Random Connections

[undercrypt]

For kynthos333: Some numbers pertinent to our previous discussion, noted in Graduates Versus Oligarchs:So who are the winners from rising inequality? It's not the top 20 percent, or even the top 10 percent. The big gains have gone to a much smaller, much richer group than that. A new research paper by Ian Dew-Becker and Robert Gordon of Northwestern University, "Where Did the Productivity Growth Go?," gives the details. Between 1972 and 2001 the wage and salary income of Americans at the 90th percentile of the income distribution rose only 34 percent, or about 1 percent per year. So being in the top 10 percent of the income distribution, like being a college graduate, wasn't a ticket to big income gains. But income at the 99th percentile rose 87 percent; income at the 99.9th percentile rose 181 percent; and income at the 99.99th percentile rose 497 percent. No, that's not a misprint.

Just to give you a sense of who we're talking about: the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that this year the 99th percentile will correspond to an income of $402,306, and the 99.9th percentile to an income of $1,672,726. The center doesn't give a number for the 99.99th percentile, but it's probably well over $6 million a year.
Which seems to me to be a problem of a much bigger scale. The paper cited is here (pdf): Where did the Productivity Growth Go? Inflation Dynamics and the Distribution of Income

For obempls23 and iamsquid: UNSPEAKABLE VAULT (Of Doom) (and in particular, Elder Gods Reggae Beach Party?)

And for everyone else, conversation points on saving the world (or, more to the point, the people thereon). In the category of "things that need to be dealt with."

1. Global warming. Sort of a medium-time-frame big problem. Generally recognized, we just need to figure out what to do about it before we reach a point of no return. In the meantime, if there are any coastal places you'd like to visit, you might want to get that in sooner rather than later.
2. Political changes in America. On observation, our "government of the people" seems to have gone awry somewhere when it was learned that "the people" were vulnerable to certain types of manipulation via the mass media. This is a problem for the world because, on a particularly bad day, America could make it mostly uninhabitable. Sorry about that.
3. Long-term planetary doom. In the really long term, life on the planet is doomed. Sooner or later, a giant rock slams into us and triggers mass extinction. In the extremely unlikely event that we dodge that bullet, the sun eventually goes red giant and wipes our slate clean. Not really something we need to be concerned about (unless the giant rock shows up sooner rather than later), but it provides a certain framework.
4. Population growth. Sometime in the past week or so, the estimated global population hit 6.5 billion. In the next several years, we'll be adding another half a billion. It goes up from there. It sure would be nice if everyone had enough food, water, and shelter.
5. Fundamentalism as a cultural norm. Primarily but not exclusively religious fundamentalism. Extremism might be a better way to put it. I need to define this more clearly.
6. Consumerism. Another problem that might be primarily American, and that needs more clarification. "The theory that a progressively greater consumption of goods is economically beneficial" and/or "Attachment to materialistic values or possessions."
7. The pros and cons of increasing interconnectedness. We can communicate instantly with people across the globe! Yay! And drive them into a killing frenzy with little cartoons. Boo.
8. Disruptive technologies. Not the strict Clayton Christensen definition, although that's interesting, but the government definition as evidenced by our own Disruptive Technology Office: "Exploit path-breaking scientific and research advances that will enable us to maintain and extend intelligence advantages..." (Which makes me wonder even more about those Psi Tech folks, but that's unrelated... right?)
9. Plutarchy. Just a specific type of oligarchy. I don't know if it's a problem or a symptom, but I suspect it's not good for us either way.
10. Poverty. More specifically, the effects of poverty in the lack of food, water, health care, reasonable living space, and healthy life choices in general.

It seems to me that any sort of meaningful progress will need to deal, somehow, with most of these issues.

Related groups: (1, 3); (1, 2, 6); (1, 4, 6); (6, 8, 9, 10), (4, 5); (2, 5, 8); (2, 6, 9, 10); (8, 9); (4, 10); (5, 7, 8); more? I should map that.