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>> Efficiency kills jobs. But what people want is not jobs: they want revenue They don't want revenue. they want decent housing, education, healthcare ,energy,
by ippisl 15y ago
>> Efficiency kills jobs. But what people want is not jobs: they want revenue
They don't want revenue. they want decent housing, education, healthcare ,energy,transportation and food. Make those affordable to anyone , and there would be much less of a problem.
And you would expect that the improving technology would enable this. but somehow the cost of those goods mostly hasn't declined in the US.
Is there something to be done? Yes. if you look india and china, they are starting to offer those goods for much lower prices. the US should emulate them.
- ctdonath 15y agoThose ARE affordable to anyone. Without enumerating the solutions, I assure you it's all out there cheap or free to anyone willing to put in some effort to earn and adapt. The problem is so many want luxuries brought to them on a silver platter. Our biggest sociopolitical issue now is that it is illegal to be poor, that varoius regulations prohibit "functional poverty". Jobs below a certain wage are illegal, housing below high standards are prohibited, products & services must achieve lofty idealistic goals. I'm not saying low standards are desirable, but if you're not allowed to stand on the bottom rungs of the ladder you can't climb higher.
- ippisl 15y ago>> Those ARE affordable to anyone. >> jobs below a certain wage are illegal So everything is affordable to anyone , and jobs pay too much.Those lazy whining plebs! how dare they protest ?
- ctdonath 15y agoYou are willfully confusing need with want.
- Greedy_Fools 15y agoThat's why they hoard the land, people can't create wealth and move up and be more productive without standing on that bottom rung of the ladder, which must be on defensible land. The only solution is the exact same process that built the great American society, give people access to land and then leave them the hell alone. All it ever took to build it, all it will take to fix it. Nothing else will work because nothing has changed but our collective delusion about what is required to create.
- sanderjd 15y agoPlease do enumerate the solutions you are alluding to if you're willing - I'm sure I'm not the only person on here who is curious and has no idea what you're talking about or where to start looking.
- ctdonath 15y agoA few favorite starting points: Meals for $1: abuckaplate.blogspot.com (fair disclosure, it's my blog) Education curriculum, free: ocw.MIT.edu Housing, efficient: Tumbleweedhouses.com, TinyHouseBlog.com Cheap land: google "free land" Health care: look into "catastrophic coverage" Yeah, it takes effort. Ease has a price. The main issue, as another poster noted, is that most people are indoctrinated with consumerism from birth. Fact is you can live well, cheap; takes work, but it's not really that hard.
- JabavuAdams 15y ago> The problem is so many want luxuries brought to them on a silver platter. Yeah, but it's not like they just want these luxuries for no reason. In a consumerist society, we indoctrinate them from birth to want things. The "winners" in our society win in part because they are able to convince the "losers" to buy stuff that they don't really need. It's pretty awful and dishonest to then have the "winners" criticize the losers for the very actions / traits that enriched the "winners".