Quote from: BobK71 on June 21, 2016, 01:23:35 PM

But I was talking about the long term. Imperial and other financial bubbles and busts have occurred for about 500 years in the West. They are not going away overnight. Only when the public wakes up to the core problem, which is quite simple when phrased properly, will they endorse the right solution, which is also simple.

The key is to come face to face with the very essence of the problem: the over-reach of the state into the monetary and financial markets.

Well, the idea of "public waking up" is pretty optimistic and I doubt that will happen. And if they "wake up" and demand a different financial system, there's a very good chance it will be worse than what we have now. I would never trust "the public" to come up with a financial system.

Quote from: BobK71 on June 21, 2016, 02:10:58 PM

So, led by the elites, everyone in the economy is incentivized to pursue profit at all cost, and here you see the roots of pollution, social alienation, addiction and psychological problems. (Now I'm not claiming I or anyone knows or should dictate the proper work/life balance for anyone -- I'm only saying the system creates a real bias away from what people would normally do, in favor of making money.)

I'm guessing a good part of what you perceive as 'functional' is based on this artificial need for economic growth. In pursuit of growth, many systems must function better (this piece is closely related to what is known as supply-side economics.) But, as we can see, the core mechanism is pretty ugly, to say the least.

I don't think it is true that the current system incentivizes to pursue profit. At least in my country it is very much the opposite, there are very strong incentives for not working/pursuing profit. All these government welfare programs with dozens of different payments that a person may be eligible for. And if you do even little work at the side, you lose them. But it's perfect system for the government, as those people picking up a check from the government are guaranteed to vote in a way which keeps those checks coming.

Also, the current system is not geared for economic growth. The elites want to stop/hinder economic growth. So they manufacture all these fake "social" and "environmental" reasons why we shouldn't have economic growth because "it's bad for the planet". The latest such scam is the idea of "global warming", but that is just one among many.