Bad news for those wanting revolution.

[a geek named Bob]

1. JNelson6563, I think there's a flip side to that question...

In addition to how bad things are currently, There's the question of what the revolution will give people - of course, there's also the cost of the revolution itself. Revolutions are messy. Who cleans up?

From a quick look at other countries, Social Democracies seem to work. (By Social Democracy, I mean a country with "strong" regulated capital markets, "strong" environmental controls, progressive taxation rates, an actual social safety net, pervasive education distribution, and governmental/social interest in starting small businesses.) On the flip side, the examples of national scale "pure" socialism don't lend a lot of confidence for a revolution. I'm starting to wonder if there are scaling issues involved: I've seen communities up to about 100 make it work, but I don't have any information about retention rates. Also, said group were NOT self sufficient.