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Comment by bsirkia | Hacker News Reader

The hardest thing for me is that I'm super aware of how fucked up things are, but not totally sure what can done so just say "this sucks" and go back to work and whining about healthcare and listening to Slate podcasts. If I learned anything from the Wire, it's that these problems Simon brings up are so institutionalized that there's almost no way to fix them without some massive change, but I'm too small and irrelevant to make that change and our society is set up to resist change anyway.

So I'll probably just share this on Facebook, get some likes, and be proud of myself for "building awareness".

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The thing people that write these articles don't acknowledge was how fucked up things were in the USA, even in the 'great' times. The 50's and 60's were a booming time for the economy and middle class. But black people still had their lines to wait in, had to sit in the back of the bus, and we had 'colored' drinking fountains.

Things have came a long, long way since then. Things might not be perfect and there are bits of racism but we are so far ahead of where we were.

Right, it's easy to look back at the good 'ol days and talk about how great they were, but really overall quality of life on aggregate is empirically improving.

But the US population as a whole has slid backwards in power and monetary means over the last thirty years. The shenanigans that allowed the elite to walk over the working class had their roots in the late 70's and 80's with the shift to the right and the "Greed is Good" era.

Of course - the rest of the world has 'caught up' to the USA. We aren't the powerhouse we once were. Even if you distributed CEO pay to minimum wage workers they'd only be getting a thousand bucks or so each.

>>CEO pay to minimum wage workers they'd only be getting a thousand bucks or so each.

I would bet the workers would take it. And we'd probably have a more equitable and healthy economy.

"Only" a thousand bucks for people making $14,500 a year is A LOT OF MONEY...they could, you know, buy groceries for 3 or 4o months with that.

I head it put this way recently: "Which good old days? The ones where people owned other people? Where children worked in factories? Where the only literate people were priests?"

Honestly, being ready to jump in with a helping hand when someone comes up with an actionable plan is something. It's a very, very tiny something, but it's something.

Because the other kind of awareness you ought to build is, "I wish I could do something about this." Eventually, you'll run across someone who says, "I know what to do, but I need manpower." You talk to that person, you figure out how sane his plan is and how much gamble you're willing to put down on it, and hopefully change happens.

Check out "Basic Income". For me, this is one of the few things that give me hope.

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