(My definition of the super-wealthy: entities and families that lobby the government for favors as a standard business practice.)

But political regime change doesn't exhaust the possibilities for revolutionary transformation, which can take social, cultural and spiritual forms. Correspondent Charles C.W. recently asked for my views on these non-political, non-financial wellsprings of transformative change:

"Thank you very much for your comments about the The Great Unwinding. Your comments are focused on the financial side of this unwinding. Also important are the cultural, social, spiritual, and interpersonal aspects of this unwinding. For example, we will learn that many of our government institutions are utterly corrupt and untrustworthy, if we don't know that already. We will learn that the government is not going to save us, and that they are utterly incompetent when it comes to disaster relief, if we don't know that already. We will learn self-reliance and neighbor-trust instead of expecting a handout from the government, if we don't know that already. If you have comments about the cultural, social, spiritual and interpersonal aspects of this process, that would make for a most interesting post."

Let's start with a mass movement of opting out of the status quo hamster wheel. I have discussed opting out as a solution many times, often in the context of historical examples, for example, tenant farmers escaped onerous taxes in the final stages of the Western Roman Empire by abandoning their land and joining the workforces of an elite's vast estate or a monastery. Or they simply vanished into the countryside.

In the pre-collapse phase of the Soviet Union, opting out often took the form of taking the lowest level job available that offered opportunities to catch up on reading and other interests while at work, and joining Party activities that offered opportunities for socializing, visiting museums, field trips, etc.–in effect, milking the system by doing the minimum to display the requisite compliance with the status quo.