3 ms·
I’m a big ol’ hippie but one sticking point I always have with my friends is that to have upward mobility there must also be the chance for downward mobility. T
by zwkrt 5y ago
I’m a big ol’ hippie but one sticking point I always have with my friends is that to have upward mobility there must also be the chance for downward mobility. There can be no success without a chance for failure. And I don’t mean this in a zero-sum sort of way.
Ideally every person would be able to invest in themselves and their community to the fullest extent. Teach themselves and others new skills, start their own business, sell themselves and their talents to others, and create a robust ecosystem of success and opportunity at scales ranging from the individual to the mega-corporation. I dream of a culture (both interpersonal and governmental) that strives for such an ideal.
In practice this does not happen though because it is a lot of work, not all people are able, not all people are willing, not all people are as open, sinscere, and imaginative, “the system” is not really favorable to being so self-starting, and the reality is that most available jobs are awful and it is very hard to have such a clear and vivid imagining of one’s own future when bogged down by a series of dead-end line cook jobs.
When I see things like the anti-work meme/movement I get where it’s coming from, but I also wonder what such a person would do once their goal of anti-work is achieved.
- hogFeast 5y agoEconomic policy has had a huge role in that. If you are wealthy, you can borrow money for free, you can pay no taxes, and you can invest your free money at 10%+...oh, and the govt will bail you out if it goes wrong. I worked in equity research at a financial adviser, I am not anti-markets at all (although am probably towards the left of things, for economics more than anything...substantial inequality is not sustainable economically) but the reason why the US doesn't have downward mobility is because rich people do not need skills. You need money to get rich, not skills. If you look at other countries with similar economic models, for example the UK, you see much higher downward mobility. Again, the simple reason for that is less buoyant financial markets (and btw, UK property has gone through the roof and wealthier individuals in the UK own proportionally more property...the US is really, really out there). The only place that is really comparable are explicitly corporatist states like Germany and China...and the former has (tbf, fairly weak) mechanisms to guarantee a certain living standard. I don't really understand the US system at all. The welfare state is Bezos and Musk's space projects. And people wonder why their fellow citizens are struggling? You are rich, but you live in a society where many other people are suffering...that isn't wealth.
- openfuture 5y agoDon't give up, let's make it happen.