How To Save The World

Upfront, I do not know this guy. I just found this info and blog thanks to Prometheus 6. I make no claims as to the background of the author. Having said all that, if we are planning to work on Black economic empowerment, there are some systemic issues that must be understood. Let's not pretend that it's as simple as figuring out a way for a few of us to make some money. I've resigned myself to the fact that very few people think like I do. At heart, I'm a big picture guy, and often I find that people with a more focused view of things are challenged by my thought processes. But I find it really hard to work up the motivation to struggle to make it in an economic system that I firmly believe is traveling at breakneck speed directly towards a crash of epic proportions. That's what this guy, Dave Pollard, from the How To Save The World blog, talks about in an article entitled "Will Increased Income and Wealth Disparity Lead to Generational Class War?"

"In the US, reports USA Today, all of the increased wealth since 1989 has accrued to those 55 years of age or older. Like in the UK, the big losers have been those who are now 35 to 50. This generation doesn't look poor -- they have as much stuff or more than previous generations at the same age, but their debts are astronomical. They are horrifically vulnerable to an interest rate spike (even a small one like the one that has, along with the US housing crash, created the current credit crisis). The disparity is expected to increase, and accelerate."

"There are only three things keeping it from blowing:
1. Ignorance: The majority of people think they're financially better off than they really are. They don't realize how vulnerable they are to economic downturn. Just listen to people who have just been laid off, or who realize (and this is the rich, older, boomer generation) that they can't ever afford to retire.
2. Shame: The propaganda machine, especially in the US, has convinced most of the poor that their situation is somehow their own fault.
3. Economic Overextension: The economy is wound up tighter than a drum, with all the dominoes propping up each other. It depends on sustaining high ROI on listed stocks, a continuing housing boom, perpetually artificially low interest rates, fuel costs and manufactured goods costs, and the continued and uninterrupted exploitation of labour and natural resources of struggling nations. None of these things is sustainable.

So when the economy unwinds, will the poor overcome their ignorance and shame and rise up in mutiny against the old rich elite that has hoarded 100% of the benefits of economic development for a half-century?

Do your ideas on economic empowerment include any consideration of the possibility of the overall economy not being the unbreakable force we are led to believe it is? If not, why not? If so, how have you factored in this possibility?