I see you did decide to respond to this after all, as you didn't yesterday when I checked the board.

The mistake is to think that it will always be so in the future.

As long as there is a system that is based upon economic disparity between a small class of "haves" and a far larger class of "have nots," there will be margins of inequality no matter how advanced the technology becomes (though Baldur has presented the interesting theory that advancing technology will eventually bring about a "merging" of capitalism with socialism, effectively knocking out any dichotomy between them, that's a whole other discussion). The huge technology boom from the mid-19th century to the present has increased the level of comfort for even poor people compared to what their counterparts had in the past, true, but that level of comfort and security is still far less than the small class of privileged individuals in the ever-shrinking owning class enjoy, and far less than either would possess in a system based upon social ownership of the industries and services predicated upon production for direct use for everyone rather than for sale to a majority class of consumers. A class-divided system is not intended to provide an environment of equality of abundance for everyone, and while such a system makes sense in undeveloped agrarian societies or poorly developed industrial societies where mass production is not technologically possible and resources are therefore naturally scarce, it makes no sense whatsoever in an advanced post-industrial society where it's technologically possible to produce an abundance for all, and where there is no justification for anyone living in poverty or economic insecurity, and where things such as artificial scarcity and planned obsolescence become part of a needless "game" to preserve an archaic status quo.

The prevailing evidence throughout the existence of capitalism during the Industrial Era in no way suggests that class-divided systems will eliminate poverty and want amongst the majority of citizens in the world despite any level of advancing technology.

Technology is already correcting it, and it will correct it.

No it isn't and no it won't, because disparity of wealth between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in the United States has increased exponentially over the past few decades, with 1% of the wealthiest few in the U.S. owning close to 80% of all available wealth, as opposed to less than half of that in the 1950s. Further, working class people are being milked dry with increasing amounts of debt due to higher education and health care continuing to be commodities for sale regardless of how much they may be needed by individuals, and due to advanced technology going in often useless directions to incite consumers to spend more and more of their depleting currency on useless junk, which is in turn courtesy of the advertising industry, one of a few powerful industries in a capitalist society that would have no purpose whatsoever in a classless, resource-based economy.

I think eventually we will see three stages: Paleolithic, Civilized, and Neo-Paleolithic.

Interesting.

Mass production does, but the world is moving away from mass production into smaller quantities of similar but not identical things to be produced that cannot be produced in a mass production factory with mass production machines. So thank you straw man slayer!

You patted yourself on the back for no good reason, because mass production remains the centerpiece of technological progress that made the Industrial Revolution possible, and it is in no way being replaced by some sort of smaller scale production of "similar but different things." That makes as much sense as saying that small family farms are beginning to make a comeback and gradually driving out big agribusiness conglomerates, or that "mom and pop" shops are slowly defeating big corporations like Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

You wouldn't say irrelevant if you had been to the concert.

But the fact remains that I wasn't.

I didn't say they wouldn't be interesting, only warned you of their backgrounds! :p Have a nice reading!!

I most def have every intention of watching the fanged aristocrat literally go at the throat of the bourgeois dude with the fedora and pipe.