Granted, this argument is not based on scientific observation with a double-blind study on a multi-year duration. However, you can't swing a cat in any direction without hitting one of these buffoon assholes in a position of power. These people can barely stand to look the rest of us in the eye, because part of their schtick is to pretend that they are too important to commune with the common man. It's all just a cleverly contrived facade however, because all of these people have weaknesses like everyone else, but they are far better at concealing them beneath layers of finely cultivated pretension.
The Real Survival Guide
Therefore, one thing we all have to look forward to is a leveling of the playing field. A situation in which the neighbourhood where one was born or what school daddy sent them to or how much money they have in a trust fund is going to mean sweet fuck all. In fact it's going to mean less than that, because these people have absolutely zero real world survival skills. They don't even know how to treat another human being with respect, unless it's someone they deem to be superior. They don't realize that to get things done in the everyday real world, you have to treat everyone with respect - the great and the small. Survival in an age of austerity will not be dependent upon how many guns we have or whether we live in a reinforced bunker, it will be predicated upon treating other people with respect and otherwise being an equal functioning member of a tight knit community. As Kunstler wrote recently, those who are isolated and adrift in the vast expanses of suburban sprawl without any support structures, will be the least equipped to endure.
Several decades have now passed in the Western nations since there has been any reset on the accumulated frauds and excesses. In the meantime, sociopathic behaviours have become rampant, leading everyone to just assume that this is just another way of treating people. However, this epidemic of pampered obnoxious behaviour is simply one of the unsustainable side effects of this era of excess.
Let the leveling begin.