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A social media company has the right to decline publishing my opinion, but the government’s ability to restrict what the social media company publishes is restricted by the First Amendment.

No wonder we’re restless, teetering on the edge, frustrated by our addictions to fakery and excess, starved for what cannot be marketed or made profitable, so it no longer exists except in the shadows.

The smart money is selling, of course, for the clanging indicators are the dinner bell announcing the banquet of consequences has been served, and Nemesis doesn’t want the meal to get cold.

And so here we are, exhausted by the divisions, the frustration, the rage and our loneliness in a sea of madness few even see.

We need a new definition of Progress, and a reset of the mythology guiding our descent into “Anti-Progress”.

Or we can let the bubble implode under its own weight and have a plan ready to clean house when the dust settles.

The core skill going forward–frugality–is largely a forgotten skillset. Time to get busy while we still have time.

This has now reached the point that corporations and institutions are in effect “mining what remains of our trust” to boost profits / private gains.

That most of us live in a low-value, low-trust economy of shoddy goods and services hidden beneath high-tech frictionless, faceless transactions is not recognized.

Those few who grasp the crisis in its entirety have been marginalized, and those who are left are drifting downstream, unable to move the mass of self-interested inertia even if they wanted to.

The system has reached the limits of its adaptability. Everything else is entertainment.

Loss of social trust has consequences.

If we want social / economic renewal, we have to make it straightforward for anyone willing to adopt the values and habits of “thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work” to climb the ladder to middle class security.

This raises another question: how will the deflation of the Everything Bubble play out?

Is an economy based on the wealth effect generated by front-running the front-runners really that stable?

Here’s a quick outline of a “rich guys Internet”, one where it costs money to participate but the payoff is a 10-fold improvement in the user experience.

Looking back, 2024 may well be viewed as insignificant compared to what lies ahead.

The younger generations expecting to inherit the immense wealth piled up by Boomers in home equity and stocks may be in for a shock.