Dear Friends,
It seems to me, if efficient, cheap, and safe nuclear fusion hit the market tomorrow, the very next day there would be billions spent protesting it. Because the problem the elite have with energy, is not the effect on the planet, but the affect it has on our standard of living. What good is it to be rich if anyone can buy the same SUV as you? How many trailers have a brand new Suburban on the unmowed lawn? More than you would think. People, even poor people in the US, have the ability to match the rich in almost any one thing. That’s a real problem. The key to addressing this injustice is to make energy unaffordable. To that end, we have a requisite for electric cars and rolling blackouts in California… the model of the future. A model of failure, suffering, wildfires and want. Very progressive!
Nothing makes a Chateaubriand taste any better than knowing everyone else has to eat bugs. Now that increases the utility of wealth! At no time in Western history have people been so belittled they had to eat bugs, even in Medieval times, which makes forcing people to eat bugs in the 21st century all that much better. Lowering people so they can never match you in anything is one way to get ahead. The fundamental problem with this enlightened plan, is the old question… would you rather be rich in 1900 or middle class in 2000? Because of the advances in medicine. In 1900 a foot sore could kill you due to the lack of antibiotics. In 2000 a major heart attack was survivable with stents. In 2020 though, if the Wuhan flu doesn’t get you, the ventilator, VAIDS or vaccine will.
Someone who takes a private jet from NYC to Paris for lunch, next to Davos, then back to NYC again for a dinner party… is not someone who is worried about the planet, they are worried about their image. Then again appearance is reality for many people. Why really save the planet, when that is too much trouble and requires going without, instead it is much easier to demand the little people walk to work in the cold, and still fly across the ocean for a permanent in Hong Kong. The virtue signaling is all that matters… in a world where appearance is reality. In this world, an elite who does without nothing, can demand the poor eat less, and claim the moral high ground. What is a little health affirming starvation for the lessers? Plus, if you have a problem with it, that proves you are a racist.
The utility of wealth is that it can buy that which is unavailable to the average person. Therefore, if the average person can buy almost anything the wealthy can, the utility of wealth is diminished. When a person born in Harlem, can rise to compete and win against old money, a fundamental trust has been broken. What good is it to drive a 100k Suburban when there is one parked next to a trailer? How can that caviar taste as good, knowing it is available at Walmart, in the canned fish isle? A private yacht is great, until you look at the next slip, and see a crowd of rednecks having a kegger and listening to Johnny Cash. Now that capitalism has opened any luxury to the lowest station, the utility, the value, the advantage of wealth, is all but lost. All that remains is surplus… and that is not enough for many.
Capitalism and the cheap, safe and available energy it has brought to the world, erodes the utility of wealth. Making them real problems. Capitalism creates, not only an improving standard of living for the mundane masses, but the expectation of further improvement! That cannot be tolerated! How can the utility of wealth keep up? Soon, all wealth will bestow, is the ability to have a thousand homes no better than any one of the crowding cows. So, free enterprise and cheap energy, have to go. Put the lessers in their place. That is why, if cheap, safe and widely available nuclear fusion hit the market tomorrow, the very next day, billions would be mobilized to shut it down. The paid protesters, with their professional signs, would quickly turn violent… and the elite will, “give them room to vent.”
Sincerely,
John Pepin
