Quote from: Beliathon on May 07, 2014, 07:12:26 AM

Quote from: Lean on May 07, 2014, 12:59:07 AM

Any ideas?

This is a 600 page book written by a statistician. I'm about 200 pages in, this is heavy and dry material! Caveat Emptor!

But if you do decide to dive in, some excellent companion reads are

-A brief history of neoliberalism
-The Empathic Civilization (Jeremy Rifkin)
-First as Tragedy, then as farce (Slavoj Zizek)
-A People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn)
-Confessions of an Economic Hitman
-The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Naomi Klein)
-Earth in Mind (David W. Orr)
-Guns, Germs, and Steel

The data and analysis is sound, but I strongly disagree with the conclusions the author draws. He tells us that capitalism has systemically driven INEQUALITY all throughout history - and shows us the data to prove it! Then he says the only times inequality AREN'T increasing are times of extreme government intervention, such as the New Deal just after the Great Depression.

So capitalism naturally causes inequality, wealth basically behaves like objects in space affected by gravity. Larger masses of wealth attract wealth from smaller masses.

I read this book as a total condemnation of capitalism itself (disclaimer: I was already an anti-capitalist before reading), but the author says we should just repeat the cycle of massive redistribution of wealth from the elite 1% down to the masses, again and again and again. This horrible cycle of half a century of suffering, he wants us to do the SAME THING WE DID LAST TIME. Fuck that, and fuck him.

Capitalisms got to go. Fuckers gots ta GO!!

As far how Bitcoin is going to join the conversation, you should probably watch this Bitcoin vs. Political Power if you haven't already.

Share it with everyone.

Thank's for this! Really explained a lot!