Mobility

[Dave2002]

This is quite an interesting article - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...bility/681439/

[I don't subscribe to the Atlantic]

However having described the historical situations and related those to the present state in the US it then goes on to suggest what I guess seems the "obvious" ways to fix things.
Typically the suggestions for fix concentrate on productivity - increasing wealth etc., rather than allow for a less determined adoption of city life, working life - just to fit someone else's idea of what makes good living etc.

Sure - people living in rural communities may be relatively poor, and indeed in some cases life maybe very hard, but it is possible not to insist that everyone lives in cities and has to work just to satisfy productivity goals.
Many people who live outside "efficient" areas may actually be happier, and even if the "wealth" created in those areas may not seem significant on balance sheets for some people the life styles may be much more worthwhile.

Of course at the lowest end there will be people living in poverty, who are unhappy and unable to make progress - and they may decide to change - perhaps moving to a city or some other neighbourhood - but the assumption that they "have" to do that, because of course they want more and "better" things - something I would seriously question.

[Serial_Apologist]

This is quite an interesting article - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...bility/681439/

[I don't subscribe to the Atlantic]

I'm "sure" glad to hear that!

However having described the historical situations and related those to the present state in the US it then goes on to suggest what I guess seems the "obvious" ways to fix things.
Typically the suggestions for fix concentrate on productivity - increasing wealth etc., rather than allow for a less determined adoption of city life, working life - just to fit someone else's idea of what makes good living etc.

Sure - people living in rural communities may be relatively poor, and indeed in some cases life maybe very hard, but it is possible not to insist that everyone lives in cities and has to work just to satisfy productivity goals.
Many people who live outside "efficient" areas may actually be happier, and even if the "wealth" created in those areas may not seem significant on balance sheets for some people the life styles may be much more worthwhile.

Of course at the lowest end there will be people living in poverty, who are unhappy and unable to make progress - and they may decide to change - perhaps moving to a city or some other neighbourhood - but the assumption that they "have" to do that, because of course they want more and "better" things - something I would seriously question.

What are you really saying, Dave?

The truth should be obvious by way of the problems outlined in the article now being common to almost every so-called "advanced" country. And that common factor is the global interdependence of the capitalist system, described quite a few decades ago as "Whenever America sneezes, the world catches a cold" - except for the fact that whereas capital exports once had to wait on manual banking systems, which meant that when the Portuguese bankers attempted to ferret their millions out in suitcases in the 70s when their businesses were in danger of being nationalised the workforces could physically stop the resulting run on the Escudo, such currency transfers now take place at the instant click of a button. The blame for this was to be put partly on the Portuguese government and trade unions backing off under the blackmail threat rather than mobilising the working class a la "Digging for Victory" (or encouraging rather than stifling its self-mobilisation) and keeping the armed wing and judiciary of the state "onside" .

The huge amount of money that has to be created to be spent on gambling and wasteful unsustainable products (because capitalism can only live on "product lines") which then devalue - or in periods of overproduction get down-priced to be affordable to the masses laid off - would be unnecessary were people to get together and decide on what potential use to put all this fantastical productive capacity built by workers has to be built into the equation. Those at the top, now that such alternative courses of action are not discussed or portrayed in all the mass media as too late, are more and more exposed for their lies, hypocrisy and double standards. Rather than tired old cliche of finding blameless scapegoats for the American nostalgia for a past of constant mobility (btw at the expense of First Nation people who had lived pretty much eco-sustainably there for thousands of years but were regarded as too "ignorant" to take simple practical lessons from) our wonderful allies should instead wake up and put all that technology with which they until recently proudly led the way to meeting basic needs that would mean cutting out all the boardroom wasters, who - those not prepared to give of their "entrepreneurial skills" [sic] - could be shipped off to some desert island to play Monopoly with themselves.

For those of us who believe the theory of evolution can and should be applied to human beings, it should not be surprising that human life had continued for thousands and thousands of years despite the privations that meant not having a new iphone with apps for everything you didn't need to travel for because some underpaid guy with motor scooter would deliver it, or a stereotyped physique gym subscription, the reason being everything, every measurement which we have come to worship as being (or should be) the basis of all our shared values, is relative.

[eighthobstruction]

....what came first the person on the motor scooter or the person on the motor scooter delivering a motor scooter ....I am sure in metropolitan situations these days pedestrians are regularly acosted by folk on electric scooters - which would get right up my nose. For me the only real social mobility that has occured for me (a) moving to rural situation (away from many amenities - some of which might have been string quartets and jazz cafes) (b) reading Jean Genet (but only in translation) and (c) finally buying a car less that 10 years old.....