Education
A note on Hillary's (and Bernie's) position on education:
I fully support their efforts to make higher education, particularly at the "elite" schools that produce the vast majority of our leaders, affordable to people whose families do not possess lots of money. This is because otherwise, we are just erecting one more wall between the rich and the rest of us. It is not because this education is going to guarantee jobs to everyone who is motivated to stick it out for four years at college.
It is time to face a truth that has been obvious since at least the 1970's or 1980's: the number of productive jobs is on a downward path and is obviously never going to turn up again. That is, of course, if by "productive" you mean jobs that will make money for someone else, who is willing to give a part of it to you in return for your part-time slavery. The natural progress of the industrial revolution, which is still working its way with us, along with the greed of the rentier class will guarantee that there is an inevitable progression toward work that requires less and less human involvement.
There is only one answer to this, if we are not to dissolve into chaos worse than what we see in Syria or Nigeria: We must accept the idea of a national minimum income. And this must be accompanied by something which business owners will fight to their dying breath: the notion that there are worthwhile things to spend our lives on that do not make profits for them.
It's that or disaster. Given the last hundred years of the Republican party, I am confident that they will vote for disaster. If we want a decent society to continue to exist, we'd better shove the idea of a minimum income down their throats.
I fully support their efforts to make higher education, particularly at the "elite" schools that produce the vast majority of our leaders, affordable to people whose families do not possess lots of money. This is because otherwise, we are just erecting one more wall between the rich and the rest of us. It is not because this education is going to guarantee jobs to everyone who is motivated to stick it out for four years at college.
It is time to face a truth that has been obvious since at least the 1970's or 1980's: the number of productive jobs is on a downward path and is obviously never going to turn up again. That is, of course, if by "productive" you mean jobs that will make money for someone else, who is willing to give a part of it to you in return for your part-time slavery. The natural progress of the industrial revolution, which is still working its way with us, along with the greed of the rentier class will guarantee that there is an inevitable progression toward work that requires less and less human involvement.
There is only one answer to this, if we are not to dissolve into chaos worse than what we see in Syria or Nigeria: We must accept the idea of a national minimum income. And this must be accompanied by something which business owners will fight to their dying breath: the notion that there are worthwhile things to spend our lives on that do not make profits for them.
It's that or disaster. Given the last hundred years of the Republican party, I am confident that they will vote for disaster. If we want a decent society to continue to exist, we'd better shove the idea of a minimum income down their throats.
Comments
He's not going to kill me just for my lunch, for one thing.
Walmart has no penetration in the Australian market because it doesn't pay enough to satisfy our regulations. Costco does, and is doing great business here.
But more broadly occupations are not properly valued against what they mean to the community. A nurse who saves your life, or an early childhood worker who cares for your young children - surely the most important thing in this world - may earn less than the person who markets your deodorant.
Perceived wealth - which is what money is, you can't eat it - is at a killing disconnect with things of material or moral value, and it's fucking up our civilisation.
Furthermore, there is no appropriate gradation of obligation according to your money-based power. Meaning... the rich aren't paying taxes and you are. They aren't held accountable for their crimes. They aren't asked to contribute to the community that sustains them. Past a certain point, executive salaries are so high they could be fired in a month for gross incompetence and still be set for life.