Quote:
Originally Posted by antares
- Public debt and the non-sustainability of the warfare state (US) and the welfare-state (EU) - i.e. the current problems are not treated. Of course I can see that in the long run nanoprocessing will enable a generous welfare state. Still, there is still global competition on taxes.
|
Actually that
is treated. One of the books says that as an outgrowth of life extension, the idea of a right to publicly funded retirement, even at the low level of Social Security, has simply been abandoned as unworkable. There are eloi (wealthy people who live on their investments) in vastly increased numbers—but that's not a welfare state; that's a vastly enlarged capitalist class. I don't think Pulver and his colleagues anticipated this becoming an issue quite so soon . . . the timeline doesn't predict the current economic crisis . . .but it's in there, along with the massive population decline in Europe and Japan that's now starting.
Bill Stoddard