Even in the 18th century, the French aristocracy mostly cruised through the Revolution from afar, surviving with fortunes largely intact to this day [1]. If the fork is UBI or guillotine, the selfish move by the private-jetting billionaire class—personally and financially more mobile and global than the French aristocracy ever was—is the latter.
> if there's no such thing as IP, reset the playing field for everyone
Your thesis is letting Altman, Zuckerberg and Musk have free rein would decrease inequality?
> other way to look at it though is that revolution won't solve your problems, and Americans are far too confident that it will
Americans are largely not for a revolution because most of us aren’t idiots. There is idle chatter of a civil war, but that’s again (a) bluster (not that this can’t take on a life of its own) and (b) about consolidating control versus wholesale rebuilding the American class structure.
FWIW there is a difference between revolution and civil war. I see a decent number of people advocate for the first but basically no one advocate for the second. In either case the numbers aren’t a majority.
> Where internal power structures were preserved (or where the society was restructured under occupation), yes.
No. See for example Spain's or Portugal's transition from autocracy to democracy. The latter involved a military coup and exile of it's former dictator.
I’m no advocate for revolution but the American problem is that our revolution actually worked. Americans freed themselves from a prior group of elites unlike the grandparent comment is claiming of the French elites.
> Americans freed themselves from a prior group of elites unlike the grandparent comment is claiming of the French elites
The American Revolution was one of American elites overthrowing their overseers. It worked and was not super disruptive because power (and class) structures were preserved. From the states through to the system of law and the people in power. (We also didn’t do any mass or political executions.)
unlike then, today global mobility is within the means of most the western world. A French Revolution today could very well extend globally to identify and re patriot.
> French Revolution today could very well extend globally to identify and re patriot
We have zero historical or contemporary precedent for this, and strong incentives for everyone else in the world to not play along. (As they did in sheltering the French aristocracy.)
In a hypothetical American revolution, foreign powers would be looking for their slice of the pie. To think through this dispassionately, imagine civil war breaking out in Russia or China. A second American revolution à la the first would put today’s billionaires and political elite in a room to draft a new constitution to their liking.
Even in the 18th century, the French aristocracy mostly cruised through the Revolution from afar, surviving with fortunes largely intact to this day [1]. If the fork is UBI or guillotine, the selfish move by the private-jetting billionaire class—personally and financially more mobile and global than the French aristocracy ever was—is the latter.
> if there's no such thing as IP, reset the playing field for everyone
Your thesis is letting Altman, Zuckerberg and Musk have free rein would decrease inequality?
> IIRC that's what's happening in China
Not really [2].
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37655777
[2] https://www.chinaiplawupdate.com/2023/08/china-prosecutes-11...