CB: Do you have way of eliminating that social stratum other than eliminating capitalism ? They go together like a horse and carriage.
[WS:] I think I answered that question in one of my earlier postings, but let me summarize it here:
Capitalism is not the cause of lumpen and associated factors like poverty or "rural idiocy" (as the Old Man would say it) - but an insufficient cause of its elimination. It is the various factors that can summarily be dubbed as the idiocy of the pre-modern life that create it. Capitalism eliminated some of it for some people, but left many other behind. Socialism will presumably do better, but some will still be left behind even under socialism. That is fact of life - nothing is perfect.
To summarize: Pre capitalism - the prevailing condition is that of the lumpen and "rural idiocy" which only a few aristocrats can escape.
Capitalism - lifted a sizeable share of the population out of the lumpen condition and associated rural idiocy - but failed short of that promise for even a larger share, thus leaving them behind in the lumpen state.
Socialism - will presumably lift a substantial share of the lumpen left behind by capitalism to the condition that the middle class under capitalism enjoys.
However, no system in the world can deliver the entire humanity from the lumpen and associated "rural idiocy" - only Jesus can do that, if one believes in such fairy tales.
Wojtek