The weird thing is it’s kind of more bizarre than a dystopian society. In dystopia, you know resources are scarce and that you have to defend yourself with violence. But in this actual dystopia, I can still get up and go play disc golf, pretty much without incident. There could come a day when I’m pulled over by some Nazi cop who decides to make an example of me, which face it, has been the case for some time now, but until then for little things like that, it’s pretty much business as usual despite the plummet into fascism. Very weird.
Scarcity is artificial with our level of technology and our ingenuity.
It’s a myth, we are able to produce more than enough even with many countless individuals in dire straits maintaining the world’s economy/production. We produce so much that we can afford to waste incredible amounts of food and other goods without batting an eye.
What if the individuals slaving were given the ingredients to be happy and healthy, with their human rights and needs respected?
Personally, I believe the world would get even more productive, things would start making sense, people wouldn’t have to work so hard, we’d see forward movement in our societies, and without a doubt we’d see incredible advancements.
I refuse to believe that everybody would laze about, leave the “hard” jobs unattended, and let the world rot.
If we can work this hard while we are forced to survive, forced to live in lack while the landfills pile up to the sky — there’s no way we wouldn’t be incredibly more efficient if people could take a second to breathe and fill their cup. If everybody could take a second and look around and see where things could be even better, where they can make a difference, everything would surely very quickly improve.
There’s no way to convince me that “peak productivity” is everybody emptying their cup and breaking the glass to pay debts and to afford necessities.
Sure but scarcity due to broken supply chains is a real thing. It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are if you physically cannot get your supplies where they are needed there will be scarcity and it will not be artificial
We do need to have more self-sufficient societal development. Shipping critical materials (raw or otherwise) and critical goods across the world doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless something is an unique good or a very rare resource.
We don’t need to put our eggs all in one basket — global supply lines e.g. should be for specialities and artisan goods, and a appropriation of excess or aid.
The current global trade system relies on exploitation and slavery (even child slavery e.g. with cocoa).
We suck third-world countries of everything they have; their land, their labor, their resources, and their goods — and all the wealth concentrates into the hands of the very few in first-world countries. The result is the stagnation of the exploited region’s development — we trap them into these conditions of servitude.
The weird thing is it’s kind of more bizarre than a dystopian society. In dystopia, you know resources are scarce and that you have to defend yourself with violence. But in this actual dystopia, I can still get up and go play disc golf, pretty much without incident. There could come a day when I’m pulled over by some Nazi cop who decides to make an example of me, which face it, has been the case for some time now, but until then for little things like that, it’s pretty much business as usual despite the plummet into fascism. Very weird.
Scarcity is artificial with our level of technology and our ingenuity.
It’s a myth, we are able to produce more than enough even with many countless individuals in dire straits maintaining the world’s economy/production. We produce so much that we can afford to waste incredible amounts of food and other goods without batting an eye.
What if the individuals slaving were given the ingredients to be happy and healthy, with their human rights and needs respected?
Personally, I believe the world would get even more productive, things would start making sense, people wouldn’t have to work so hard, we’d see forward movement in our societies, and without a doubt we’d see incredible advancements.
I refuse to believe that everybody would laze about, leave the “hard” jobs unattended, and let the world rot.
If we can work this hard while we are forced to survive, forced to live in lack while the landfills pile up to the sky — there’s no way we wouldn’t be incredibly more efficient if people could take a second to breathe and fill their cup. If everybody could take a second and look around and see where things could be even better, where they can make a difference, everything would surely very quickly improve.
There’s no way to convince me that “peak productivity” is everybody emptying their cup and breaking the glass to pay debts and to afford necessities.
Sure but scarcity due to broken supply chains is a real thing. It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are if you physically cannot get your supplies where they are needed there will be scarcity and it will not be artificial
We do need to have more self-sufficient societal development. Shipping critical materials (raw or otherwise) and critical goods across the world doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless something is an unique good or a very rare resource.
We don’t need to put our eggs all in one basket — global supply lines e.g. should be for specialities and artisan goods, and a appropriation of excess or aid.
The current global trade system relies on exploitation and slavery (even child slavery e.g. with cocoa).
We suck third-world countries of everything they have; their land, their labor, their resources, and their goods — and all the wealth concentrates into the hands of the very few in first-world countries. The result is the stagnation of the exploited region’s development — we trap them into these conditions of servitude.
I say this all the time: we built an economic system based on scarcity, and then manufactured scarcity.