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It's so easy! Why has no one thought of this? All we need to do is convince every government in the world to undertake dramatic changes to their economic and la
by thieving_magpie 11y ago
It's so easy! Why has no one thought of this? All we need to do is convince every government in the world to undertake dramatic changes to their economic and labor structure.
- astrodust 11y agoWe lived for at least fifty thousand years without any money at all, for around three thousand with some form of money, and the last two hundred years with the idea of hourly wages and bills and rent. It's entirely possible we'll find a better way to do this. Maybe we'll have to "undertake dramatic changes" to avoid an even bigger disaster.
- seanp2k2 11y agoWe've developed the technology to support our greed, and now that a small group of people has become infinitely more powerful, they won't be willing to cede control.
- vixen99 11y agoNot sure what you mean by greed but I hope it's not the description applied, too often exclusively, to those who want to earn more money or to keep what they have already earned - never to those wanting to take other people's money in taxes or to those wishing to live on the largesse provided by such taxation.
- lujim 11y agoI don't think of it that way. Even the most destitute person can go to the ER and get medical treatment that Andrew Carnegie, John D Rockefeller or JP Morgan couldn't buy with their entire fortune. It's not always free, but it's available. Most people living near or above the poverty line can afford devices fit in their pocket and instantly share information with anyone on the planet. Entire ivy league university courses are instantly available for free anywhere with an internet connection. We've developed the technology that we were able to because we could. Wealth inequality sucks, minimum wage sucks, environmental pollution sucks, but we aren't doing all that bad for a bunch of apes just trying to figure things out.
- thieving_magpie 11y agoI'm not disagreeing with the premise, my sarcasm was too harsh in hindsight. I just disagreed with the idea that this is a simple fix. OP did not assert that, so that's just me reading into it. I'm still hoping for a 'favor' economy like a story I read "And Then There Were None" by Eric Frank Russell.
- NoGravitas 11y agoThat's one of my favorite stories.
- lujim 11y agoLife before money was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". In fact I wouldn't choose to live anytime before the last 100 or 200 years. 1950 or later would have been my preference had I been given a choice. For how much we all like to armchair quarterback our current system (yes.. capitalism), it's easy to forget how bad 99.9 percent of the human experience on this planet would have sucked comparatively. That's not to say let's quit trying to fix things, but take a deep breath and look around. Things are pretty good. There is an unbelievably high probability that you and all your children live to old age. You won't have to be too cold, too warm, or too hungry during your stay. Not bad.
- VLM 11y ago"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" Isn't this also our future? The future is unevenly distributed... Detroit hasn't reached you yet, but its only a matter of time.
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoNo. Just no. The future is not Detroit. The future of a few places is Detroit, but not the future of everywhere.
- lujim 11y agoHa! Ironically enough I was born, raised, and currently live in Detroit (albeit the suburbs). I have worked in the city right next to Comerica Park (Maybe next year Tigers).
- AnimalMuppet 11y ago> In fact I wouldn't choose to live anytime before the last 100 or 200 years. 1950 or later would have been my preference had I been given a choice. 1950 is the earliest that would be OK for me - I had cataracts. In a world before cataract surgery, I would be blind.
- selimthegrim 11y agoI'm pretty sure cataract surgery was around before 1950
- jcranmer 11y agoWages, bills, rent, and taxation easily date back to classical times, and predate coinage (coinage being introduced in large part to make collecting taxes easier). Indeed, I believe the earliest writing that we've deciphered is an accounting bill or receipt.
- astrodust 11y agoWithin cities this was common, yet the vast majority of the population did not live there and was "employed" in other ways. For someone living an agricultural lifestyle things weren't great, you did have to appease your land-owner, but usually that was facilitated by paying a portion of your crop as rent. During the winter months when you had little to do other than care for livestock, things were pretty laid back. We're a lot less self-sufficient than we used to be, and this is perhaps irreversible. Nobody can be expected to make their own medication, to build their own computer from sand.
- vacri 11y ago> It's entirely possible we'll find a better way to do this. It's already possible to do this: give up your toys, transport, access to medicine... everything you rely on your broader community for, and join a commune or live in the rural third world. Basically, join a self-sufficient community. It's going to suck when someone breaks a leg or has complications in childbirth, but you'll be free of the work required to maintain modern living standards.
- danharaj 11y agoOr abolish governments and states.
- henrikschroder 11y agoIt's not easy, it's very, very hard, but every journey has a beginning. Some places have already started experimenting with basic income. Other places are experimenting with reducing the 8-hour work week. Those responses are much better than the knee-jerk response of this article, i.e. that we need jobs jobs jobs, and that we will always need jobs jobs jobs.
- tikhonj 11y agoThe economic structure changes drastically every few generations anyhow. Why not take direction of it? Besides, it's less a matter of making structural changes as it is of trying to change the culture and popularize the ideas that will motivate structural change. My parents lived in the Soviet Union and Russia now is nothing like it was even three decades ago. It's pretty incredible. It's less drastic but still true for other countries.