This is a repository that will delve into a new narrative for our society, economy and politics.
The basic principle is to find ways to maximize individual freedom, in balancing each other's freedoms and needs. Part of this is making choices about when an individual should have a certain freedom and when to curtail those freedoms. Speech, for example, should largely be free, but speech which intimidates and harass is not to be tolerated. Most agree with this in spirit, but where the line is precisely drawn is a matter of debate.
While this is not meant to find out the specifics of that line, the general idea is to figure out the role of economics, government, and society in our life in support of this principle. They play back and forth with one another.
This document is the narrative, with links to various supporting external resources at the end.
First, we have three basic elements that are impacting our lives that our narrative will impact: society, economics, and government. It is important to appreciate the role of each.
This is the community, at various levels. As individuals, we belong to a variety of groups in social ways. It is what gives us context, meaning, fun, terror, and, well, our emotional and spiritual lives. We are social creatures and this should not be discounted too much.
It is here where most of the invisible black box of wonder occurs for which our narrative will rest.
Our current society in the USA is fraying and decaying. Neighbors no longer know each other, children do not play outside, old people are carted off to nursing homes, children are put into institutions, adults are working most of the time. This is what needs to change.
But society is not something that can be readily manipulated. Developing social relations takes time, energy, and interest by the participants. It is something we all need, but most also dread. We are compelled to do this by our biology, but a part of ourselves wish desperately it were not so. Individual versus society, individuals in society, societies as individuals, individuals as a society. These are the roles to which we will play around with.
What is the role of the economy? It is to provide for the mechanism of our comofortable survival. That is its role for us. It is a tool and that should be kept in mind. It is not an end in itself, unlike society.
This is a dominant, current narrative in our society. It is all about the economy, about jobs, about economic inequality. Education is called for in order to get better jobs. Lots of pointless things are done by government to create jobs, promote jobs, etc. even if they are not needed.
The conservatives love the mantra of a free market economy with lax government regulation. This is not a wholy bad idea. But it is far from the end of the story. Because a free market generally promotes successes that beget other successes that turn into accumulations of capital, it is not a stable system by itself. It leaves people out in the cold. This is what our new narrative needs to address.
The elephant in the room is government. No one seems to like it. It should be something that is kept minimal, but given its immense power, the temptation to use it to solve whatever problem there is, seems enormous. When coupled with the power of capital accumulation to influence the government, the system can get seriously out of whack.
And yet, ultimately, it has to be the tool that solves the problems that our narrative is addressing.
What are the desired conclusions of the narrative?
- A Universal Dividend. Every person gets a cut of the pie, just for being. The level of dividend is based on two separate factors: how much of the pie there is and how much does one need of the pie to have a basic survival. The survival aspect is what the Universal Basic Income gets at. But that terms suggests paying people for nothing. This is a bad narrative. Instead, the dividend is the idea that we are all contributing, at least to a minimal level, in the success of everyone else, in the fabric of our society. And the dividend allows each to reinvest that portion of the pie in a way they see fit, a measure of trust on the part of everyone else of its good use. Note that each person receiving the dividend is free to use in whatever way; there is no measure of a good use.
- A wealth tax. A large portion of the universal dividend should come from wealth holdings. By taxing and redistributing that, we encourage a system where the accumulations will disappear. This is absolutely necessary to ensure a freely functioning system. Without this, power can accumulate and entrench itself. But if there is a general drain on wealth, say at 4% a year, then only those who can accumulate money faster than that will be able to hold on to the wealth.
- The universal dividend goes to everyone, including old people and children as well as adults. This should help the government get out of the business of schooling, insuring, and paying different people different sums. This helps promote the freedom of individuals, reduces government costs, promotes community. But it is all based on the universal dividend.
Universal Dividend A small price to pay for all of us to live lives of meaning.
An explanation of how to view the three different branches (society, economy, government) in the context of Maslow's hierarchy.
This is a bibliography of books I have read that contribute to this narrative.
- Bullshit Jobs An examination of pointless jobs with plenty of stories, the whys, hows, and whats of it all.
- Debt A historical overview of debt and its influences throughout history.
- The Democracy Project A story of the Occupy movement. Only tangentially related to this, but it did have some interesting bits related to another road that could be taken.
- The View from Flyover Country Short essays about what the midwest looks like. Some data on the ground in a region for which this narrative could be most helpful, but perhaps very hard to sell to.
- Suicide of the West A look at the conservative narrative of freedom and economics. It is useful because this a book attempting to get control of the conservative movement from the populists, allowing for ideological view that is not strictly in oppposition to liberal ideology.