LeanFIRE - and the question of social class
Accelerated mechanisation of cognitive labor in the coming decades could lead to similar effects as the mechanisation of physical labor in the 19th century.
One of which is the renaissance of ideas concerning class warfare because of the upheaval of labor structures. In that light, what may now still be seen as fringe or anachronistic may return to uncomfortable relevance: one's positioning among these ideas. Perhaps I am influenced by frightening firsthand stories, I received as a small child from elders, witnessing themselves as children the ugly face of communist revolution, which is now - at least in my realm - just part of the history books.
I really hope, those times will not return and yet one can ponder the question: where is LeanFIRE positioned? https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cossack,_who_are_you_with_(D._Moor).jpg
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LeanFIRE seems to be on the lowest rung of the Gentry ladder, living off some small parcels of - now mostly metaphorical - land, worked by other laborers. Yet everyday appearance, consumption, prestige, rights and entitlement of LeanFIRE are totally equal to that of those laborers.
I have not stumbled upon such a combination anywhere in history. Any Gentry, even more so Patricians and Nobility, have always encompassed some elevated prestige, distinct to that of the laborer class. That makes the positioning even more interesting.
From a self-preservation point of view, one would have to side with the ownership class, the Nobility of our time. From a way-of-life point of view one would have to side with the Median person, a laborer, which are probably family, friends and peers. I really hope that there will never come a day, where a hard choice has to be made. And maybe, it is better for now, to see it solely as an intellectual exercise, in theory only.
Under that assumption: how do you personally see LeanFIRE positioned?
