1776

Interesting — in ways Trump didn't intend — that the so-called "warriors dividend" he announced yesterday has been set to exactly USD 1776.

The amount was chosen to honour the year in which the Declaration of Independence was signed, ushering in the (then novel) ideas that power comes from the people, that every person has fundamental rights, and that unjust governments can and should be overthrown.

This political change was profound, but it coincided with two other paradigmatic shifts which can be traced back to 1776 — one technological and one economic — which arguably have had an even greater influence in shaping the world we find ourselves in today.

On the technological side, the commercial launch of James Watt's steam engine — far more efficient than its predecessors — made fossil fuel power not just possible, but profitable. Without this shift, the last 250 years of technological advances and population growth would have been impossible.

And on the economic side, the publication of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations introduced the notion (which mainstream economists quickly embraced and still desperately cling to) that enlightened self interest is what drives progress, and that's good because an invisible hand will make everything work out for the best for all of us.

Look at these three shifts together, and it's fair to say that 1776 played a big part in setting us on a trajectory toward a world where ecological overshoot, economic inequality, and political upheaval are the norm. A world in which the game-show host leader of the free world can stand up and — with no sense of irony — proudly announce a program of wealth redistribution targeted only at that portion of the populace whose specific purpose is to shore up the existing hegemony.