Optical illusions

I don't see how changing to a parliamentary system would be an improvement for us. Would Old Dog care to elaborate on that assertion?

If both houses of congress agree on one of their own as the president, we would be assured of someone who has more than a passing familiarity with the procedures of government, unlike out current Commander in Chief.  We may not end up with the best guy, but we wouldn't be stuck with the worst guy, either.  Also, in many parliaments, the leader can be thrown out on his ear, at any time, if there are enough supporters for a "no confidence" vote; no impeachment process required.  That's my understanding, as of today, but I am sure there should more to it.

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But now what is the next new thing?  It all seems a bit amorphous but I do fear we are moving towards a tech powered ruling class and everybody else back at the stage of medieval peasants.

You may be close to the mark, Uncle Ken.  We are starting to feel some of the pain of the unintended consequences of increased production.  Better factories require fewer workers (but more expensive machines) but there is no mechanism in place to provide for those displaced workers.  Not just factories; some office workers can be replaced by better computers with AI.  Aren't there some robot bartenders already?  Maybe some of them can be trained for new occupations, but every year countless thousands of fresh-faced, highly educated young people enter the work face, and then what?  If you are a corporate bigwig, taking a long term view of your company, are you going to hire the more easily trained young guy or the old fart who may be retiring in a few years?   These are tough questions, with no answers that I can see.

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Lately I've been seeing an old word used in a new way: optics.   I used to think of lenses and Isaac Newton peering at a prism, but now optics has a new meaning: (typically in a political context) the way in which an event or course of action is perceived by the public. "The issue itself is secondary to the optics of the Democrats opposing this administration in a high-profile way."

The heavy reliance on optics goes a long way to explain the distorted view of objective reality that is held by many these days, don'cha think?

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The discussion of the middle class reminded me of an article in The Atlantic from a few weeks ago, and I was meaning to bring it up: Is It Better to Be Poor in Bangladesh or the Mississippi Delta?

I thought the article lacked real meat, but this statement caught my eye: "And life expectancy in much of Appalachia is below life expectancy in Bangladesh."  Yikes!

I remain skeptical, but the United States falls well below other western nations in life expectancy, infant mortality, education, and other measurements of a successful and prosperous nation.  We're not doing as well as we think we are; still got a damn good military, though.