see, what bugs me about what wolff is saying - and i'm broadly on board with his democracy at work thing, even if i think he's a producerist - is that he's setting up a choice between keynesian make-work and a post-industrial pseudo-communist ubi (which should probably look like a negative income tax). i don't like the idea of being forced to defend a ubi instead of make work - i support both approaches, as they will address different concerns that exist. but, make work is by nature temporary. a ubi is structural....

...and he skipped the last step in the discussion of the wealthy understanding the consequences of inequality - that when you take away the ability to enact change peacefully, and you drive desperation to the point of reaction, there is nothing people can do but react with force. that's when people storm bastilles and send bankers to guillotines. how close is america to that? it's not clear, but likely not far.

i said this elsewhere: if america wants to avoid collapse, it's going to have to teach it's elite how to share. and, it should do so with a government-funded education program targeted at the 1%.