Whether or not this social contract existed, if it did, it has been repudiated once respect for others got left on the scrapheap of history. I could not go into it there; I'll go into it here.Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Sat Apr 22, 2023 10:57 am There was an implied social contract that, hey, this acquaintance did something creative.
When people started becoming nothing but bags of cash and objects to be discarded once used up, and all that anyone cares about is "I got mine, fuck you Charlie," don't talk to me about a social contract existing, that's just bullshit to keep the sheep from rioting.
Those in poor communities know there no longer is a social contract, where they can never raise the money to afford a home because housing prices rise faster than wages. Owning a home was one of the key factors to allow families to raise capital and get out of poverty. They also expected the police not to openly murder them. Now, the only people who can afford to own a home are those with rich parents, who can subsidize their purchase. The average working stiff can't afford the payments on a house. Why? Because the price of housing is pushed up by artificial scarcity. Normally, if housing became too expensive, the answer would be to build more housing, right? You can't, because setback requirements limit sizes of houses, zoning limits a lot of properties to single family housing, which causes artificial scarcity, jacking up prices. Which means, in a typical community, the only thing that can be built in an area is tearing down inexpensive houses in favor of more expensive single-family homes, which exacerbates an already short supply of affordable properties.
Zoning. Zoning came about because white people wanted to keep minorities out of their neighborhoods. When racial covenants - a deed restriction that you can't sell your house to a Chinese, Hispanic, or negro - were declared illegal by the Supreme Court, they couldn't use that anymore, but they could have zoning laws to make building a house more expensive. And now we are reaping the whirlwind.
Education is one of the most important things a person can have to get out of debt. Then colleges and universities discovered they could raise prices. This also makes education expensive for minorities. Now, they can take loans, which even further guarantee they'll never be able to own their own home, and puts them on the treadmill of debt slavery.
I think at one time the social contract was, if a bank or large company went broke it went bankrupt and that was it, and if bankers had acted recklessly or negligently, they went to prison. Now, if one is "too big to fail" then it's bailed out with taxpayer funds. Executives don't have bonuses clawed back, and nobody goes to jail.
There are ways to fix the problems in society. One would be to eliminate zoning, at least on commercial and residential. Mixed use development can help, where a duplex could be built on top of a store. Or 4-family homes replacing single family. Problem is, eliminating the artificial shortage would cause housing prices to fall.
Those who already have property or whose education was subsidized by their parents look down at those who had to work for a living and take crushing student debt, and think they are lazy and unwilling to work. And they are not going to want to see their property to go down in value so some one with less money can afford to live somewhere.
And the problem of homeless people. If we did something to solve it, all those fat cats in non-profit organizations that get taxpayer money would have to get real jobs that actually do something, and for less money. Plus, nobody wants homeless people in their neighborhood.
I think before I would worry about some rich music snob unhappy about music being made by machines, and think about all the real and tangible social contracts which have been torn up to give some people money at the expense of others, often in taking money from poor people to make already financially secure people even richer.
