Imaginary Economy

I think I may have hypothesised about time being a decent unit of currency. Once spent, it can't be retrieved. It's a precious and finite resource, and you can't spend it to get more of it.

Living in the middle of late-stage capitalism is an easy way to work out that all the worlds' problems could be solved by the rich if they weren't so greedy. People who use money to get money -especially the type who started with a "small loan" of more money than the average pleb could hope for- usually make their money from not paying the people who work for them.

We see a lot of it these days. People offered internships, people offered traineeships, people underpaid and overworked. The so-called 'lazy' millennials are attacked for not reaching the milestones of the Baby Boomers at the same age. Which is definitely not fair, since it's the Baby Boomers who insist on paying them less and making them work more.

Late-stage capitalism hates the unions that made the Baby Boomers' living wage a reality. It hates the concept of a living wage. It hates the concept of a minimum wage. Things would be so much easier for the rich if the Serf system was still a thing. If not that, then slavery should be an option.

They're certainly trying hard to bring it back in the US. Prisoners are the ultimate in low-cost labour without all that messy business of chains and forced breeding and - you know - the whole negative impact of slavery on the nations' reputation. The US has a long history of fighting against social reforms like: public health, guaranteed basic income, minimum wage, or employer responsibility. They also despise environmental causes and any kind of conservation.

Late-stage capitalism will kill us, if we let it.

It will ignore every problem it is making because it's more profitable that way. It's short-sighted and venal, and downright vile.

The incredibly wealthy make their fortune off the misery of others. There's no way around it. The palliative measures that some choose to make are just that. Palliative. Not solving the problem.

Imagine if we turned the current trend on its head. If every human being of a working age received the absolute minimum amount of money necessary to stay alive. Food, rent, medicine, water, and internet. All paid through taxes on the rich [the horror!]. People would have the freedom to work where they wanted.

All those low-status jobs where most of the time spent there involves being yelled at by angry customers? They would have no staff. People all over the place would suddenly realise that the service industry is vitally necessary and maybe learn some fucking manners.

Having lived in a publicly-funded medical system, I can tell you that wait times are balanced on Triage. Those who are the most in need get their treatment sooner. The government picks up the bill and there's no insurance-related price gouging from the pharmacorps. There are no secret, shadowy committees deciding who lives and dies.

An income ceiling and the Robin Hood Tax could easily pay for all of this. Especially if the entire globe decided that they'd had enough of Rich People's shit and went ahead with all of this. The motivation of Rich People money flowing into the country does the country zero good if they're also a tax haven. The 'trickle down' theory is bullshit and everyone knows it. Move on.

Multiple studies and practical tests have shown that, when given enough money to relax about things, the poor actually change their lives. Parents stay home with their babies and small children, thus improving infant health and causing infant mortality to plummet. Others improve their education, thus helping their chances of getting better work and not needing the GBI so much.

Capitalism doesn't like this. That means that there's nobody desperate to seek out a dead-end job in customer service hell. One would have to be some kind of supreme masochist to actually want to work in retail, or any customer service area. Mostly because everyone else has been taught that if they're angry arseholes - they get free stuff.

If people want service industry people, they're going to have to learn basic manners again. Boo hoo to you if you're one of the arseholes.

Income ceilings and the Robin Hood tax should also help fund the schools. This should be something that the pro-life people could be in favour for if they weren't actually about punishing women for having sex. Every child born should be fed, should get medicine, and should be given a decent education. If you have objections to any of that, stop calling yourself 'pro life'. End of.

Simple changes could make this world a better place.

If people want to change things.

I know the parable of the friends at the bar. How the one man who has most of the money will leave if the ones who don't beat him up. What isn't mentioned is how the wealthy man won't leave because that would mean paying 100% of his own bar tab. If that wealthy man didn't have that excessive amount of money, the other three dudes would be able to pay for their firkin beer. That, and the tax system doesn't actually work like that.

We need a better parable. A village of a hundred people in a closed system where one person has most of the wealth and control. It would capably demonstrate how keeping all the money is demonstrably bad. I could work on that. I'll need time.

In the meantime, let's look at history. All the revolts, revolutions, and economical busts that have happened in the past. What preceded them?

An increasing gap in wealth disparity between the wealthy and everyone else. A lack of social mobility. The abundant poor suffering while the wealthy skate away from anything resembling consequences. People thrown into prison, into slavery, into severe punishments for the most random of  reasons. At the same time, those who are rich enough are beyond the law.

Revolution is in the wind. Many people already know that the fate of the world is in the hands of one hundred companies. In the right atmosphere, that could be a Kill List. One hundred companies. One hundred CEOs. The math is pretty simple. Sooner or later, even the private military won't even like what they're doing.

This is not me threatening anyone. This is me pointing out the blatantly obvious to those with obscene amounts of ignorance merged with greed. That is, assuming they'd even want to pay attention.

I'm just a collection of words to you. One more voice in the dark hoping to be heard. One person among many who sees the patterns and hopes that others do too.