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Articles like these make me very pessimistic for the future. Not because the article is incorrect, but because the fact this has become such a widespread issue

Articles like these make me very pessimistic for the future. Not because the article is incorrect, but because the fact this has become such a widespread issue is like a bad joke. If you told me in the 90's that people's work schedules would become so unpredictable that families would start dissolving, I would have called you dramatic. But now, it's happening to basically everyone I know, and only in the last few years have I broken free from that myself. Every clever scheduling algorithm or trick that people try applying to "fix" this situation feels like a band-aid solution. It begs the question, WHY are so many people taking jobs that they know will destroy their relationships with their family and friends? That immediately takes the subject to the unpleasant conversation of "rent", which has shot up dramatically all over the world in the last few decades. I'm honestly no longer convinced that the systems we have for property acquisition nowadays are actually any better than homesteading. We pay taxes so the government can defend property claims; except 90% of people don't own much at all, so we are basically paying for rich people's security guards.

mikelyons 7y ago
This is an example of how we are seeing the limits of our Spiral Dynamics stage orange societal systems. In order to remedy these issues we'll have to evolve into a stage green society and it will be fought violently by red/orange stage people like Trump. It will be painful but necessary in order to survive and rescue the ecology of the planet from the consequences of the prosperity that stage orange ushered in.
- jjpwojwpwf 7y ago
  I'll openly admit that I am an annoying pessimist, but I don't think the solution is going to come in the form of anything that a book from 1995 could possibly recognize as progress. To be blunt, what I mean is that a lot of problems we have nowadays come from the mere existence of modern technology, not exclusively from just the way people live. It's a bit hard for me to admit because I used to be an avid technologist (and am currently employed as a computer engineer), but it's gets harder and harder to deny everyday. No one in the world gets to choose what technology is the next logical step, and the decision to pursue its development is ultimately an arms race with the entire world as competitors. It is just not possible for any philosophy, economic system, or culture to change that fact. The good side-effects are inseparable from the bad. If you have nuclear energy, you have atomic bombs and nuclear power plants. If you have fast computer networking, you have on-demand entertainment and surveillance networks. If you can store information forever, you can instantly know someone's worst act and they can remember yours.
  - mikelyons 7y ago
    This is the hermetic principle of polarity in action, but notice that technology and people living their lives are also not separate. As humanity becomes more conscious it will begin to dawn that none of the life here is separate from any other life and we will move toward Love and unity. You can see from globalization that we are moving toward a more unified world, it is inevitable if we can survive the consequences of the shadow side of stage orange. Edit: To clarify, unification of the globe will help to prevent weaponizing technologies, and will lead to unified efforts to preserve and rescue our planets ecology from our excesses. But we have to be high enough on the spiral to implement that, if we're down at the psychological level of totalitarians and then try to implement marxism, we will end up with a totalitarian marxism like Stalin. Stalin wasn't a liberal you know ...
macawfish 7y ago
Rentier capitalism results in artificial scarcity. With rentier schemes and behavior dominating aspects of life so fundamental as housing and health care, conditions of artificial scarcity have stretched their tendrils into the fabric of our wellbeing: into our mental, spiritual, social health, into our very sense of having the time to freely work in pursuit of healthy lives. And the most difficult thing of all is that this is all a wicked pyramid scheme, one that is hard to break without seeming violence against people we care about. We are dependent.
- ip26 7y ago
  What artificial scarcity do you have in mind, bearing in mind that there is a true scarcity (or at least fixed supply) of land close to desirable places to live?
  - arbitrary_name 7y ago
    >fixed supply Aka artificial scarcity. Wealthy landowners prevent housing of adequate density being built. Public transport is hard to fund due to the expense driven by negotiating with landholders. Landowners are creating artificial scarcity; the thing that is not scarce is land; it is habitable spaces proximate to quality employment opportunities.
  - macawfish 7y ago
    Consider this: It's become normalized for people to buy houses/condos with large amounts of inflating debt. Because you're indebted, you can't simply sell what you've bought for any less than you owe, eat the loss and walk away, as you might do with something you flat out own. You'd still owe your lender, with interest. I'd argue that this game creates a significant incentive for people to hold onto a housing units and pass debt onto renters, that it turns would-be owner-occupants into virtual speculators/landlords. I say "virtual" because they are really just tenants of their lenders (banks), and many of them aren't really in it for the "win", they're just in it by coercion, in it for the "not loss". This whole scheme, and many others like it, artificially restricts supply and inflates prices.
  - 7y ago

mikelyons 7y ago

This is an example of how we are seeing the limits of our Spiral Dynamics stage orange societal systems. In order to remedy these issues we'll have to evolve into a stage green society and it will be fought violently by red/orange stage people like Trump. It will be painful but necessary in order to survive and rescue the ecology of the planet from the consequences of the prosperity that stage orange ushered in.

jjpwojwpwf 7y ago
I'll openly admit that I am an annoying pessimist, but I don't think the solution is going to come in the form of anything that a book from 1995 could possibly recognize as progress. To be blunt, what I mean is that a lot of problems we have nowadays come from the mere existence of modern technology, not exclusively from just the way people live. It's a bit hard for me to admit because I used to be an avid technologist (and am currently employed as a computer engineer), but it's gets harder and harder to deny everyday. No one in the world gets to choose what technology is the next logical step, and the decision to pursue its development is ultimately an arms race with the entire world as competitors. It is just not possible for any philosophy, economic system, or culture to change that fact. The good side-effects are inseparable from the bad. If you have nuclear energy, you have atomic bombs and nuclear power plants. If you have fast computer networking, you have on-demand entertainment and surveillance networks. If you can store information forever, you can instantly know someone's worst act and they can remember yours.
- mikelyons 7y ago
  This is the hermetic principle of polarity in action, but notice that technology and people living their lives are also not separate. As humanity becomes more conscious it will begin to dawn that none of the life here is separate from any other life and we will move toward Love and unity. You can see from globalization that we are moving toward a more unified world, it is inevitable if we can survive the consequences of the shadow side of stage orange. Edit: To clarify, unification of the globe will help to prevent weaponizing technologies, and will lead to unified efforts to preserve and rescue our planets ecology from our excesses. But we have to be high enough on the spiral to implement that, if we're down at the psychological level of totalitarians and then try to implement marxism, we will end up with a totalitarian marxism like Stalin. Stalin wasn't a liberal you know ...

macawfish 7y ago

Rentier capitalism results in artificial scarcity. With rentier schemes and behavior dominating aspects of life so fundamental as housing and health care, conditions of artificial scarcity have stretched their tendrils into the fabric of our wellbeing: into our mental, spiritual, social health, into our very sense of having the time to freely work in pursuit of healthy lives. And the most difficult thing of all is that this is all a wicked pyramid scheme, one that is hard to break without seeming violence against people we care about. We are dependent.

ip26 7y ago
What artificial scarcity do you have in mind, bearing in mind that there is a true scarcity (or at least fixed supply) of land close to desirable places to live?
- arbitrary_name 7y ago
  >fixed supply Aka artificial scarcity. Wealthy landowners prevent housing of adequate density being built. Public transport is hard to fund due to the expense driven by negotiating with landholders. Landowners are creating artificial scarcity; the thing that is not scarce is land; it is habitable spaces proximate to quality employment opportunities.
- macawfish 7y ago
  Consider this: It's become normalized for people to buy houses/condos with large amounts of inflating debt. Because you're indebted, you can't simply sell what you've bought for any less than you owe, eat the loss and walk away, as you might do with something you flat out own. You'd still owe your lender, with interest. I'd argue that this game creates a significant incentive for people to hold onto a housing units and pass debt onto renters, that it turns would-be owner-occupants into virtual speculators/landlords. I say "virtual" because they are really just tenants of their lenders (banks), and many of them aren't really in it for the "win", they're just in it by coercion, in it for the "not loss". This whole scheme, and many others like it, artificially restricts supply and inflates prices.
- 7y ago