Blame Rich, Overeducated Elites as Our Society Frays - Peter Turchin
Elite Underproduction - Anton TroynikovTurchin noted, ... that the U.S. has far more lawyers, MBA holders, and millionaires per thousand population than it did 30 years ago. This is worrying because “elite overproduction” is, according to Turchin, an underlying cause of political instability. He blames elite overproduction for playing a role in the fall of Rome and the American Civil War, for instance.
Turchin has cause and effect the wrong way around, Elite Overproduction is a consequence of a closed frontier.
I think this is relevant because ERE provides a "road less traveled" option. At least it seems like it would to me in that stringent ERE can dramatically lower resource consumption and allows a form of opting out?Elite Overproduction is a result of Malthusian Ideology; a set of beliefs that at root reflect the idea that all frontiers are closed, and all that is left is to decide who is to own what, and who is to rule. It is the consequence of believing that things can only get better for some at the expense of others, rather than for all together. In the bloodless language of economics, in equilibrium all surplus is competed away, in the bloody language of history you instead find words like Lebensraum.
Perhaps hitting closer to (Jacob's) home, it was interesting that it went on to talk about this topic in relation to physicists and their career paths in the current world. I hesitate to quote more as I've already quoted a fair amount and the second article is not very long. But I was curious what others thought about this topic. As a (perhaps tired) optimist, I prefer Troynikov's take as I wouldn't be surprised if academia, as it exists today, is a hindrance to "making meaningful contributions to our understanding of the physical universe."
Footnote: I do not consider myself to be an elite. But the examples given would apply to many here (lawyers, MBA holders, millionaires). Perhaps Turchin's use of millionaire needs to be updated for inflation.