a year while someone building housing makes $30k? I'm not advocating for communism, but why do people who make our live worse get the most compensation, while those who build useful and helpful objects get shit on?
Forreal. You can drive by most construction sites and see mostly undocumented workers building houses for barely live able wages for houses they’ll most likely never live in. The system needs to change. We’re looking more like India now with an upper caste who are well off, and lower caste who have to work all day just to be able to hang on by their fingernails with no middle class.
But hey, at least we’re still God’s favorite country and we can shoot guns and drive big dumb trucks around right?
You should advocate for communism. Its dope as fuck!
@@skyisreallyhigh3333 Unfettered capitalism is awful as well.
@@michaeladkins6 All capitalism is awful
Yeah! Not too keen on those big three either. I wanted to do something with horticulture after graduating high school. I have been fed up since that recession happened back in 2007. I do have much to lose but my life, future, ability to vacation comfortably. Retirement seems like a joke in a country bent on low wage work. I never lived a crazy life above my means or the like.
I don't care what the boomers say. I have grandparents that grew up in homes where money came up short and what have you. However, the systemic issues with the government and how they had 2 to 4 siblings in one household..while I can barely make ends meet as a single person on a single salary, especially right now, are unacceptable.
Don't forget to comment, like and subscribe for this valuable content. Systemic issues keep brilliant content like this way down on the list. Took 8 months of watching documentaries for me to come by this in my recommended videos. Ffs.
We need politics that puts labour, education and family above anything else.
And also remove social security for the old people. The best way to do so is to demand the children to take care of their parents, this will FORCE people to have kids if they don't have their own retirement plans.
Family? Are you fucking kidding me?? And so the climate gets ignored once again, because 10 children per family doesnt sound suicidal or anything...
@@1mol831 we should have social security for all
@@1mol831 that's is by far the dumbest thing I have ever heard. That's basically forcing people into positions that some never wanted and would inevitably end up just making social issues worse. Addiction rates would skyrocket, abuse would increase. Beyond that it would put unnecessary strain on the working class who now is FORCED to take care of their parents, whatever condition they may be in. People should not be forced to do something like that. What if the kids hate their parents because the parents hated their kids but knew if they wanted to have a decent time in their later years they now need them. It would just become so unhealthy.
@@1mol831 addressing ridiculously high medical care prices and the filthy rich whi profit from it, would sure reduce social security costs a whole lot. That 250k I'm boomer medical care, should be more like 125k just like everywhere industrial country.
Getting rid of the 125k cap on social security taxes would also help
I think this video overplays generational conflict instead of focusing on the core cause of the neoliberal counterrevolution: economic class. The amount of wealth and opportunity given to baby boomers led to more baby boomers entering into economic classes that benefit from neoliberal economic policies, and those people then acted in their own class interests. There's nothing about baby boomers on a fundamental level that make them worse than people born in any other generation, when the baby boomers die the millenials lucky enough to inherit their wealth will act in the exact same way.
And not every baby boomer is wealthy or right wing. It was largely baby boomers who lead and participated in the civil rights movements of the 60's and 70's, but that part of the generation lost the class war.
Ah, economic class right... Yea that's a problem, but it cannot be solved, the higher classes will ALWAYS hold the power regardless of what you would do, there is ZERO examples in history where the high class wealthy elites have been overthrown and the economic class is redistributed.
That's true.
Class conflict is the main thing. Boomers just happen to be elites a lot of the time but there's plenty of piss poor baby boomers and plenty of filthy rich millennials or young people with the class traitor attitude of: That there's so many poor people is no systematic but a personal responsibility problem
I like how the title of this presupposes the exact fears that would get boomers to maybe watch this.
It is insane to me that this only has 70K views. I'm gonna share it everywhere.
I'm already in this revolution inside my family. Millennials, don't give up !!!
The problem isn’t that people don’t pay enough in taxes. The problem is that we spend 64% of our budget on the military. Americans pay more than enough taxes to run three countries. That doesn’t matter when that money is spent irresponsibly.
And when the richest don't pay their share.
I refuse to support a candidate (for whatever office) that has not on public record agreed to reducing the military budget by at least 80 percent.
@@FatherElectric you need military to protect your country.
@@ro-86alkonost78 Your second grade political science teacher must be proud.
@@FatherElectric you do realize that a weak military will just make the country vulnerable to invasions. The big military budget makes the US impervious to invasions which is why even Russia and China are scared to attack the US.
A solution to the social security shortfall is raising the ceiling for paycheck withholdings from the pitiful $130,000 to $400,000, Representative Doggett from Texas has been fighting for this forever. The Wall Street faction in the Congress are predictably against it as they want to privatize Social Security.
We don’t have to tax to spend, we can pay for it like we do wars and just print the money. I for one do not buy the idea that there is a shortfall in SS, the right wing and Wall Street just wants to get their hands on it so they can gamble it.
You assume debts are sacrosanct. They are not. They just can be zeroed out, wiped clean. The owners of that debt will do a small whimpering cry then wait for the next opportunity to invest their surplus..in another issuance of debt. Investors in any asset, debt inclusive, should always know that their asset can go to zero. No asset values ought to enjoy any form of guarantee, as there is no guarantees in life except death.
Debt only matters in the sense that it is owed to someone. To not pay off debt only has moral implication in the harm it does to debt holders. Who holds the national debt? Should the younger generations feel any moral obligation to them?
The national debt is owed to every American that enjoys social safety nets and forever wars and bailouts for corporations and tough love for voters. The destination is sovereign debt collapse and a complete failure of the dollar system. We rebuild on a Bitcoin standard because it's going to be the only thing between you and a government that comes begging to be trusted again with a gold standard. Never again!
Stating "Charles was told by his financiers that his loan requests had been rejected, forcing Charles to recall parliament. The rest is history" doesn't do justice to the distinct religious tensions that contributed to the revolutionary war that followed. Notably, Charles attempted to force the English Book of Common Prayer upon the Church of Scotland to establish a uniform church between the two nations. This prompted a rebellion by the Scots, creating the very need for additional financing to suppress the uprising as the Scots advanced into England. Furthermore, the outcome could arguably have again been very different in 1646-7 following the First Civil War, when terms for settlements were offered to Charles on multiple occasions.
Likewise, the unfolding of the French Revolution over a ten year period was an EXTRAORDINARILY complex historical event -- to imply it was largely about poor peasants rising up against the greedy rich is a radical oversimplification. Louis was not executed until 1793, 4 years after the Estates General, during which time various responses by the monarchy, the Assembly’s lack of reform progress and events in foreign war all paved the way to Louis' eventual execution.
All of this is to say -- revolutions are underpinned by a very complicated, murky, context-specific set of factors, not least contingency -- the suggestion that we better informed about the catalysts and consequences of certain actions or policies is debatable. With such a high degree of interconnection and interdependence in modern states and economies, it is quite possible we might actually know less than ever before. Attempts to make societies more egalitarian may reduce the likelihood of protest; on the other hand they may stoke radical backlash from elites and the right of the political spectrum, which it will be and when is hard to say. Who could have foreseen the path Russia took over the 20th century, and what about all the revolutions that might have very nearly happened, but didn't, which we cannot draw upon for evidence as to why a revolution won't happen after all?
I think the overall style of the video makes it quite clear that he isn't predicting anything with certainty - he's pointing out trends that one scholar claims have strong historical parallels with previous pre-revolutionary periods. Of course the future isn't fixed. But a lot of us have sensed for years that something has gone badly wrong, and serious change is needed. This video gives voice to that desire - and something like evidence in support of it.
I don't think he simplified it as far as the poor peasantry rising up, as he spoke of the elites jockeying for position, spoke of Cromwell's and Napoleon's, basically of lower order elites wielding amplifying elemental passions and politico-philosophical tendencies, creating zeitgeists - and this is limited to neither left nor right.
Loving your content, I’ve been up all night watching. Inspired, influenced and more open minded. Thank you
Maybe the Millennials should consider taxing the rich, Boomers or otherwise.
young leftists do advocate for that but the policy almost never gets passed
There should be an increase in the top marginal tax, and increase in spending for things that increase revenue. But there are other serious problems which involve intervention.
Education costs are through the roof and presidents of universities get paid over a Million in salary while adjuncts of the same university survive below the poverty line without health insurance or benefits of any kind. This requires an federal audit and intervention. Unfortunately they don’t fix it they just increase student debt loads.
This microcosm of the economy points to the ridiculous absurdities of the financial system as a whole:
1. Have the youth take on extreme debt.
2. Pay workers poverty wages
3. Maintain an elite with wealth and privilege at all costs.
It is an absurd system, and the least the common tax payer should do is take back their public commons, their state universities, but the public has forgotten what a public commons is.
@@hotgurlpolly5236 Yes, they do, and I voted for a party that pushed for that in their campaign. The government in now where I live, is where the boomers have voted in a callous one.
All the while, the younger generation is already at the point of revolution now.
Fortunately, those young are about to vote in a year or two, when the next election is happening.
Already, the current parties in office will be destroyed, because a policy was recently debated and voted on, but got voted down by all other parties, and it was simply a policy on removing tax on food.
Great video. No matter the views or comments I wish we had more of this content on youtube.
Excellent, cogent, and all-encompassing doco-piece. Thanks. I hope everyone see this!
Wonderful explaination of our past and present. This video deserve way more views.
wonderful work as always
I love my mum but hate her friends (Dad selfishly abandoned the family like so many babyboomers). They are so entitled, judgemental and smug. Bring on revolution.
Fascinating, just landed and discovered this video and channel. I think there will be a revolution and I reckon I got some applied scientific parts of such already. Somebody wrote a book on their own understanding and may have called it a fourth turning. I'm apparently one of the first millennials 198. My fundamental point on this video, I 've lived longest in one of the world's richest cities - London. There are more millionaires than any other on the planet and I'm suppose to pay for social care for boomers. I have already given unconditionally but I have needs and dreams and ways of doing things of my own! ;-)
The Fourth Turning was written by a white supremacist fascist please beware of it and those who promote it.
You have a Monarchy and threw out your biggest trading partners.
I'm at work, just spoke with a random customer about taxes right before I sat down to watch this. I'm a millenial. Pretty sure he was too. Both of us were sick of this cycle. If it isn't getting fixed, and it's not, well... Critical mass is nebulous. But inevitable. Piss enough people off... The whole policy of "if you don't have a wristband, you don't get in the door" is certainly bothering my generation more and more...
Yep. You're absolutely fck@n right it is Jay
This is a very interesting and informative video. Thank you. In my opinion, the most important point made here is about the NEED for a Wealth Tax. As far as an economy goes, the most wealthy are often the least productive and more often than not, they evade or avoid paying tax back into the economies which provided their wealth. A system such as we have today, where wealth is transferred upwards, (with the disproven belief that it will then "trickle downwards") MUST have a way of taking back some of that wealth in the form of taxes. A failure to do so leaves us with what we see today in the form of growing inequality and people struggling for any kind of a decent life in some of the World's wealthiest nations. This situation has always arisen and has ALWAYS led to the inequality being dealt with, either pre-emptively by Government, or belatedly by grassroots uprisings. Today is no different and a failure of government to deal with this crisis now will lead to remedial action from the ground up. As the Narrator notes however, revolutions are unpredicatble and prone to being usurped by unscrupulous powers. We need to push our governments to deal with these issues now to prevent bloodshed.
America was wealthy in the postwar years because America was last man standing at the end of WW2. The further we get from that, the further we get from that, like it or not. Boomers and boomer critics alike tend to point to the prosperity of the 1950s as some kind of base-line normal when, in reality, that situation was already diminishing for those boomers born in the late 50s/early 60s.
You might be my new favorite channel with that silky soothing voice of yours. Great content
I agree, we can no longer afford solutions that do not address root causes to real issues, as pointed out in this well produced film, what would go along way toward helping would be a mass transportation system across the country, between communities, towns, and cities, eliminating the current, out-of-date, freeway system, which are congested and a source of much aggravation etc, the current economic system that only benefits, a reality few investors, must end, do away with wall street as it no longer serves the purpose it was originally created, only serves the elites, who have less in common with society than parasites, as do away with real estate as a investment, no more rental property, one house for each family. We need to go back to local farm, that reflect a natural connection with the land and animals, no more inhumane mega farms…end the need for fossil fuel vehicles by changing the current capitalist system, create a world wide healthcare system so that wherever one travels, if your injured, you are not a burden, end poverty by changing the reasons the root causes that creates poverty……
These are wonderful sentiments, I do have to wonder if you appreciate the immense challenges these goals pose though. For example, a public transportations system across the 3rd largest country in the world? I would feel great progress if we could get a good system in LA, Houston and Atlanta. Doing that would be immense in itself, just finding a way to keep people getting to work and school while we did it, convincing people to use it, figuring out what to do with roads, trying to design a system that facilitates all the sprawl that cars created… this would be a daunting task for these 3 cities let alone the entirety of America
I don’t say this to be condescending or mean, but sometimes I wonder if people who state solutions have an appreciation for the difficulty of the problem to begin with
If l wasn't poor I would use my inheritance to simply invent a machine to raise oneself up by the bootstraps and amass an even greater fortune that way.
Well developing antigravity would be highly lucrative for many number of reasons
There already is one. It's called brains, balls and hard work.
@@andyokus5735 which count for absolutely 0 in the long run...
@@andyokus5735 it takes luck as well.
So everyone that doesn’t meet some standards, that you set, “deserve” less?
Seriously we are just creating more losers and wondering why things aren’t going so well… those losers drag us all down.
People like you are making sure of it,👍
@@andyokus5735 Brains? University is too expensive
Balls? Can't even get a loan to take a risk
Hard work? Unions are gone, so my hard work won't be rewarded
Get a grip on reality man
we'll just refuse to fix your printers anymore so theyll have to adapt or fail on their own
The revolution is nigh. Down with the billionaires. Down with Capitalism!
We're getting closer and closer to this becoming a reality every day.
soundtrack is dope.
You wanna hear something worse? THEY BLAME EACH OTHER FOR THE MESS. It is like listening to school children. Even when both are culpable, they refuse to face the music. "He started it!" "No, he did!"
Meanwhile the rest of us want to put them both in time out but alas such is pointless when they cannot reflect on what they BOTH did wrong. Chief among them was electing politicians that looked good on tv and said all the right things without the grownups in the room willing to hold their feet to the fire on delivery.
Check out "A Generation of Sociopaths." It doesn't matter what boomers say, because the evidence really does show that they're responsible.
Millennials have flaws but most millenial hatred is boomer projection and gaslighting. They basically despise all other generations.
bad times create strong government and united society,
strong govt and cooperation create good times,
good times dismantle strong govt and atomise society,
weak govt and divided people create bad times,
btw. this is officially my favourite video on youtube, incredible job
The music choice in this video is so good.
I want to stress that a crucial factor of boomer's wealth is demographics. The median age in us in '60's and 70's is 29.5 and 28.1 respectively. Of course, post-war keynesian distribution of wealth is crucial here, but the demographic pressure in favor of the youth played an important role.
A consensus about what we need isn't merely useful to prevent a revolution by satisfying its motivating problems through normal constitutional mechanisms - it's useful in case of a revolution as well, to establish an effective new order that can command broad acceptance and stability.
Thank you sir for your contribution
This is gold.
The baby boomers may have started this, but they sure won't like the way this ends.
Social Security has always been a con, it just got discovered more recently. The original retirement age was 60 and the average lifespan back then, 60. What are the chances right?
What is the song at 1:30? Kevin Nolan barely exists online, if that's who it is credited to.
Born in 1957 I grew up in a house that was eventually condemned as unfit for human habitation. At 16 l took the only opportunity available for a school failure, a job in the local asbestos factory, ah yes, the swinging sixties.
I enjoyed this video and you made some really good points, here are a couple thoughts
Firstly neither the french or english revolutions entered statelessness at any point
You posit that revolution is caused by increased hardship, but the examples you gave don't entirely support that.
From what you said the French and English revolutions started not with government bankruptcy, but in reaction to increased taxes; In both these examples the actual "revolution" (ill get to that term later) was property holders taking control of the tools of state
I'm not discounting that popular unrest coincided with these, but the revolutions you describe are not caused by it
Also in both these cases the increased taxes were an attempt by monarchies to restore and stabilize their power
This heavily relates to the current situation, so ima type out my thoughts now
There is a debt crisis now, and it won't be solved by legislation
Given how much power companies have in the US bc of campaign donations etc, I don't think it's possible that effective taxation of companies/the wealthy will be implemented
The two revolutions were predominantly (not exclusively for the French that situation's super complex) struggles between the monarchies and property. A revolution of that type won't happen because the gov is a tool of capitalism, there aren't any rival power players. My prediction is that there's gonna be acceleration of debt (and by extension inflation) increase and more and more crises. A "revolution" of a different type, one that's not a power grab but a generalized refusal of power is possible, but honestly I don't think it's useful calling that a revolution at this point, revolution by definition is power changing hands
I'm not saying that a weakening or complete breakdown of systems of subjection isn't possible, but I think the histories you're drawing from aren't about that. I don't know if a large scale 'revolutionary moment' insurrection is possible/probable, but one on a smaller scale certainly is. There is no history of that because history (dominant mode of historiography if ur a pedant) isn't about that and an individualized (not necessarily individual) rejection of those systems doesn't fit well into a narrative of a moment or movement changing everything.
Such a fantastic comment here, I could talk with you for hours! The real revolution has actually quietly been happening for 13 years. It’s the return to the spiritual roots of the country, the first wave of populism in the past decade was the real revolution. It was embodied best by Ron Paul, & while the Tea Party ended up being co-opted by the establishment & spurred on more & more populism, the actual revolution didn’t stop because it was Bitcoin.
Hard, sound money ensures a nation of people can remain free. And while I’m sure not everyone gets it yet with Bitcoin, it’s truly the only thing in the world that encodes truth in a protocol that doesn’t change, that can’t be manipulated by the powers that be. It just ticks forward, moving in cycles, but remains more & more scarce, as the network grows more & more powerful. It’s growth will allow Civilization to not implode on ourselves, a money directly tied to the laws of thermodynamics & energy secures the incentive to innovate in energy, as this is the only true way towards wealth. Energy is the center of all economic activity. But oil is increasingly more expensive to extract. To avoid true reversion to the Middle Ages as the Roman Empire went, Bitcoin will allow people to remain free. It will open up a whole new age of human possibility, prosperity, and quality of life.
Bitcoin falls apart if the electrical grid does, I fail to see your point. It's socially constructed like any other currency
@@escalatingentropy4542 take your hard money and go back to the panics of the 1800s and 1900s with your libertarian bullshit belongs
Cringe Bitcoin supporter spotted🤢
I think the biggest difference is that the present national debts you're talking about are "owed" by the issuer of a fiat currency in that currency. I don't think it's even comparable. The US, UK, EU and Japan just have so many more options, including ways to actually address the crisis. I'm talking about Modern Monetary Theory.
Money has to be accepted by the society itself though. MMT will never work because money is far more complex than yet another crockpot academic theory that is trying to rebrand hyperinflation. People already sense the hyper inflation to come.
Also Japan has free ridden on 3 decades of growth in America, that’s why they persisted despite adding debt. They also were a formerly fascistic society so collectivist policies worked, plus they still often ran trade surpluses. America’s trade deficit is so poor right now, it’s just a complete fantasy people have that the Fed can keep doing 3 card Monty forever. They won’t be able to, the retired Boomers with a good nest egg or so saved for retirement are already getting nervous.
Why wouldn’t a generation renown for its selfishness start cashing out? In fact they have, they’re buying hard assets like land & homes to hold instead, some holding gold. Eventually this will cascade, but the problem you laid out above that a fiat currency can just pay its own debt is a farce. The US dollar is the reserve currency, it only remains that way by being artificially strong through consistent dollar flows into purchasing our debt. Without consistent dollar flows globally, you’ll have a rapid sell off of treasuries that the Fed will immediately purchase (it happened in March 2020, look it up, 2-3 of the highest volatility days in past 40 years on the 10 year treasury).
And once that happens, the dollar will just immediately lose value & have a huge volatility spike, which will scare foreign suppliers from using it to trade, they will turn to alternatives that hold stable value. And that’s the stage where you have a currency crisis, if you read anything about monetary history, currency crises are followed by govt having to stop the bleeding by backstopping the currency with a gold peg. JP Morgan’s most famous quote “gold is money, everything else is credit”. You cannot print real world goods, farmers will never accept fake BS money for their crop, neither will oil producers. If you don’t have energy or food production, you don’t have an economy, simple as that. We’ll be in full Argentine bananaland at that point, because people wanted to believe the new crockpot theory rather than looking back in time to see it’s always the same story.
@@escalatingentropy4542 what causes inflation?
@@kvaka009 fractional reserve banking
@@escalatingentropy4542 why is there very little inflation now? Do you actually understand MMT?
@@escalatingentropy4542 mmt is literally just an analysis of our current system there isn't a question of whether or not it works. You must misunderstand mmt what about it "wouldn't work" in your view?
Yet another masterpiece. Thank you.
I am a boomer and no I didn't get welthey struggling most of my life just to keep a roof over my head.and I understand the young people Thay are a crisis generation more in common with thair great grandpa than me but not all bummer had it easy
Millennials and Zoomers, generations betrayed.
Finally! Revolution!
@@Carl-hs420a ok boomer
@@Carl-hs420a Imagine thinking that any of that makes sense.
ok, i love the soundtrack already by the 9 minute mark
I love how the term debt is inserted into this video as if it explains financing. These were political concessions that were being made to rivals of the ruling political class. It’s supposed loan was a negotiated deferment for the transfer of power. Maybe the ruling class would come back into a position of power and re-negotiate the terms of their surrender.Maybe that’s called paying off loans. But it’s naïve and simple to use the term debts loans or even finance.
of course, this all assume the earth is still habitable to humans in 2050.
So, revolt sooner rather than later. Got it!
The first song is called blood wedding by kevin nolan!!! I looked forever, so if anyone else is curious, there ya go.
what is the name of the silent film?
I will admit that I am a outright advocate of revolution as the only means of ending the subjugation of capitalism however I still appreciate a perspective that will convince people who are still constrained to solutions within the system.
War isn't good for anyone but the super rich
Is there anything you look towards to determine what might cause a revolution to start, and what we could do to make sure the left would actually win? If it's something passive we might as well pursue other strategies in the meantime, if it's not that's good to know.
@@mbburry4759 War, ironically, is great for medicine.
@@mbburry4759 Revolution will see the super riches heads rolling literally. So its definitely not good for them when the proletariat rises up. In fact its what they fear the most the people united against them.
Some heads are about to be chopped.
With any luck it'll include plenty of wrinkled, delusional boomers
Haha...
@@Sam-rm9hp and billionaires
Interesting watch. Don’t know if I completely agree with your political conclusions but your analysis is solid. I remember years ago talking about the increase in university enrolments and the following dilution of the social status conferred by a degree as a key motivator for the middle-class student radicalism of the new left in the 60s and 70s, and my professor looked at me like i was crazy! Glad to know I’m not.
What song does that backround singing come from?
Generations didn't exist as a way to analyze cultural life until the Boomers and the youth culture that came with them. The lines constantly shift (I was born in 1980 and have been called X, Y, Millennial and I think there was another one at one point), and more often then not they are about someone that has a narrative to tell *ahem* Tom Brokaw to shame younger people while worshiping some ideal past. Ultimately, as a level of macro analysis, I don't like it, the real issue is the same that it always has been, CLASS. Also, there are times when regressive policy and culture rules and times when progressive or even radical rules. These are artifacts of history and that implies that someone was alive in those times that benefited and suffered. Older Millennials are in their 40s now and I will be geriatric by 2050 and far too old to be running for the barricades. But regardless, as much as I am infuriated at Boomer smugness, there is ultimately no such thing as a boomer as a political class other than voter age demographics, so it isn't really useful. I live with and among boomers in my community and I see the same hand-wringing, hedging, and uncertainty that dominates the younger people and all are just trying to get by. In the absence of articulated vision people are just scared to act and feel hopeless and alienated from participation. It doesn't excuse Boomer blindness, but again, all age groups have reactionaries and radicals.
But being a trans vet, I often joke that Boomers are so narcissistic that their sons have to transition and date them just to survive while they continue to F**K us. So yeah, OK Boomer.
Asserting that the cause of all unrest in the history is the ever grooving debt is simply moving the goal post. To reach to right the answer, one should focus on the fact that there were and is always the same instutitios that the Kings or the people are owing to. Who benefits form all these in the end. Not the boomers for sure.
2 years on and it's just getting worse and worse.
Thank you ❤️
Baby Boomers were demanding cuts in the 1970's. I'm a babay boomer and I was age 10 to 20 through the 1970's, hardly in a position to demand anything. The peak cohorts, born over 1955-1965 ranged from age 5 to 25, again hardly in a position to demand cuts. It was GI's that created the world of high inequality of today between 1964 and 1986.
Your generation voted Reagan and Clinton into power. The two people who ruined both American political parties.
Naw, you're doing the whole thing right now and can't see it. Your special right? Not like the others? That's the point. Everyone is the same but you. Each one of you is a special unique little turd that deserves their own castle and a few cars and a 6 bedroom house with 5 dogs and a goddamn canary? Or am I being Obtuse?!?
So you are arguing that Boomers weren't the most invested in generation in history and then pulled up the ladder and slammed the door shut behind them? 🤔 Interesting
I as born in ‘57. It was my parents that were influencing the politicians to do all of the cuts, usually because they saw their income shrinking as they entered retirement. Putting this all on Boomers is a bit of a stretch, since generations usually don’t get political power until we’ll past 40.
If you were born in 65-80 you were not a boomer, you were gen X. I'm gen X . Born in 69. The boomers were the last generation to experience massive growth. For them life was getting better. Developments in factories led to cheaper products. It became possible for average households to have refrigerators and washers. Suburban living was hot and home size had grown. It looked like things would be awesome forever. Gen X lived under a different situation. Things were changing, jobs had gone overseas. Factories were closing. Corporations were getting richer but families were stagnant. We were the first to experience a decline in living standard over our parents. Now it's become divided. The haves and have nots. I know millennials not struggling, they are those in the 10% club that can ride this recession out. The rest, those ordinary millennials cannot. In history when the divide between the haves and the have nots becomes so great then the have nots tend to revolt. The have nots which are many folks from genx on down are tired of suffering while the haves live comfortably.
Great video
What's the name of the song at the beginning?
Both neo-liberalism and conservative economics are an absolute proven disaster. On the neo-liberal end, you have countries going bankrupt and high housing prices. On the conservative end, you get communism due to wealth gaps, an erosion of anti-trust and rise of monopolies, severe corruption, price gouging, wars over infrastructure and competitive education, and basically the things that make shit* known as Brasil. We are more on the right today. Both sides are to blame for high non-renewable energy costs post peak oil. We are awash in renewables. We could have spent the money we did in Iraq on our infrastructure and breaking free from foreign oil and non-renewable foreign energy. Still, with record housing prices and price of other goods [both sides to blame], a recession will cause unrest. Will housing prices fall [rent or homes] enough? Some cities saw them rise after 2008. Look at the homeless camps of Denver and CO Springs now [one liberal the other Republican]. My states only city with balanced books is the Purple city of Aurora, CO. See the issue here. Benjamin Franklin said it best. "From time to time, the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants." Anyone who supports a political party and anyone who is a politician is a tyrant.
To be succinct, I doubt it as most revolutions require well organised groups unified with some underlying ideology, amongst loads of other factors. Also, think how bad things would really have to get before the rest of the population would allow it. Even in modern industrialised cases of poverty we are too comfortable, lazy, whatever, to really give it up sad as it may be.
Our generation is globalized - not a single unifying moral between us. Capitalism keeps us just comfortable enough with paltry possessions, and we feel so depressed because we have no understanding of how to be happy. Forget united we stand, some of us struggle to get out the door to work in the morning...
Amazing doco tho
We are too worried about Baby Yoda and vintage Nikes to start any meaningful reforms.
Great video.
U knocked it out the park Congrats
So is the dynamic you discuss a purely American phenomenon? Or does it translate to Europe as well? Because all the analysis of baby boomer/ post war progress and over investment seems to focus on the US but I don’t understand how that translates to the UK/ Europe. Being a British CZcamsr it would be nice for you to explain yourself through British lenses and cultural references instead of relying on the “status quo” US narrative.
The torys are practically at war with its citizenry and labour is not far away. You have recently kicked out your best trading partner to preserve English banks. 13 years of austerity and a monarchy. yikes
10 for presentation, but 1 for analysis.
I think at the end the video really gives up on making a political case for generational exploitation and starts to revert to where the real issues do lie, in tax, and that all things to all people term; “neo-liberalism.”
The baby boom generation is supposedly that born between about 1945 and about 1960. So a 15-20 year period. Remember that people born in say 1965, who are not baby boomers are now aged 55-56, have been voting for nearly 40 years
Someone born in 1950 is presently 70 and in the next 20 years will likely be dead. Whatever wealth they have will be passed to their children. Of course many born in that generation are dead already. But death is a great leveller.
A moment’s reflection will reveal that trying to segregate generations in this way is silly because new people are born every day and people die every day. The notion of a “generation”is mostly a magazine category, not serious social science.
The best explanation of the current situation is that globalisation has led to a massive increase in the global supply of labour and in consequence, labour is cheap. As a result, in western developed democracies, the share of labour of national income has reduced. The share of capital has increased.
The legal structure of companies is that they have a primary duty to shareholders. The “shareholder value”ideology that has followed this, has led to radical cost cutting which has hollowed out roles that would have allowed careers to propel people into the middle class. Many of these jobs have either been automated or exported to Asia. Many other financial strategies have extracted profit at the expense of workers.
One such cost to business, tax, has been the subject of effective lobbying, , significantly through the campaign contributions system, resulting in significant tax cuts for business and wealthy individuals.
This is nothing to do with “baby boomers”, many of whose lives this has also blighted, and everything to do with the legal and institutional design of modern capitalism, which has driven the huge additional wealth produced by workers over the last 40 years, into the coffers of a small elite. Piketty’s point is that once this wealth disparity is established, it is self re-inforcing. Piketty should be the death of trickle down theory.
Globalisation, which in the absence of tax co-operation between states, has led to tax competition between them, has led to very low tax rates on business. It is fair to say that voters have generally liked tax cuts on their income, but that is hardly surprising. The issue is that the pro-capitalist ideology that has driven them, is in reality content with government debt because the financial markets make a living out of it and it keeps taxes low.
The state of developed democracies is a big subject, but trying to portray it as an inter-generational conflict adds nothing to its understanding.
This is a classic capital versus labour conflict. Some answers are the curtailment of private political donations and replacing this with the state funding of political parties, the reform of company and banking law, the decentralisation of the institutions of capital allocation, higher minimum wages and - company tax reform.
Free capital movement around the globe, costs cutting, disciplining workers, rewarding the elite - these are the common features described as neo-liberalism. But there is nothing liberal about them. This has given rise to a self perpetuating oligarchy, which liberal thinking intends to prevent.
It is not an intergenerational reckoning, but the destruction of our eco-systems, of which the climate is one part, that will bring this system down. For sure the 40 year party that began in the 1980’s is over.
So called millennials may feel they have arrived at 2.00am when all the alcohol has gone. I get that. But an awful lot of people weren’t invited to that party in the first place. Many others were clear throughout that the mess would be hard to clear up.
Bad analysis leads to bad policy. The young against the old is a pitiful slogan.
The whole generational conflict is to distract us from the class warfare being done on the working class by the wealthy.
thumbs up and fist high comrade
Good analysis. Thanks. Anyway, as long as it doesn't serve as a smoke curtain, I don't think it's bad to unite the young against the statu quo. Calling it boomers is dumb, but it fits the meme and the start of tickle-down economics. Of course, it forgets all the boomer counterculture, which is rich. Arguably, we could say it's boomers who started the ongoing Revolution. And yeah, I said ongoing. Trumpism, Brexit and such is reactionary by nature. And what is it they are reacting to?
Overall, what we need to do, and believe we are doing, is deconstruct concepts and redefine them; saving what can be saved. Boomers tend to see liberty as a tradition to save rather than a political goal far off, for instance. They often are oblivious to present reality. As all old people, sure. That's why they are one of the most massive memes ever.
Young against old isn't so empty, emotionally speaking. We aren't completely rational. Our adolescence and progress is fundamentally based on rebelling against what's old; on defining young and improve from that reference. Also, your criticism about the video should acknowledge it talks about debt. And generational debt is a thing. Pretty significant as of now.
The old concept of class needs to die off too. Together with the idea of middle classes and so on. It's the only way we can actually form an actual international proletariat that rebels against abusive owners and corrupted States. The rhetoric now is opresor Vs oppressed. Much better, simpler, truer. Of course, it starts with and by the most oppressed. But then it needs to move to everyone else; which is rapidly happening. And that includes the bourgeoisie, which is been pushed essentially back to its status under aristocracy in feudalism. They were the ones rebelling in France. And Marx was the ideological son of that. We should not forget that. It serves us wrong.
So, allow me to use generations here to simplify my thesis, but I don't see as crazy for many of us millennials to be impatiently waiting for the Boomers to die so we only have to fight Gen X oppressors and dumb people as old as us with the help of our adult, younger friends. It should be easier. You need to consider we are mostly beyond violence too.
@@traposucio2944 So, you're OK with manufactured hatred if it serves a utilitarian purpose?
@@DanDeLeoninthefield nope, I am not. Hatred is never a solution. And Stuart Mill's utilitatism acknowledges that. It'd be bad for the collective, ultimately. Now, disorganised mockery, which is what happens towards boomers mainly, is totally ok and only natural. It's a young versus old natural thing all along. The difference is that with these three generations we can even use the concept of generations further than that. We went from 'hey, what. No way?' to 'no future' to, 'wtf is this no future about? Shouldn't it be a future? What's wrong with these people. Let's make millions of memes instead of doing something about it'.
Now, I do believe morality is changing and that changes things. I strongly believe the younger generations are identifying what's bad and what's good in a much interconnected, global and realistic way. And time of inaction is kind of ending now we are starting to have kids and such. I gather the whole censure and propaganda campaign around Ukraine is annoying many young people already. It's clear now there's no independently financed media at all things are getting Orwellian and we are losing liberty in the name of freedom. It's been that way for a long time. And it's not acceptable. Now, if one is older that's naturally harder to acknowledge as you'd been under heavy, enraging propaganda for way longer. But in the end, we are all in the same ship and no one is content. We just need to refocus rage (mainly manufactured by the media in a non Stuart Mill's, non Machiavelli's but more Goebbels-like fashion) in a non violent, global civil rights movement. Easy peasy! But it's happening. I hope it's not so generational and the young are supported by their older peers, tho. But we've crossed a line that should have never been crossed a long time ago. And the young have a better eye for such things. Thank God, because the future is theirs.
thank you for informing me about kevin nolan
What is the other song with the vocals?
I appreciate the timescale of the video and focus on possible trends in history so much. Outstanding quality!
So the crux of the argument here relies on one important assumption: We want to avoid the coming revolution. But do we really? Would England have been better off if James had been able to avoid the civil war and kept the status quo in place? Would parliamentary democracy have come about by more peaceful means, or would successive monarchs just resisted any change until that civil war happened one way or another regardless? Revolutions are risky, painful, and often result in even worse leaders seizing power in the aftermath. But are the eventual improvements in society actually acheivable by any other means? I'm unconvinced.
I think you assumed wrongly. Guessing by Then & Now's multiple videos on Anarchism, I would assume he is a revolutionary and I think the video conveys the same thing.
This perspective is based in nationalistic thinking rather than humanistic. A massive loss of human life is not justified by things getting better for the descendents of the survivors for a hundred or so years afterward. Revolutions are what naturally happen when things get untenable -- that doesn't mean that they are preferable to peace.
One look at America fighting its revolution to gain independence from Britain and then a quick glance at Canada that achieved the same goal with no blood shed proves that revolution is not the only way to make change.
I get what you mean, but the daily reality of civil warfare isn't something I want to walk into if we can find some other way to handle our problems. Like, you need to have something left to build with and I think a revolution could put us over edge in a bad way
@@kamilareeder1493 we are so far from fighting.. Americans are fat and lazy and programmed to stare at our phones and TVs and work.. the last thing you should be worried about it civil war, the top concern is complacency
i love the outro music but i cant find it anywhere… does anyone know what it is?? i know that then & now listed kevin nolan as the person who provided the music but i cant find any of his songs on spotify or soundcloud which is pretty weird… anyone know the name of the outro pls? kthxbyeee (also, great video)
edit: I FOUND IT, it seems to be only on youtube tho… ;-; its called blood wedding if youre wondering
Shoutout to the generations leading everything being the ones who were also exposed to lead paint. Only take a little to cause brain damage.
Dropped a like and shared before it even started cuz I know it's gonna be awesome!
The jordan peterson timeline had me ded 🤣🤣
Just finished... amazing!
This is one of the WORST videos so far. If for you a revolution is the re-implementation of Keynesian policies and higher taxes then we are fucked. What about instead of asking how much we tax the rich we start to think about what's the real source of value, who produces it and how the relationships of production are established in our society.
The solution is not located in how much or less we tax people, if you think fiscal policies are gonna get us out of capitalism then we have no hope. The illusion arises from the fact money owned by capitalist is legitimate and the only thing we can do about it is to make them pay more taxes. To tax the capital is to legitimate economic speculation and the system as a whole. Value is produced by us, workers, and this value needs to come back to us directly. Value is produced collectively, thus it must be redistributed through social contribution.
cheers.
I dont think anyone knows "the solution." Michael Burry thinks the US is on the decline while Cathy Woods is bullish for the US. Who knows what will happen. Sure keynesian economics might not be the remedy but I think you're over simplifying a complex, challenging issue. Regardless I think, as a whole, the video has a lot of great points and is well done. Obviously he's not going to present a flawless thesis that will solve all the problems. It's youtube lol
@@MattStranberg It's the video simplifying the solution, not me. I'm just making patent the flaws of it.
If saying the cause for revolutions is fiscal policies aka debt management and proposing as a solution Keynesian policies + taxation is not bad simplification I don't know what it's.
Take are!
While I agree that a revolution is looming for multiple reasons, I do not agree with your analysis at all.
First the economics analysis is lacking, I would recommend "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?" that gives a good overview of the recent global economic history. Then, you do not talk at all about what is often referred as the energy crisis, I would recommend the book "Carbon Democracy". I could develop but it would take quite some time.
Personally I perceive our current crisis as the dawn of the liberal era, or what we also call modernism. The idea that society can only be regulated by law (Kant's axiological neutrality) and economics (what we often call orthodox economy, itself derived from Keynesian economics).
In Europe we know too well what happens when technocrats think they know better than the demos what is the truth.
I thought of something that may be controversial, but if COVID was allowed to run its course, killing more old people, the food might be cheaper as there will be more supply of food for everyone left and the economy wouldn't slow down!
The covid restrictions protect the old and harm the young!
@@1mol831 Hey 1 Mol, why be lazy? Take the initiative and directly do what you want a virus to do. And while you're at it, hop on a plane for Yemen and help ease the need for childcare AND food and the rest.
Have you read "automatic society" by bernard stiegler ?
I think the picture about the danger of public debt that is beeing painted here is misleading. The modern monetary system doesnt work like it did at the time of kings, the points about wage stagnation, wealth inequality, market monopolisation, asset price inflation, housing prices are far more interesting than the defecit of the state. I'd suggest Stephanie Keltons Defecit Myth. Obviously private sector debt and market bubbles are key factors of capitalist crisis. Also important is the tendency of the rates of profit to fall. But the state debt isnt very important in this ordeal, a state with the sovereignity over their currency can always pay his own debt, because he emits his own currency, the struggle about real ressources and the workforce and the accumulation of capital seem to be the more important factors for sharpening of the contradictions in capitalism and rise of revolutionary energy.
Also the improvement in productivity with automation could be used for a succesful reduce of working people or better working hours. The problem isnt technoligical advance and automation, its the inbalance of power in a capitalist class society, which therefore lays of workers instead of reduce their necessary labor.
YES YES. It's wealth inequality, no matter the generation.
But generational debt is a thing and I think he makes a good anology with the other revolutions.