Matt Erlacher
Jul 10, 2017 · 2 min read

This might be one of the least-intellectually-supportable articles I’ve ever read. I tend to stay away from Medium.com for this reason, but this article came up in a feed of mine, so I read it. First, if you are quoting (or purport to be quoting) “research” then you need to cite your sources (I would do it here but this is just a comment box). You have numerous factual flaws (hence the need for logically supporting sources). For example, we do not have a middle class “implosion.” The reported middle class shrinkage is because they have elevated themselves into the upper classes. There has always been inequality — immense inequality. For another, the countries you hold up as “successful” (Sweden, Canada, France & Germany) have all had or have their own strategic vulnerabilities and they are suffering from them right now (terrorism, popular dependence upon a bestowing state rather than a state dependent upon the will of the people, failed assimilation of migrants, enormous taxation that inhibits personal economic growth, etc.). Lastly is your underlying supposition that eudaimonia is possible (at all!) for any period of time without significant cost in terms of blood and treasure from those who are willing & able to sacrifice. It does not emerge from a common sentiment, unless it rests upon the labor of others. What you are talking about is a thinly-veiled utopia. It has never existed for one very important and irrefutable reason: man is prideful. Someone will always — always — knows better than someone else and will use that knowledge to dominate the others around him. Ask country who tried to establish a “paradise.”