Is 'Elysium' inevitable?

[ro9ue]

So if you watched the movie Elysium with Matt Damon, the general human population is on a dying Earth and the 'nobility' and rich are on a spacecraft floating just above Earth's atmosphere.

The "New California" thread just made me remember this idea I had about how NYC and the Bay Area in California are always referred to as the coastal elites and want to separate from the "Trumpfolk" in middle America. I find it interesting how on one side they proclaim they want to help the poor and yet despise them, and the other side say there's tremendous inequality and yet despise the elites and don't want to associate with them.

I don't even know where I'm going with this, but I just feel like Elysium abstractly portrays the inevitable conclusion of the current trajectory of America.

[cubby]

So if you watched the movie Elysium with Matt Damon, the general human population is on a dying Earth and the 'nobility' and rich are on a spacecraft floating just above Earth's atmosphere.

The "New California" thread just made me remember this idea I had about how NYC and the Bay Area in California are always referred to as the coastal elites and want to separate from the "Trumpfolk" in middle America. I find it interesting how on one side they proclaim they want to help the poor and yet despise them, and the other side say there's tremendous inequality and yet despise the elites and don't want to associate with them.

I don't even know where I'm going with this, but I just feel like Elysium abstractly portrays the inevitable conclusion of the current trajectory of America.

On some level we are already there - the rich prey on the poor and weak, they have better lives, better health, better access to everything. They have no limits. They are untouchable and above the law. Certainly exceptions exist - and some of the best of the rich will make the world better.

On a practical level, Elysium couldn't literally happen because of, well, frankly, orbital mechanics. That ring they constructed wouldn't be possible for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

The healthcare side of that movie, the symbolism and outright message, is also clear. And interesting. We have the ability to save so many people who die each year, and we don't - and with just the flick of a button we could change it all. But we won't.

Not sure if I agree with the inevitable trajectory of America, although the vision I just portrayed certainly qualifies.

[NM 156]

I think something like that will probably happen. It may already exist if you compare the USA and the Congo.

[Ehrenpanzer]

Idk, but 2017 is the closest we've come yet what with our elected officials showing blatant disregard for the general public time and time again

You clearly arent familiar with the last 100 years of American history, or the history of humanity in general.

[Theodarzna]

Not really. The rich never breed all that much and they tend to wither away very quickly.

[cubby]

You clearly arent familiar with the last 100 years of American history, or the history of humanity in general.

I have to go with @matheney2k on this one - 2017 is about as bad as they have gotten in the past 100 years. At least in the United States.

[Ehrenpanzer]

Quality post 10/10 tell me more

Richard Nixon, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin come immediately to mind...

[Ehrenpanzer]

I have to go with @matheney2k on this one - 2017 is about as bad as they have gotten in the past 100 years. At least in the United States.

Except they really havent. Its more or less the status quo with Trump, bombastic bragging and Twitter rambling aside. What Trump has done is nothing more then any other Repub (and less drastic then someone like Romney or Cruz would have done) Basically all he's done is minorly expand programs that already existed under, or were created by Obama/Bush, let expiring programs expire and sit around talking smack....

[Ehrenpanzer]

2 of those 3 people aren't even American LOL you can do better than that...

Well if you want American only, every president under whom war was declared on Native Americans, slaughtering them for their land and resources. Call me when Trump slaughters the Mexican population of California to move in white people. Or how about Roosevelts treatment of Japanese-Americans? Call me when Trump locks up every Arab in America for the sole reason of being Arab.

Your arguments are lazy, and reeks of a moron desperately seeking attention.

- - - Updated - - -

Nixon resigned.

Hitler is German.

Stalin is Russian.

Can you tell me how any of this is somehow worse for American Politics than right now?

"Idk, but 2017 is the closest we've come yet what with our elected officials showing blatant disregard for the general public time and time again"

"You clearly arent familiar with the last 100 years of American history, or the history of humanity in general."

Reading comprehension not your thing huh?

[RicardoZ]

I find it interesting how on one side they proclaim they want to help the poor and yet despise them, and the other side say there's tremendous inequality and yet despise the elites and don't want to associate with them.

This is the age-old contradiction. The thing is, the Democrat party used to represent the interests of the working people all across the country, which is where this dichotomy of "Dems = friends of the working man, Repubs = friends of the boss" came from.

However, after the late 60's and into the 1970's, the hard left attached itself to the Democrat Party and began taking stances on social issues that the working class didn't agree with. They didn't really have a complete falling out until the 1996 Presidential election, which is when the south went totally Republican. The factors for this are the progressive tinges of the Democrat platform that began around that time and the massive relocation of socially conservative working-class families from the northeast (particularly Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia) to the south (mostly the Atlanta suburbs in Georgia and Florida) during the 1980's.

Add to this the heavy presence of 1960's "radicals" in academia and the arts, and you have the current perception that leftism the "smart", hip ideology, while right-wingers are the farmers, welders, construction workers, rednecks, etc...Eventually this mode of thinking became so prominent that we arrived at our current station, where we aren't just at war over policy details, but rather entire worldviews and the culture at large.

[Ehrenpanzer]

Says the guy talking about Hitler and Stalin for American politics? K

"Idk, but 2017 is the closest we've come yet what with our elected officials showing blatant disregard for the general public time and time again"

"You clearly arent familiar with the last 100 years of American history, or the history of humanity in general."

Reading comprehension not your thing huh?

**I'll just copy/paste this for your benefit as well. I understand you have a small brain, but do try and keep up with conversations**

Infracted

[Shadowferal]

You clearly arent familiar with the last 100 years of American history, or the history of humanity in general.

I have to agree.
It's not as it was in the Great Depression, but we're getting there in a really shitty way.
News is all over how great the Stock Market is doing, but the common man isn't benefiting.

Why We Live In A Second Robber Baron Era
Step aside John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and other robber barons of the late 19th century. As profits soar and the stock market booms while the overall economy and median wages stagnate, “we aren’t just living in a second Gilded Age,” writes Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, "we’re also living in a second robber baron era.” Why?
Citing the example of Verizon, Krugman points to the lack of investment by big companies, which in turn, he says, is due to monopoly power and the lack of competition. “Many customers have no place else to go,” so there is “no need to spend money on providing better service (or, speaking from personal experience, on maintaining existing service).”

[Ghostpanther]

Nope. It is called science fiction for a reason. :P

[Mister Cheese]

"Idk, but 2017 is the closest we've come yet what with our elected officials showing blatant disregard for the general public time and time again"

"You clearly arent familiar with the last 100 years of American history, or the history of humanity in general."

Reading comprehension not your thing huh?

**I'll just copy/paste this for your benefit as well. I understand you have a small brain, but do try and keep up with conversations**

People with small brains tend to invoke Godwin's law pretty quickly. Even if it's not relevant.

[Yvaelle]

I'd say it's not inevitable because it implies an accumulation of wealth by the super-rich which is actually not as rapid as it actually is.

If the trend over the last ~20 or so years of accumulation of wealth by the super-rich (ex. the 0.01%) continues, by about 2084, one person will 'own' everything on Earth, and the rest of the planet will collectively own nothing between us.

Elysium is more or less accurate of today's level of wealth inequality, projected into the future when we have beautiful habitable orbital space stations. But instead, by the time we have orbital space stations, we'll just have one dude(ette) up there by himself - and the rest of us will inherit the dying Earth.

[Kapadons]

The elites and the trumpkins both need each other to survive. they just wanna act like they don't

[pateuvasiliu]

Talking about WoW Private servers is against the rules MOOOOOOOOOOOOOODS

[NM 156]

If the trend over the last ~20 or so years of accumulation of wealth by the super-rich (ex. the 0.01%) continues, by about 2084, one person will 'own' everything on Earth, and the rest of the planet will collectively own nothing between us.

So I googled and couldn't find anything on that can you point me towards where you are getting that from?

Edit: Nevermind I'm dumb you are just extending out the current rate for the next 66 years.

[Yvaelle]

So I googled and couldn't find anything on that can you point me towards where you are getting that from?

It's the current trend projected forward, some napkin math I did a few years back.

[Independent voter]

In the old days there was the king in the castle eating 7 course meals while we peasants scratched out a living in our mud huts outside the walls.

We have it much much better than our serf ancestors who were little more than slaves.