“Money and Class in America,”
where does "American Dream" come from?
100 years ago the American Dream got corrupted, now again
Harvard grads have done the most damage do America.
how do you find mediation, balance power between rich and poor
democratic society put premium on society
capitalism not
constant tension between capitalism and a democratic society
constant dialectic
more money earned with rents and dividents than wages 1984 and the gap is widening further.
"do we live in a democracy?" No!
loss of faith in democratic idea
&!
Stupidfied Plutocracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DXsPeBiIQY - When Meritocracy Breeds Greed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZU0IXO7AQw&t=88s - The End of American Exceptionalism

frothy times attract not the right actors!

In Mediocristan, you work fixed hours for a fixed wage. In Extremistan, success is enormously lucrative, but failure is far more common … and, for artists, condemns you to a life of grinding poverty and/or working outside of your chosen field. Of course tech startups also live in Extremistan. So too does venture capital itself, a meta-tournament of picking winners, in which enough money is (hopefully) made from the few big hits to outweigh the inevitable failures– –and so too will we all, soon enough. I’ve argued before that, because software is eating the world, “technology is slowly dragging us all, economically, away from Mediocristan and into Extremistan.” The power of software is such that it gives ever-smaller numbers of people ever-greater leverage. Meanwhile, much of yesterday’s rote Mediocristan work can and will be automated tomorrow. As a result, our economies are moving (slowly, in fits and starts) to a power-law Extremistan future. [ Seth Godin "be remarkable" ]

- see also comments ie Documentary "Underwater Dreams" youtu.be/2FqCO5clKR0

“These people were very accessible,” Swisher recalls of a younger Bezos and his cohort, “and you met them before they were who they are now. When people get rich, people lick them up and down all day, so some of them morph into thinking that being licked up and down all day is their reality and that everything that comes out of their mouths are golden nuggets. Everyone starts to rewrite history, but if you knew them, and have some historical knowledge …” [ the Ass Hole effect - As people get richer, they are more likely to feel entitled, to exploit others, and to cheat. http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/2afgt4/the_ahole_effect_what_wealth_does_to_the_brain/ - http://www.alternet.org/culture/ahole-effect-what-wealth-does-brain ] / + http://valleywag.gawker.com/even-tech-bloggers-hate-themselves-1605371279 / "“She’s one of these CEOs who likes to be lauded,” “Personally, I think she’s remarkable. She’s really accomplished and smart, but she’s not perfect, [as is everyone]"

+ Does a baby's name affect its chances in life? || http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26634477 >> But more recent work has presented a mixed picture. Richard Zweigenhaft, a psychologist at Guilford College in the US, pointed out that wealthy, oddly-named Americans are more likely to find themselves in Who's Who. He found no consistent bad effects of having a strange name, but noted that both common and unusual names are sometimes deemed desirable. Conley, who is a sociologist at New York University, says that children with unusual names may learn impulse control because they may be teased or get used to people asking about their names. "They actually benefit from that experience by learning to control their emotions or their impulses, which is of course a great skill for success." But for the main part, he says, the effect of a name on its bearer rarely amounts to more than the effect of being raised by parents who would choose such a name.