[ExI] Ossification (Was: riots)

[Mirco Romanato]

Il 25/09/2012 10:34, Charlie Stross ha scritto:

> We have a societal set-up that gives disproportionate wealth, power,
> and status to the elderly. This is not a HUGE problem, as long as
> there's a grim garbage-collector running in the background, but there
> are already signs that it is damaging our larger society -- the
> transfer of real estate wealth to the old facilitated by the credit
> bubble, for example, that has led to the freezing out of the
> under-30s from property markets.

We have a societal setup where the government give disproportionate 
wealth, power and status to the elderly. It do so because the elderly 
vote for the government, the young and the unborn not.

Await for the time this crisis hit really hard, and you will see real 
estate wealth evaporate (and food prices evaporate too, when food stamps 
will run out of purchasing power). The old need to sell their homes to 
retire, as their homes are their wealth in a frozen state. They need to 
make it liquid and there is no market for homes. If left to the real 
market forces, the prices would settle much lower than now without credit.

This will make house formation much cheaper than now, if Mr. Bernanke 
doesn't put the Fed. in between with money printing.

As an italian blogger (FunnyKing) put it out, elderly could have the 
wealth and the political power, but they need someone to care for them. 
Usually these are the young. And they will find a way to have the older 
pay, pay dearly.

> Try applying that to self-employed people? Or artists? (I suspect
> self-employment would rapidly rise among the young-elderly as they
> have the self-confidence and assets to make a fist of it.)

> The real problem, though, is to find ways of destabilizing rigid
> structures while encouraging social fluidity and minimizing
> inequality of both opportunity and outcomes.

> Oh, and the folks who keep banging on about "freedom" (meaning
> personal freedom) are going to have a fun time adjusting their
> strategies to come to terms with the number of iterations in their
> Prisoner's Dilemma scenario tending towards infinity ...

The best strategy for the Prisoner's Dilemma is and always will be a 
jailbreak.

Mirco