{"id":16853,"date":"2016-01-24T17:48:29","date_gmt":"2016-01-24T22:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=16853"},"modified":"2016-01-24T17:48:29","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T22:48:29","slug":"top-down-solutions-institutionalized-serfdom-bottom-up-solutions-reviving-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=16853","title":{"rendered":"Top-Down “Solutions” = Institutionalized Serfdom, Bottom-Up Solutions = Reviving Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top-Down “Solutions” = Institutionalized Serfdom, Bottom-Up Solutions = Reviving Opportunity<\/a><\/h3>\n

If the “solution” doesn’t enable the accumulation of capital in all its forms by individuals and households, it isn’t a real solution–it’s just another top-down scheme that institutionalizes subsistence serfdom.<\/i><\/p>\n

Phrases like\u00a0reviving the American Dream<\/i>\u00a0emit the lingering stench of empty political rhetoric mouthed by bought-and-paid-for candidates.<\/b>\u00a0But if we wave aside this foul smell, we’re left with a very profound topic:\u00a0reviving broad-based opportunity<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Longtime collaborator Gordon T. Long and I discuss what it will take to\u00a0revive opportunity<\/i>\u00a0in a new 27-minute video\u00a0Reviving the American Dream<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

The status quo “solution” to the decline of opportunities for meaningful work is predictably top-down:<\/b>\u00a0guaranteed income for all, a.k.a. “welfare for all.” This is of course a re-hash of the Keynesian Cargo Cult’s 1930 fix for the Great Depression, except on a far grander scale.<\/p>\n

There are three completely unsupported assumptions in every proposed “welfare for all” scheme:<\/b><\/p>\n

1. The trillions of dollars\/ euros\/ yen etc. required to fund “welfare for all” can be raised from taxing profits and wages. Yet wages and profits are both set to decline sharply in the near-term as the global recession tightens its grip and longer term from the unstoppable forces of automation.<\/p>\n

2. Paying people to do nothing will free people to become artists, entrepreneurs, etc. This is a noble ideal, but if we look at communities that have become dependent on top-down central-state welfare, we find despair, social depression and the collapse of real community.<\/p>\n

“Welfare for all” debilitates the community by stripping away the sources of meaningful work and positive social roles. I explain this further in my book\u00a0A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top-Down “Solutions” = Institutionalized Serfdom, Bottom-Up Solutions = Reviving Opportunity If the “solution” doesn’t enable the accumulation of capital in all its forms by individuals and households, it isn’t a real solution–it’s just another top-down scheme that institutionalizes subsistence serfdom. Phrases like\u00a0reviving the American Dream\u00a0emit the lingering stench of empty political rhetoric mouthed by bought-and-paid-for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[127,11920,383,467,4924,1302],"class_list":["post-16853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-charles-hugh-smith","tag-gordon-long","tag-great-depression","tag-keynesian-economics","tag-oftwominds","tag-status-quo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16854,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16853\/revisions\/16854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}