for - progress trap - AI - inequality

Carnegie, Andrew. 1889. “Wealth (aka Gospel of Wealth Part I)” ed. Allen Thorndike Rice. North American Review 148(391): 653–65. http://google.com/books/edition/The_North_American_Review/i5U2AQAAMAAJ?hl=en (January 17, 2027).

for - public good - being eroded

• SRG comment - public good being eroded - reference
• to - the Volcker Shock - Anna Bocca - How the Rich took over the Economy
  • https://via.hypothes.is/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAV0bkTHui8
  • Anna explains how all this privatization began in the video

for - youtube - How the rich took over the economy - from - youtube - interview - Thomas Piketty - can't blame the top, so demonize the bottom - https://hyp.is/10dTvtheEfC_-8OXfzSTJA/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeZoNTJgBZs

• SRG comment - A great explainer video of how the Volcker Shock started the whole chain reaction of modern day wealth inequality - to Thatcher and Reagan down to Trump

for - economic history - Volcker Shock - 2 political allies - Thatcher (1979) and Reagan (1980) came to power - cast taxes, social programs and regulation as the bogeyman

• SRG comment - Reagan and Thatcher policies - advocating for inequality - against the sacred

for - economic history - powell memo - Lewis Powell - inequality - corporate lawyer who became supreme court judge - memo that started a long term political campaign to exploit the elite crisis for corporations to take control of universities, media, law and public opinion FOR THE ELITES

for - inequality - Thomas Piketty - opinion - middle class can't get tax relief from the elites - so they take it out on those below them - to - youtube - economic history - what started the chain reaction of modern day inequality - https://hyp.is/SIBPoNjHEfCxI8N7cC7ntw/www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAV0bkTHui8

for - inequality - advocate for - cap wealth at 10 million USD

for - SRG Corporation2CO-OPeration program - worker-owned cooperatives - Apis & Heritage - inequality reduction - via worker-owned cooperatives

summary - Apis & Heritage is a unique US private equity firm that has established an investment fund called "The Legacy Fund" which is used to facilitate Employee-Led BuyOut (ELBO). Studies show the enormous potential for reducing inequality and it is an issue that receives rare bipartisan political support in the US. The "Silver Tsunami" describes 3 million small business owners likely to retire in 2035. Together, their businesses account for $10 trillion in assets. Apis & Heritage helps faciliate a smooth transition for owners to sell to their employees, increasing their net worth by as much as 10x by the time they retire.

for - adjacency - Trump - Inequality

for - new definition - biosphere-scale inequality - adjacency - metaphor - master-slave - resources - externalisation - Michel articulated an insightful metaphor to describe our modern relationship with nature - To see nature as a resource is a species-selfish (anthropomorphic) perspective - which enables - resource extraction - exploration - externalization and ultimately - the climate crisis - Humans are seem as the master and all of nature our slave - This transcends human-scale inequality - it is biosphere-scale inequality

Those who suffer under climate change are not the ones that created it.

Fight against climate change is framed as a series of individual choices, but is dependent on structures build buy political actors higher up in the hierarchy and solidarity in a society. * Example 1: if the train is cheap and on time it would be easier not to fly * Example 2: More hierarchy and inequality leads to less solidarity, but we need solidarity to equally shoulder the pressure of the fight against climate change.

[In other words: neoliberal world society will not work in face of a change planet]

for - adjacency - fine dining - inequality - high carbon - fine dining is inherently based upon inequality and has a high carbon footprint

Am 14.05.2025 zeigte eine französische Studie mit 15.000 Teilnehmern, dass Männer 26 % mehr Treibhausgase ausstoßen als Frauen, hauptsächlich durch höheren Fleischkonsum und Autonutzung. Nach Kontrolle sozioökonomischer Faktoren beträgt der Unterschied 18 %. Der Konsum von rotem Fleisch und das Autofahren erklären fast den gesamten verbleibenden Unterschied von 6,5-9,5 %. Traditionelle Geschlechternormen, die Männlichkeit mit Fleischkonsum und Autofahren verbinden, spielen eine bedeutende Rolle. Frauen zeigen mehr Besorgnis über die Klimakrise, was zu klimafreundlicherem Verhalten führen könnte. [Zusammenfassung mit Mistral generiert] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/14/car-use-and-meat-consumption-drive-emissions-gender-gap-research-suggests

https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/climat/une-etude-attribue-la-majorite-des-vagues-de-chaleur-et-secheresses-extremes-aux-10-les-plus-riches-20250507_6MJB3JEG6VDA7KZTB5MYR4LL6Y/

https://taz.de/Wohlstand-erzeugt-Erderhitzung/!6086888/

Milanovic, Branko. The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality. 1st edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.

Freeland, Chrystia. Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else. Penguin, 2012. https://amzn.to/4krZmJ5.

for - inequality - oligarchy - effects on consumerist habits - buying the cheapest - suggestion - migrate from corporation to cooperation model - private company to cooperative - new meme - corporation to cooperation

for - youtube - carbon inequality - Tax the Rich - Kevin Anderson - wealth2well - Deep Humanity - Deep Education

question - decarbonization - redistribution - is there any research with concrete decarbonization rates that are just across the entire class spectrum?

wealth2wellth - Deep Humanity Wealth2Wellth program advocates Deep education of the elites to voluntarily share their economic and carbon wealth with the 99%

for - inequality - US

for to - Oxfam report - Carbon Inequality kills - https://hyp.is/AwEIYgP2EfCxcWvHdtbEhA/policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/carbon-inequality-kills-why-curbing-the-excessive-emissions-of-an-elite-few-can-621656/

for - carbon inequality - stats - carbon inequality

for - carbon inequality - stats - carbon inequality - 5 months in our carbon budget - if everyone emitted like the top 1% - source - Oxfam - Carbon Inequality kills - 2024

for - carbon inequality - stats - carbon inequality - 2 days of our carbon budget - if everyone emitted transportation emissions of 50 richest billionaires - source - Oxfam - Carbon Inequality kills - 2024

for - carbon inequality - report - Oxfam - carbon inequality kills - 2024 - from - London School of Economics blog - Billionaire plutocrats are driving the climate crisis - https://hyp.is/QOvgOgP1EfCx4Lto0mV-kQ/blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/11/19/billionaire-pollutocrats-are-driving-the-climate-crisis/

for - carbon inequality - from - Christine Wamsler - homepage - Lund University - https://hyp.is/XgmNsgPHEfCBOPszkHcE3Q/www.lucsus.lu.se/christine-wamsler

for - adjacency - cities - imperialism - colonialism - inequality - perpetuation

adjacency - between - cities - imperialism - colonialism - inequality - perpetuation - adjacency relationship - Large cities have structural inequality baked into them through centuries of legacy practices. - The urban spatial planning of cities are centuries-old patterns that perpetuate intergenerationally - In broad strokes, the centuries of exploitation, extractivism and colonial genocide of the global north upon the global south created the great structural wealth of cities in the global north, and the great structural poverty of cities of the global south - As colonialism receded and global south countries attained autonomy, they were left with deep scars of inequality, exasperated by the IMF and the World Bank, keeping them trapped in cycles of debt - Global north cities also suffered a local north / local south phenomena as well as global industrial capitalism made inequality democratic around the globe - Due to the effect of integenerational wealth and intergenerational poverty inheritance, it is exceedingly difficult to make structural changes in the current political-social-economic system.

for - definition - seed commitment pool - structural inequality - escaping

for - quote - structural inequality - example - structural inequality

for - stats - inequality - US - past 50 years - wealth redistribution - $80 trillion from bottom 90% - to top 1%

Tats Artikel zu den Absorthohn CO2 Emissionen durch Privatschätz und Jachten der Superreichen. Durch Privatschätz und Linienflüge verursacht ein Prozent der Menschheit allein 50 Prozent aller Flugemissionen. Die Informationen des Artikels stammen vor allem aus einer Oxfam-Studie vom Oktober und aus einer Studie des deutschen Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung. https://taz.de/Klimasuenden-der-Superreichen/!6066360/

for - carbon inequality - Kevin Anderson

Die Angehörigen des reichsten Prozents der Weltbevölkerung haben bereits in den ersten zehn Tagen dieses Jahrs so viel Emissionen verursacht wie es jedem Menschen 2025 zustehen würde, wenn das 1,5°-Ziel erreicht werden soll. Menachen mit einem Gehalt von über 140.000 USD emittieren in 10 Tagen durchschnittlich 2,1 Tonnen CO2. Die Zahlen ergeben sich aus einer Untersuchung zur Carbon Inequality aus dem Jahr 2023 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/10/worlds-richest-use-up-their-fair-share-of-2025-carbon-budget-in-10-days

for - further research - Aneurin Bevan - 1952 - liberal democracy's greatest paradox - How does wealth manage to persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? - source - article - Le Monde - Musk, Trump and the Broligarch's novel hyper-weapon - Yanis Varoufakis - 2025, Jan 4 - inequality - elites - source - article - Le Monde - Musk, Trump and the Broligarch's novel hyper-weapon - Yanis Varoufakis - 2025, Jan 4

for - key insight - inequality - elites - How does wealth manage to persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? - source - article - Le Monde - Musk, Trump and the Broligarch's novel hyper-weapon - Yanis Varoufakis - 2025, Jan 4

for - climate crisis - impact of Trump tariff strategy - increasing economic and carbon inequality and precarity for the masses - from - Youtube - Trump wants to crash to benefit the ultra wealthy - Trump's planning to crash the global economy - Richard J Murphy - 2024, Dec

// - SUMMARY - Richard J Murphy provides us with a big picture of Trump's objective in his calculated Tariff strategy - It's not that it makes no sense and is a strategy of a madman - On the contrary, he has a very calculated and maniacal strategy that will result in significantly increasing the wealth of the elites - By creating high tariffs, he will bring about a global economic crash - Like the 2008 and 2020 crash, central banks will print trillions of dollars of money and handout bailouts - It is the elites who will receive these bailouts and inflate the value of their assets - This will - substantially increase the wealth of the rich - substantially increase the precarity of the vast majority of people - increase global inequality - financial inequality and - carbon inequality - This increased precarity is bad news for the climate crisis as a precarious population have less flexibility in reducing their carbon footprint and are more dependent than ever on whatever remain job and resources they still have - Given we have this knowledge of the elite's hidden strategy, can we the people intervene in any way? - We need to have an understanding of how elites see the world - The entire worldview of externalizing investment as a game of accumulation must be understood deeply - in order to find leverage points for rapid system change

//

for - inequality - stats - global income thresholds for top 0.1% to bottom 50%

inequality - stats - global income thresholds for top 0.1% to bottom 50% - top 0.1% - $38,000,000 - next 0.9% below - $10,000,000 (rest of top 1%) - next 9% below - $ 1,800,000 (rest of top 10%) - next 40% below - $165,382 (rest of top 50%) - bottom 50% - $0

for - study - carbon inequality - A multi-model assessment of inequality and climate change - 2024

for - study - carbon inequality and income inequality, 2024

for - key insight - carbon inequality - the rich individuals of any country - are the ones most responsible for determining the carbon emissions of a country - adjacency - carbon inequality - wealthy - carbon emissions of individuals - carbon emissions of a country

adjacency - between - carbon inequality - wealth inequality - the richest individuals of a country - the carbon emissions of a country - adjacency relationship - It's startling to draw the connection that - it is the wealthiest individuals in a country - that are most responsible for the bulk of a country's emissions!

for - stats - carbon inequality - poorest 50% emit 12% - richest 10% emit 48% - Chancel, 2022

Der CO2-Fußabdruck von Reichen und Superreichen wird von diesen selbst wie von.Ärmeren z.T. grotesk unterschätzt, wie eine in vier Ländern.durchgeführte Studie zeigt. So emittiert das reichste Prozent in den USA pro Person und Jahr durchschnittlich 269,3 Tonnen CO2. Sowohl von dieser Gruppe selbst wie von den Menschen der ärmeren Bevölkerungshälfte wird die Menge meist auf nur ca. 30 Tonnen geschätzt. Die Untersuchung ergibt auch, dass die Unterschätzung der carbon inequality mit weniger Unterstützung von Klimapolitik korreliert. https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000236252/oekologischer-fussabdruck-von-reichen-wird-drastisch-unterschaetzt

Studie: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-024-02130-y

for - internet limitations - server-based location addressing - limits software's capacity to uplift people and address inequality - bandwidth and latency issues affect those who need it most at the edge

for - quote / critique - The price we pay for this salutary change is, no doubt, great - Andrew Carnegie

quote / critique - The price we pay for this salutary change is, no doubt, great - Andrew Carnegie - Carnegie goes on to write that the great freedoms offered by industrial mass production has an unavoidable price to be paid - Successful manufacturing and production cooperatives, B-Corporations, worker-owned companies, etc have disproved that it is an either-or situation. - Consider the case of the Spanish manufacturing giant, Mondragon, a federation of worker cooperatives employing 70,000 people located in Spain - where this price is NOT paid - Carnegie's essay reflects a perspective based on the time when he was alive - Were Carnegie alive today to witness the natural conclusion of his trend of progress in the Anthropocene, he would witness - extreme pollution levels of industrial mass production threatening to destabilize human civilization itself - astronomical wealth inequality - And these two are linked: - wealth inequality - a handful of elites have the same wealth as the bottom half of humanity - carbon inequality - that same handful pollutes as much as the bottom half of humanity

to - Mondragon cooperative - explore - https://hyp.is/GeIKao1rEe-9jA_97_KRBg/exploremondragon.com/en/ - Oxfam wealth and carbon inequality reports - https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=oxfam

for - critique - extreme wealth inequality cannot be avoided for the greater improvement of society - The Gospel of Wealth - Andrew Carnegie - stats - Mondragon corporation - comparison of pay difference between highest paid and lowest paid - adjacency - Gandhi quote - Andrew Carnegie beliefs in The Gospel of Wealth

critique - extreme wealth inequality cannot be avoided for the greater improvement of society - The Gospel of Wealth - Andrew Carnegie - It's a matter of degree - Wealth differences within US corporations of 344 to 1 are obscene and not necessary, as proven by - Wealth difference of 6 to 1 in Mondragon federation of cooperatives - To quote - Gandhi, there is enough to meet everyone's needs but not enough to meet everyone's greed - The great problem with such large wealth disparity is that those who know how to game the system can earn obscene amounts of money - and since the concept of luxury goods is made desirable and proportional to monetary wealth, it creates a positive feedback loop of insatiability - The combination of engaging in ever greater luxury lifestyle and power is intoxicating and addictive

to - stats - Mondragon corporation - comparison of pay difference between highest paid and lowest paid - https://hyp.is/QAxx-o14Ee-_HvN5y8aMiQ/www.csmonitor.com/Business/2024/0513/income-inequality-capitalism-mondragon-corporation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect

The Matthew effect of accumulated advantage, sometimes called the Matthew principle, is the tendency of individuals to accrue social or economic success in proportion to their initial level of popularity, friends, and wealth. It is sometimes summarized by the adage or platitude "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". The term was coined by sociologists Robert K. Merton and Harriet Zuckerman in 1968 and takes its name from the Parable of the Talents in the biblical Gospel of Matthew.

related somehow to the [[Lindy effect]]?

for - progress trap - inequality - resentment

progress trap - inequality - resentment - rapid emergence of the far-right and populus - Indeed we see so much resentment everywhere. For example, the far-right and populus could only emerge so rapidly because of such resentment of being left behind.

for - key insight - Wage stagnation is a universal problem of the working class and reducing racial and gender inequality goes hand-in-hand with reducing class inequality.

Die 10% der Weltbevölkerung mit den höchsten pro-Kopf-Emissionen sind für etwa die Hälfte des Ausstoß von Treibhausgasen durch den Energieverbrauch verantwortlich. Die 10% mit den niedrigsten Emissionen verursachen nur 0,2% der gesamten energiebezogenen Emissionen. Kevin Anderson fasst eine der Aussagen eines Kommentars von IEA Mitarbeiter:innen zusammen.

for - adjacency - open source - copyleft - Achilles Heel - unpaid workers - predatory capitalism

adjacency - between - open source - copyleft - Achilles Heel - predatory capitalism - unpaid workers - adjacency statement - The Achilles Heel of the open source copyleft system is that it allows everyone to participate. Everyone can look at the innovation, including corporate raiders in it for their own self-interest. - This enables predatory capitalism. The well-capitalized corporations take the best open source ideas and integrate them into their own private systems. With their abundant capitalization, they can maintain the existent structural inequality - Meanwhile, most open source software is maintained by underpaid programmers

for - liberal blind spot - Chris Yates - book - liberalism and the challenge of climate change - adjacency - liberalism - individual liberty - progress - bond spot - political polarization - fuel for the right -hyperobjects

Summary - This short article contains some key insights that point to the right climate communication strategy to target and win over the working class - Currently, climate communications speak to elitist values and is having the opposite effect - The working class farmer protests spreading across the EU is a symptom of this miscommunication strategy - as is the increasing support and ascendency of right wing political parties - Researcher and author Chris Yates is in a unique position with one foot in each world - He articulates his insightful ideas and points is in the right direction to communicate in a way that reaches the working class

comment - the figure 4 graph is an example of carbon inequality

Example - carbon inequality - see figure 4

Summary - At the heart of the debate, - which is a major driver for the political polarization in politics around the globe, - especially in the United States between - liberals and - conservatives - is structural inequality inherited by colonialism centuries earlier - and how to deal with it today.

for - Critical race theory - key insight

key insight - The following passage gets to the heart of the matter: - (see below)

All these different ideas grow out of longstanding, tenacious intellectual debates.

Critical race theory emerged out of postmodernist thought, - which tends to be skeptical of the idea of - universal values, - objective knowledge, - individual merit, - Enlightenment rationalism, and - liberalism - tenets that conservatives tend to hold dear.

for - quote - Michael Mann - quote - 2024 U.S. elections - future of civilization - quote - existential threat of 2024 Trump win - polycrisis - politics - inequality - climate

quote - Michael Mann - date: May 11, 2023 - source: The Hill - Op Ed - https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/4290467-trump-2-0-the-climate-cannot-survive-another-trump-term/ - (see below)

• It is not an overstatement to say, one year out, that
  • we face an American election unlike any other.
• It will determine
  • not only the course of the American experiment
  • but the path that civilization collectively follows.
    • On the left is democracy and environmental stewardship.
    • On the right is fascism and planetary devastation.
• Choose wisely.

• for: the real BIG LIE, elephant in the room - wealth inequality, working class driven to hard right

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/22/who-are-polluter-elite-how-can-we-tackle-carbon-inequality

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/22/who-are-polluter-elite-how-can-we-tackle-carbon-inequality

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/22/who-are-polluter-elite-how-can-we-tackle-carbon-inequality

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/22/it-is-all-about-listening-and-sharing-indigenous-solutions-to-the-carbon-divide

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2023/nov/22/car-culture-car-industry-consumers-debt

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/21/i-cannot-stress-too-much-about-it-monaco-yacht-buyers-shrug-off-climate-concerns

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/21/the-jet-set-200-celebrities-aircraft-have-flown-for-combined-total-of-11-years-since-2022

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/21/ad-industry-grapples-with-role-selling-consumption-in-climate-crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/21/new-orleans-climate-carbon-emissions

https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2023/nov/21/superyachts-and-private-jets-the-carbon-impact-of-the-polluter-elite-podcast

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/restaurants-pets-holidays-how-uk-well-off-have-outsize-carbon-footprints

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/revealed-huge-climate-impact-of-the-middle-classes-carbon-divide

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/20/billionaires-great-carbon-divide-planet-climate-crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/elon-musk-green-credentials-clean-energy-climate-deniers

Oxfam legt die bisher umfangreichste Studie zur weltweiten Klima-Ungleichheit vor. Sie wurde gemeinsam mit dem Guardian und dem Stockholm Institut erstellt. Sie ergibt unter anderem, dass das reichste Prozent der Weltbevölkerung für mehr Emissionen verantwortlich ist als die unteren 66%. Analysiert wird auch die Verbindung von wirtschaftlicher und politischer Macht der globalen Eliten und die Möglichkeit, eine just transition durch Besteuerung der Superreichen zu finanzieren https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/richest-1-account-for-more-carbon-emissions-than-poorest-66-report-says

Report: https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/climate-equality-a-planet-for-the-99-621551/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2023/nov/23/climate-emergency-crisis-conference-cop-28

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/24/the-guardian-view-on-the-carbon-divide-climate-policies-must-target-the-private-jet-set

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/twelve-billionaires-climate-emissions-jeff-bezos-bill-gates-elon-musk-carbon-divide

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2023/nov/20/the-great-carbon-divide-climate-chasm-rich-poor

• for: quote - Kevin Anderson, quote - elite positive feedback carbon inequality loop, climate crisis - societal aspirations, elites - societal aspirations, societal aspirations, key insight - societal aspirations

• quote

  • This 1% of humanity uses its awesome power to manipulate
    • societal aspirations and
    • the narratives around climate change.
  • These extend from
    • well-funded advertising to
    • pseudo-technical solutions,
    • and financialisation of carbon emissions (and increasingly, nature) to
    • labelling extreme any meaningful narrative that questions inequality and power.

• comment

• key insight - societal aspirations
  • it is the societal aspiration of the logic of capitalism and the free market that continues to create the next generation of the 1%
  • How can the luxury industry NOT BE high carbon intensity? It's an oxymoron. High carbon is baked into the definition of luxury, and it is luxury goods and services which accelerate climate breakdown.
  • The elites have a strong feeling of entitlement. They feel they DESERVE to reward themselves with a luxury lifestyle. That aspiration and reward structure multiplied by 80 million (1% of 8 billion) is a major variable driving the climate crisis

• for: carbon inequality, question - new COP - focused on elites?

• comment

  • while COP28 fights over which nations bear what responsibility, from this perspective, there is an entirely different class of people that must be held responsible, not at the nation state level, but at the individual level. Why isn't there a COP where the elites are held responsible?

• question

  • Are we making a grave category error in holding the wrong class of people responsible? Should questions of carbon equity concern both high polluting nations AND individuals?
  • At the very least, should we formally recognize a parallel set of responsibilities and elevate that recognition to the level of COP conventions to deal with the problem?

• for: climate crisis - elites, Kevin Anderson - elites, carbon emissions - elites, adjacency - elites - carbon inequality - incentives - luxury - capitalism

• title: A Habitable Earth Can No Longer Afford The Rich – And That Could Mean Me And You

• author: Kevin Anderson

• date: Nov. 29, 2023

• comment

• adjacency between
  • elites
  • capitalism
  • free market
  • incentives
  • double bind
  • wicked problem
  • inequality
  • carbon inequality
  • luxury industry
• adjacency statement
  • This article was pulled by "The Conversation" for being too controversial
  • It addresses the double-bind / wicked problems that we find ourselves in.
  • It's not just that the elites that are the highest per capita polluters, but
    • it is an indictment of the entire philosophy and worldview of capitalism and the market economy which produces winners and losers and
    • the winners reap enormous resource benefits, including being able to afford luxury items as rewards which constitute the largest ecological footprint of all
  • while at any one time, there is always a minority of the 1%, who hold the most outsized ecological footprint of all, the logic that produced that 1% also serves as the incentives for the majority of the 99%, who because of the inherent precarity created by capitalism, will fight and struggle to become part of that 1%
  • So while one generation of the 1% die off, a new generation is born and created by the incentive structure of scarcity and precarity.
  • In this sense, capitalism has its own self-reinforcing, positive feedback loop that keeps the masses of the disenfranchised aspiring to the same high resource and ecological footprint, luxury lifestyle
  • Look at the culture industry of sports, entertainment, movies, music, TV, etc. and of business in general. The leaders of these and ALL fields are celebrated as heros and they all reward themselves with an ultra-high carbon intensity, luxury lifestyle.
  • Unless we do more than simply demonize the current set of elites, and recognize the root cause and change the incentive structure itself, we will only ever deal with the symptom and not the problem, and continue to generate the next generation of elites
  • The luxury lifestyle industry is a important role-player in the self-reinforcing feedback loop

• for: Kevin Anderson, transition, climate equity, climate justice, climate justice - Kevin Anderson, carbon inequality - Kevin Anderson, life within planetary boundaries, lifestyle within planetary boundaries - elites, climate crisis - Kevin Anderson

• summary

  • Kevin offers a picture of what a world within the stable climate planetary boundary would look like for the wealthy of the planet.

• for: quote - luxury cannot be democratized, 1% - democracy, elites - democracy, adjacency - luxury - democracy, luxury is not democratic, luxury is inequality, Andre Gorz, Terrestrial website, adjancency - luxury - democracy, quote luxury

• quote

  • ... By its design as by its original destination, the car is a luxury good. And luxury, in essence, cannot be democratized: if everyone has access to luxury, no one benefits from it; on the contrary: everyone cheats, frustrates and dispossesses others and is cheated, frustrated and dispossessed by them.
• author: Andre Gorz
• date: Sept. 25, 2023

• publication: Terrestrial

  • https://www.terrestres.org/2023/09/25/jadore-la-bagnole-andre-gorz-repond-a-macron/

• comment

  • insightful comment reveals an adjacency between luxury and democracy that is obvious in hindsight, but missed seeing in foresight!

• adjacency between:

  • luxury
  • democracy
• adjacency statement
  • luxury is, by definition a premium artefact so by definition is beyond the reach of most people. It is therefore un-democratic by design.

• for: Kevin Anderson - carbon inequality, climate crisis - carbon inequality climate crisis - carbon inequality, carbon inequality

Switzerland inequality kicked in ~1999 roughly when they abandoned the [[Golden Rule]], as hinted by Kevin Tartis in X.

, Canada, Australia, Mongolia, S.Africa, Yemen, Western EU and Greece are the best. Strange map...

Intergenerational mobility is, expectedly, lower in the US where social net is low and segregation high.

• for: carbon tax, tax the rich, carbon inequality

• comment

  • an obvious and logical strategy because
    • the elites are few in number, but hold much wealth
    • the disenfranchised are many in number but hold little wealth
      • but the disenfranchised exist in larger numbers
      • so when it comes to voting, they are a strategic cohort to win over
  • this is in effect the same logic as the Paris Agreement and climate justice
  • climate justice requires us to protect the poor and give them the remaining carbon budget whilst those who already have enough must cut back

Unfortunately, the interviewer did not pick up David's saying on inequality: what should we have been doing by now?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

“The Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Economic Injustice runs thus:<br /> At the time of Men at Arms, Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars.<br /> Therefore over a period of ten years, he might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet.<br /> Without any special rancour, Vimes stretched this theory to explain why Sybil Ramkin lived twice as comfortably as he did by spending about half as much every month.”<br /> ― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms (1993)

• for: carbon inequality

• for: Johan Rockstrom - wellbeing economy, wellbeing economy, green growth, degrowth, question, question - Johan Rockstrom - green growth or degrowth?
• question
  • Does Johan Rockstrom advocate for a green economy or degrowth?
  • He would seem to be arguing for green growth as degrowth, if not done extremely carefully, can result in a drop in wellbeing.
  • How does he see this taking place when the elites perceive that they have the most (at least materially) to give up? Is there a contradiction here?

• for: urban development, inequality, just boundaries, safe and just boundaries, climate justice, urban planetary boundaries, livable cities, earth system boundaries, earth system justice
• title: Urban inequalities in the 21st century economy
• author: Jan niman, Yehua Dennis Wei
• date: Apr 2, 2020
• source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7124478/

Auf einer neuen Tracking-Website von Greenpeace können die Flüge österreichischer Privatjets in Echtzeit verfolgt werden. Die Zahl der Flüge von Privatjets hat sich gegenüber 2019 verdoppelt. Allein im Monat August wurden dabei 10.000 Tonnen CO2 ausgestoßen..

https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000185807/oesterreichische-privatjets-emittierten-im-august-ueber-10000-tonnen-co2

Link to the PDF has moved.

• for: inequality, carbon inequality, carbon inequality - eu
• title: The unequal distribution of household carbon footprints in Europe and its link to sustainability
• authors
  • Diana ivanova
  • Richard Wood
• date: July 6, 2020
• source: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/unequal-distribution-of-household-carbon-footprints-in-europe-and-its-link-to-sustainability/F1ED4F705AF1C6C1FCAD477398353DC2#article

• for: W2W, inequality, 1%, oligarch, elites, kleptocrats, civil society - exploitation, TUSN, Transnational Uncivil Society Network
• title: How the kleptocrats and oligarchs hunt civil society groups to the ends of the Earth
• author: Peter Rinko
• comment
  • This article explores the research work of Alexander Cooley, John Heathershaw and Ricard Soares de Oliverira who coauthored the paper

Transnational Uncivil Society Networks: kleptocracy’s global fightback against liberal activism - reference - https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5e5a3052-c693-4991-a7cc-bc2b47134467/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=Cooley_et_al_2023_transnational_uncivil_society.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article

REPORT: Executive Excess 2023 - Institute for Policy Studies by Sarah Anderson in August 2023

see article about this report at https://hypothes.is/a/D6qzfENbEe6qDg8H-IEo6g

Lauren Aratani in CEOs of top 100 ‘low-wage’ US firms earn $601 for every $1 by worker, report finds at 2023-08-24 (accessed:: 2023-08-25 08:20:02)

• for: futures, digital futures, online vs offline role reversal, inequality
• quote
• paraphrase
  • We are already seeing the emergence of
    • ‘tech-free’ camps and
    • ' tech-free' vacation packages
  • Experiencing life ‘offline’ will become a generational goal,
    • much like the Millennial generation introduced ride sharing and home sharing.
  • Ironically, it will be technology that enables this trend, and premiums will be paid for uninterrupted time to focus or to simply enjoy being alive.
  • This may also indicate a new kind of disparity between economic strata, with
    • the more-wealthy affording privacy, peace and quiet while
    • the lower strata remain fodder for 24/7 social media aggregators and botnets.
• author: Sam Adams
  • 24 year veteran of IBM
  • senior AI research scientist, RTI International

• for: inequality, Anthropocene, climate justice
• title: Why this viral photo of the world’s largest cruise ship is polarizing opinion
• source
  • https://edition.cnn.com/travel/viral-icon-of-the-seas-cruise-ship-photo/index.html
• comment
  • economic AND carbon inequality on display

• for: W2W, TPF, stats, inequality, wealth redistribution, wealth tax, quote, quote - wealth tax, quote - inequality, stats, stats - inequality, stats - wealth tax
• quote
• stats
  • An annual wealth tax of just 5% on multi-millionaires and billionaires
  • could raise US $1.7 trillion a year
  • enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty
• author Institute for Policy (2023)
• comment
  • that breaks down to approximately $US 1,000 per person for 2 billion people from the 1% elites
  • this is pretty reasonable
  • W2W can begin with this simple VOLUNTARY ASK
  • if the multi-millionaires and billionaires do just this consistently, then it is so little from their coffers and they could avoid a wealth tax by simply stepping up voluntarily
  • Could W2W motivate them to?

• for: quote, quote - W2W, quote - inequality, quote - jane goodall
• quote
  • there's the unsustainable lifestyle of so many of us
  • and I include myself
  • I have far more than I need and
  • some people take this to excess and they have way way way more than they could ever possibly need and
  • this is something that somehow we have to change
• comment
  • this supports the need for the W2W program

• for: inequality, poverty, W2W, Jane Goodall, socio-ecological system, climate justice, emptiness - example, entanglement - inequality and climate crisis
• key insight
  • if you're very poor and you're living in some kind of Wilderness Area
    • you're going to destroy the environment in order to survive
    • example: Gumby Street National Park
      • in 1960 it was part of the Great Forest
      • but by the late 1980s was a tiny Islander forest and all the hills around were bare
      • more people living there than the land could support
      • too poor to buy food elsewhere
        • struggling to survive
        • cutting down the trees to make money from charcoal or Timber
        • or to make more land grow more food and
      • that's when it hit me
        • if we don't help these people these local communities find ways of living without destroying the environment
        • we can't save chimpanzees forests or anything else so we need to alleviate poverty
• comment
  • This is why the inequality crisis is entangled with the climate crisis

• for: voting, power - money, money - voting, inequality, voting - money, equity, voting power - rich
• paraphrase
• question
  • if we think of money as a voting tool
    • why does a billionaire have a billion times more power to decide what society should be like than i do?

• for: precarity, inequality, United States - poverty, no savings, financial crisis
• quote
• stats
  • 6 out of every 10 American interviewed said they did not have $500 savings in the bank
• source
  • Bankrate 6 survey

• for: W2W, carbon inequality, carbon footprint - 1%, carbon emissions - 1%, luxury advertising, luxury advertising contracts, carbon emissions - luxury goods
• key insight
  • the elites are often the main popularizers, influencers and propagandists of the fantasy of overconsumption
  • culture of overconsumption
  • such elites have a close tie to the luxury industry via large advertising contracts
  • Media posts critical of the carbon air travel emissions of famous DJ named DJ Snake offers a prime example of a common attitude of privilege and self-righteousness found amongst a number of elites

• for: emissions reduction, bend the curve, TPF, W2W, emissions reduction - cultural sector, bend the curve - cultural sector, TPF - cultural sector, W2W - cultural sector, carbon emissions - cultural sector, carbon inequality

• comment

  • well written article on the carbon emissions challenges of the cultural sector
  • this is related to the carbon emissions of the luxury industry as well
• question
  • same question as asked about luxury, since there is overlap with culture industry and luxury
  • Given that the 1% have the same carbon emissions as the bottom half of humanity, does the sustainability impacts of the decarbonization efforts of the luxury aspects of the culture industry measure up to stay under earth system boundaries in time?
• reference
  • https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=carbon+inequality