If for example, "investments in human capital" -- one of the things you assert to be more important than typically "radical" prescriptions -- were made, I imagine that people who are now considered surplus, or "lumpen" as you prefer, would no longer be quite so superfluous after all.
That would contribute a good amount of counter-chaos action.
Would you support a realistic program to bring this about? Or perhaps, content to sip a glass of wine while sitting by the window like a low tech Bond villain (do you have a cat and a swivel chair?) would you say 'why bother? It will all fly apart anyway. That is the way it has always been.'
[WS:] I would absolutely support such an investment - in-human-and-fixed-capital program. This is the best thing than can be done. However, I am also well aware of its limitations. Even in the best possible world, such program would take two or three generations to take full effect. Therefore, short term consequences of 'entropy' would still remain unresolved. Moreover, such a program is not 100% guarantee - it would reduce a great deal of the surplus population - as evidenced by similar programs in x-USSR and Eastern Europe, but not fully eliminate it.
Unfortunately, more drastic program of forced relocation/assimilation undertaken in the Soviet era had also limited success, and carried a heavy human cost. Therefore they are not a panacea either.
Therefore, my position is that we can do much better than we are doing now in the area of uplifting the 'surplus' population to the productive, self-sufficient status and decent living standards. I emphatically reject the radical idea of destroying the decent status quo and bringing it down to the level of the lumpen, at least culturally. But at the same time I am well aware that these efforts will not be 100% successful. Not even close. We will still have 'entropy' and 'dysfunction' no matter what and how hard we try.
So your question 'why bother' can really be answered with a prayer (me, prayer, can you believe that?) that I once read and which goes like 'god give me strength to change what can be changed, give me patience to accept what cannot be changed, and give me wisdom to tell which is which.'
Ps. I do have a cat (actually two), and a swivel chair. Why?
Wojtek