Episode 156: Our Unbroken Economy

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For reasons too few truly understand, in our “economy,” too few citizens are invested profitably: in the position of holding assets that increase wealth simply by dint of ownership. I free-form rant on this in Episode 156: Our Unbroken Economy.

In this episode, I read from: John Michael Greer's book The Long Descent; David Graeber's book Debt: The First 5,000 Years; and Thomas Picketty's book Capital in the 21st Century. I recall from memory: Kevin Stroud's The History of English Podcast; the essay "The Passion of Antoine Lavoisier", published in Stephen Jay Gould's book of essays Bully For Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History; an NPR story about the niacin-deficiency plague in Italy that befell the peasantry after the introduction of maize (what most of us call corn); and finally, I relate a bit of what Henry George talked about in his 1879 book Progress & Poverty (which you can read for free in its entirety online!).

I open with KMFDM's "Attak" backing cohort Justice John Paul Stevens dissenting from the Supreme Court's Citizens United Not Timid decision, a decision that re-aligned the technology called political speech back toward those who possessed the technology called money. I close with Julie and Rolf and the campfire gang doing "Over the Rainbow".

I'm releasing this and all my episodes under a Creative Commons 4.0 attribution, share-alike, and non-commercial license.