Again, perhaps, but I think you’re again grossly exaggerating the problem in order to justify some kind of dramatic change. Not that significant change is not necessary, but I do not see economic reform fixing our country if basic critical thinking is not addressed first.

There’s going to be no revolts seizing the means of production any time soon, which means we require voting for politicians that an American will find amenable. Nobody can perform any positive economic reform if we cannot get our facts straight first. Nor would we be effectively coordinating very much civil action.

Sure. I was just pointing out that when you said the following it was utter hogwash:

Aligning the ideals of the cook with the crook means establishing certain long term social expectations and assumed rewards. “Oh, one guy has an MBA from Wharton. They must just be better than the other so that’s why they get more stuff” fits within a rigorous critical analysis wherein elitism is considered a function of meritocracy and certain human lives have more value than others. The executive can go to the grave thinking they deserve the surplus profit extracted from all the base-pay line cooks under their thumb. The mere capacity for critical thinking doesn’t change that

It doesn’t actually work that way, and nor should it. A degree is not a guarantee of merit, it cannot be and thinking it is one is foolish. You cannot engineer a system reliably enough to genuinely make that consistently true. There will always be far too many independent variables that cannot be accounted for. Additionally, there are logical, self-serving reasons to engage in more pro-social behaviors that sufficient critical thinking training can help you arrive at.