Yeah, we’re basically screwed. I’ll try to think of something anyway.
The goal is to redistribute wealth, from the rich to the poor. Doing it directly seems impossible. But we could do it indirectly, by redistributing power.
I think one of the most powerful lever currently available is unemployment. Currently, employees fear it, so they accept lower wages. If unemployment where somehow less terrible, or less common, employees would have more power, and higher salaries. Of the top of my head, I see two ways:
Universal income. It makes unemployment less unpleasant. If it gives you enough money, one could chose to just retire early and live frugally. I agree it sounds too communist however. I don’t see it happening, especially in the US.
Reduce work hours. Go down to 4 days a week, while maintaining current salaries. There will be need for more people, which will mean less unemployment. When automation goes up again, go down to 3 days. And down. And down. This one sounds more plausible, but again, not in the US. The second someone talks about a 4 week day is the second you see some Republican stir up emotions about righten up the country through virtuous hard work. Maybe it could work in Europe (one country at a time), then spread. But we need to get past the idea that hard work is sacred first.
We could also spread basic rationality and basic political awareness. But frankly, this is difficult: most people don’t have the energy to think when they get back home. They just watch TV, and collapse until tomorrow morning. This would change if they worked less, but you see the chicken-and-egg problem here…
Another possibility is the internet. Compared to mainstream media, ideas flow unfiltered here. As more people learn to use it, we will have more and more meaningful many-to-many communications, of which 4chan is only a baby step.
Yeah, we’re basically screwed. I’ll try to think of something anyway.
The goal is to redistribute wealth, from the rich to the poor. Doing it directly seems impossible. But we could do it indirectly, by redistributing power.
I think one of the most powerful lever currently available is unemployment. Currently, employees fear it, so they accept lower wages. If unemployment where somehow less terrible, or less common, employees would have more power, and higher salaries. Of the top of my head, I see two ways:
Universal income. It makes unemployment less unpleasant. If it gives you enough money, one could chose to just retire early and live frugally. I agree it sounds too communist however. I don’t see it happening, especially in the US.
Reduce work hours. Go down to 4 days a week, while maintaining current salaries. There will be need for more people, which will mean less unemployment. When automation goes up again, go down to 3 days. And down. And down. This one sounds more plausible, but again, not in the US. The second someone talks about a 4 week day is the second you see some Republican stir up emotions about righten up the country through virtuous hard work. Maybe it could work in Europe (one country at a time), then spread. But we need to get past the idea that hard work is sacred first.
We could also spread basic rationality and basic political awareness. But frankly, this is difficult: most people don’t have the energy to think when they get back home. They just watch TV, and collapse until tomorrow morning. This would change if they worked less, but you see the chicken-and-egg problem here…
Another possibility is the internet. Compared to mainstream media, ideas flow unfiltered here. As more people learn to use it, we will have more and more meaningful many-to-many communications, of which 4chan is only a baby step.