I keep seeing more articles on class conflict in modern America.
Everyone is missing the point: The current conflict is the inevitable conflict created by democracy.
An elite that relies on the mob will always (under democracy) square-off against the relatively well-off, productive citizenry.
The former will always seek to expand its ranks – hence the current de facto legality of illegal immigration. The modern elite can do whatever they want because they can import enough future voters to support them and because they control history.
(Another reason I am not a libertarian is that one basically has to be a supporter of open borders to be a libertarian in the mainstream sense. However, supporting unlimited immigration in the US, necessarily means supporting a less libertarian future. The waves of Mexican day-laborers are not going to vote to reduce wealth transfers any time soon.)
I don’t think any one is helped by seeing this class conflict as something new. It’s the next logical step facing a democracy. Soon there will be too many "beneficiaries" to be supported by actual, productive workers. Then the system will fall. It has always been so. It will always be so.
Democracy should be replaced by government by the intelligent, led by the modern equivalent of a philosopher-king.
“Another reason I am not a libertarian is that one basically has to be a supporter of open borders to be a libertarian in the mainstream sense.”
Unfortunately, that is pretty much true. In the 1990s and early 2000s the Lew Rockwell crowd opposed open borders, but now they are calling murdering, property-destroying, tresspassing drug smugglers “businessmen.”
I’ve always found it funny that libertarians instantly like something if money changes hands while liberals instantly dislike something if money changes hands.
Philosopher kings quite frequently go bad. And Bad philosophy leads to bad government.
The fundamental principle of government is the doctrine of original sin. All men can go bad. No matter the degree of intelligence, character or breeding. In everyone of us lays a tyrant.
The philosopher needs to be overseen by some one to limit his power if things get out of hand.
The best group to oversea the philosopher is the qualified mob.
And by qualified, I mean people who have been able to show prudence and honesty in their day to day lives. That’s why there needs to be some practical test for democratic citizenship. Serving in the armed forces as a volunteer. Paying off your mortgage, not being bankrupt or living off the nipple of state maternalism need to be prerequisites in order to be given the authority to vote.
Perhaps a philosopher king could go bad.
Unfortunately, democracy selects for bad men. At least with a king, we’d have a chance of getting a good man.
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