Need Engineering

Dysfunctional capitalism brings people to the edge of desperation. It is a consequence of highly proficient profit maximization where labor is an expense and there are a small number of large employers.

Short Version: Need Engineering is the process of keeping people on the edge of desperation. It is rarely an objective in itself, at least not in those terms, but it is an unavoidable consequence of highly proficient profit maximization when labor is universally calculated as an expense and there are a relatively small number of large employers.

I'm not sure "Need Engineering" is the right term for this, but it fits with "Avarice Engineering" as a thematic title, so let's start here.

[Avarice Engineering] is how you get people to buy crap they don't need.

Need engineering is how you keep people on the edge of desperation so they are unwilling to resist.

I had intended to make this page "Wealth Concentration." But I don't really have a problem with wealth concentration in itself.

If we could, for example, gradually approach a wealth concentration of 99.99% held by one person and 0.01% shared among everyone else - but "everyone else" was living their "dream the impossible dream" life - I wouldn't mind.

I think there are physics reasons why we won't get there in the foreseeable future, but that isn't about whether it could work; just about whether it would. It's just a belief about tomorrow resembling today; subject to change.

Anyway, I want to focus on the bad thing: The intentional and malevolent generation of a state of desperate craving that results in a society unwilling to resist simultaneously for months, when a long train of abuses becomes destructive of the pursuit of happiness.

Financial Need Engineering

Keep them a couple paychecks away from disaster. Keep them thinking they're about to get fired. Keep them thinking they're replaceable. Keep them thinking resistance is a fire-able offense and toadying leads to advancement.

Culture War Need Engineering

Make people believe that if they let up on trans rights or gun ownership or religious freedom or reproductive health care - even for a moment - they will lose. Then convince them it's the other commoner they must fight.