I think part of the reason for the assault on things like education and health care is to create a shell-shocked state where people WILL accept things we would otherwise find unlikely. Consider; what is the recipe for people who are hungry, poor, unhealthy, unequipped to think critically, and scared for their lives and well-being? Add in the (so far understated, but definitely present) Christo-fascist dimension, and it is fairly easy to imagine a population dulled into compliance. If you have not read Animal Farm in a while, pick it up - it doesn't take much to craft compliance out of the raw materials of fear and deprivation.
As to the world's most productive country, I'm not sure that is the US, not anymore. The America of the early 1950s, with production and manufacturing booming, is a long-lost vision, and it simply isn't coming back. That's part of why we are here; nostalgia for a 'golden age past' (which more than likely never existed in actuality) is a huge component of fascism.
Fascism relies on an idea of the strong, noble, glowingly healthy working class, and the myth of unbridled productivity, while in reality keeping things at a subsistence level. Look at propaganda from the Nazis, fascist Italy, or from Russia. How many Americans might give up many of the trappings of the modern age if you promised them a sun-bronzed, apple-cheeked, mythical, agrarian 1950s Middle America, where every day is a glowing 4th of July parade with happy children in work clothes waving flags (and where the subjugation of others is the decent, upright thing to do; never forget the appeal to the poor white man of giving him someone to look down upon...)?
I also think the kleptocracy is only an interim stage; the final goal is an insular, isolated, mostly agrarian, self-sustaining oligarchy, along the lines of North Korea. There, as in Nineteen Eighty-Four's Oceania, reports of abundance and overproduction cause endless bursts of praise for the Dear Leader, while in reality, everyone is just barely scraping by, still muddled by the nostalgic vision of the happy golden age, and unable to put their finger on exactly what is missing. (Did the Commandments of Animal Farm always read that way? Perhaps they had misremembered...)
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe my years of immersion in medieval history are coloring my perceptions. I really do hope so, though I'm not sure any other scenario is much brighter.
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As to the world's most productive country, I'm not sure that is the US, not anymore. The America of the early 1950s, with production and manufacturing booming, is a long-lost vision, and it simply isn't coming back. That's part of why we are here; nostalgia for a 'golden age past' (which more than likely never existed in actuality) is a huge component of fascism.
Fascism relies on an idea of the strong, noble, glowingly healthy working class, and the myth of unbridled productivity, while in reality keeping things at a subsistence level. Look at propaganda from the Nazis, fascist Italy, or from Russia. How many Americans might give up many of the trappings of the modern age if you promised them a sun-bronzed, apple-cheeked, mythical, agrarian 1950s Middle America, where every day is a glowing 4th of July parade with happy children in work clothes waving flags (and where the subjugation of others is the decent, upright thing to do; never forget the appeal to the poor white man of giving him someone to look down upon...)?
I also think the kleptocracy is only an interim stage; the final goal is an insular, isolated, mostly agrarian, self-sustaining oligarchy, along the lines of North Korea. There, as in Nineteen Eighty-Four's Oceania, reports of abundance and overproduction cause endless bursts of praise for the Dear Leader, while in reality, everyone is just barely scraping by, still muddled by the nostalgic vision of the happy golden age, and unable to put their finger on exactly what is missing. (Did the Commandments of Animal Farm always read that way? Perhaps they had misremembered...)
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe my years of immersion in medieval history are coloring my perceptions. I really do hope so, though I'm not sure any other scenario is much brighter.