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0 pointsspacebanana71y ago0 comments

I actually think we do live in very socially stable societies. Not to say it’s always a good thing.

But we do have clear systems of who gets power, through what means, and what they can do with it. The various classes of society have a relatively peaceful system of competing with one another.

I’m writing from a British perspective but it largely applies to most developed countries.

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jampekka1y ago

Europe had two world wars in the last century, and there's a major war right now. The (private) economy has collapsed at least twice. The post-war stability was largely due to reigning in private propery rights.

From a Finnish perspective, where ownership rights are somewhat lesser, the British system's trajectory didn't seem particularly stable when I lived there 2019-2020, and looks even less so now.

spacebanana7OP1y ago

I think too much stability is self defeating. It creates fragility like a monocultured ecosystem. Self correction mechanisms are important, even if they're painful. Bad governments and bad enterprises need to be wiped out now and again by war and recession, as a last resort when other forms of reform fail.

Britain never seems stable at first glance. Read a newspaper from 5, 50, 150 or 250 years ago and they'll all be lamenting economic uncertainty, geopolitical dilemmas and social injustice. Yet in that time no revolutions have killed more than 1% of the population, long term economic growth has averaged couple percentage points annually and nobody has successfully invaded the Islands.

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