Jean-Paul Faguet

Partly because their conditions of work have changed. You're not working in giant factories that employ thousands or tens of thousands of people where you go to the same place and you clock your card and you work on an assembly line next to 500 or 1000 people who are just like you. So now you're an Uber driver and you think you're an entrepreneur, right? And you're going to get rich one day.

Partly because their conditions of work have changed. You're not working in giant factories that employ thousands or tens of thousands of people where you go to the same place and you clock your card and you work on an assembly line next to 500 or 1000 people who are just like you. So now you're an Uber driver and you think you're an entrepreneur, right? And you're going to get rich one day.

You're an independent businessman who's subcontracting to Uber and maybe you're driving your own car. Maybe you're driving a car that belongs to another entrepreneur, but you don't think of yourself as a working class. And so that left-right politics is in steep decline all over the West. And the question is, what is going to replace it?

You're an independent businessman who's subcontracting to Uber and maybe you're driving your own car. Maybe you're driving a car that belongs to another entrepreneur, but you don't think of yourself as a working class. And so that left-right politics is in steep decline all over the West. And the question is, what is going to replace it?

And from my point of view, the scary thing, and again, this is linked to Bolivia, is that if it gets replaced by identity, identitarian politics,

And from my point of view, the scary thing, and again, this is linked to Bolivia, is that if it gets replaced by identity, identitarian politics,

Meaning, you know, in Europe, white Europeans who have been there for a long time and are Christian and speak the language versus brown or black skinned people who come from further away, who have a different language, a different religion, different food. If that's what it gets to be about, then this is really dangerous.

Meaning, you know, in Europe, white Europeans who have been there for a long time and are Christian and speak the language versus brown or black skinned people who come from further away, who have a different language, a different religion, different food. If that's what it gets to be about, then this is really dangerous.

In some countries, Protestants versus Catholics is still a really big divide, for example, in countries like Holland, for example, or for that matter, Germany. If politics goes from being left right. So the thing about left right politics is that it's always possible to find a positive, some solution that gets everyone makes everyone happy. because you can expand the pie.

In some countries, Protestants versus Catholics is still a really big divide, for example, in countries like Holland, for example, or for that matter, Germany. If politics goes from being left right. So the thing about left right politics is that it's always possible to find a positive, some solution that gets everyone makes everyone happy. because you can expand the pie.

Left versus right is basically about how do we divide profits between the owners of capital and the guys who make the stuff using that capital that makes the profits, the workers.

Left versus right is basically about how do we divide profits between the owners of capital and the guys who make the stuff using that capital that makes the profits, the workers.

At the end of the day, right. So as long as we can keep the economy growing, we can give some to the capitalists, some to the workers, and maybe it'll fall apart, but there's at least a chance that we can find a solution because the pie keeps growing. If it's about who you are, then either one ethnic group is on top or the other ethnic group is on top.

At the end of the day, right. So as long as we can keep the economy growing, we can give some to the capitalists, some to the workers, and maybe it'll fall apart, but there's at least a chance that we can find a solution because the pie keeps growing. If it's about who you are, then either one ethnic group is on top or the other ethnic group is on top.

And if I can't, you know, if I'm a member of one, therefore I'm not a member of the other, I'm in or I'm out. It's very difficult to find some sort of, you know, agreeable solution to that. Okay, that's a depressing thought. It turns positive sum games into zero sum games. And zero sum games in terms of political stability are scary. Right.

And if I can't, you know, if I'm a member of one, therefore I'm not a member of the other, I'm in or I'm out. It's very difficult to find some sort of, you know, agreeable solution to that. Okay, that's a depressing thought. It turns positive sum games into zero sum games. And zero sum games in terms of political stability are scary. Right.

Yeah, that's exactly true. There was actually a fascinating visualization of this done by an undergraduate, I think at Harvard a few years ago, when this began during, I think when Obama was president, when it began to be clear the extent of polarization in the U.S.

Yeah, that's exactly true. There was actually a fascinating visualization of this done by an undergraduate, I think at Harvard a few years ago, when this began during, I think when Obama was president, when it began to be clear the extent of polarization in the U.S.

And he would just sort of drew little circles and colored them for each legislator in the House and the Senate and colored them by their ideological leanings based on their roll call vote. So they had cast a vote in favor of this or that policy. And from that, he mapped where they were in terms of left versus right.

And he would just sort of drew little circles and colored them for each legislator in the House and the Senate and colored them by their ideological leanings based on their roll call vote. So they had cast a vote in favor of this or that policy. And from that, he mapped where they were in terms of left versus right.