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I meant to write this a while ago, but it got back burnered. It's mostly a response to a comment a fiend left about any propping up of the economic system delaying the inevitable collapse and subsequent rise of a better system. The details escape me and I'm too ill to be archive splunking, so I apologize if I have misrepresented the nuances.

My big problem with this position is that it means trading the real lives and actual well being of currently extant humans of all ages across the developed world for some potential better system that may or may not work at some point in the future. ideologies all well and good, but I believe policy needs to be based in reality. I have to back what has the best chance of working in the near future because actual human suffering is at stake. I'm not saying long term planning is a bad idea; I'm all for reality based long term planning for the greater good; it's just that letting large numbers of people die/lose homes/go hungry is not an acceptable gamble for some potential long term good. Risks need to be weighed against benefits. Large scale chaos never turns out well for average people trying to survive it. It tends to lead to undemocratic solutions such as tyrants and warlords. I think i'd rather back a reform the system horse than a let it all burn and we'll try to build something better latter approach.