Reflecting on the consequences.

Subject: Reflecting on the consequences

It was an interesting preposition made by Bertrand Russell in his book "In praise of Idleness" that during the 2nd World War, people drawn off productive 'profit making enterprises' to produce armaments for which, largely profits were ignored in the national interest. The capitalistic mantras were laid aside, as production was focused on the war effort and yet the population remained fed, clothed and cared for. The numbers embroiled in the war effort were in effect excluded from the business of producing for the nations actual daily needs and it has been argued that when the war was over the population could actually have been employed on 4 hour a day to produce what was needed by the society and importantly would have  'maintained full employment'. Instead the country lapsed into the old model of capitalism, long hours of work by those lucky enough to have work and long term unemployment for those who were unlucky and superfluous to need.
We know that things could be arranged better if there was a will but with human capital so poorly valued and so distanced from the "powers that be" we have no way of remedying the misery within parts of the society if we have been encouraged to turn our backs on these people.
Without the option of mass euthanasia such as a major war we have to consider alternatives on this misuse of our human capital.  Poor or virtually nonexistent education plus the modern acceptance that one should leave everything to market forces, leaves us with unemployment as the only prescription Capitalism offers as an economic tool to modulate demand. That it leads to the broken society, fulfilling the prophecy that to misuse people in this way will lead inevitably to social disruption and the unlikely rise of a media property mogul such as Donald Trump who's pronouncements are enough.
We see it on the streets of the inner cities in the west but is it any worse than the clash of the Caste System in India or the travails of a gender twisted hierarchy in much of the Middle East and large parts of Asia.

The misuse of people is at the heart of virtually all our problems. Both morally and intellectually, we know it is wrong but we continue to support traditional allegiances  and the misconception of who "we" are in the scheme of things. Perhaps a little more piety without the religious connotation, perhaps a better word would be "respect" for others.

It's easy to do, it doesn't take much effort and it costs little, other than that curious trick of seeing yourself in the other persons position and reflecting on the consequences.