Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs, and Steel is on a nearby bookshelf. It explains why the Aztecs didn't just build ships and invade Spain.
The much-debated practice of "guaranteed basic income" has been tried, and the results weren't as feared. Everybody figured that giving every human being food, shelter, and education would result in a world where NOBODY EVER WORKS at anything. People would just sit around watching TV and drinking beer all day. Now, who built the TVs or brewed the beer? When they actually tried it (in FInland, IIRC) it turned out that idle people got BORED. SOmetimes they'd just make trouble, but sometimes people would would take up a skill that interested them and get good at it. Maybe someone who had been barely able to afford rent and food working at a suit-and-tie job takes up embroidery, and becomes a fabulous fabric artist. Or someone walking by sees me fixing my bicycle and asks me if I could fix theirs for them. Eventually I wind up teaching people how to fix their own bicycles. And someone teaches me how to set up a kitchen garden, or gives me a delicious cake recipe, or helps me paint my house. This is now a VILLAGE. We are connected by how we conduct our lives together.
One human being alone, isn't likely to have all the skills to survive - how to hunt, how to build shelter, how to make tools, how to recognize weather - So this is why we lived in families, clans, tribes, and villages. The blacksmith can't weave. The baker can't fight very well. The weaver is a terrible cook. And the fey little child who can barely speak communicates perfectly well with horses, cows, pigs, and sheep. And the kid with the funny-looking foot is amazingly artistic. So, without capitalism, everyone's basic needs get met. I wish we could try it.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-02-03 10:29 pm (UTC)The much-debated practice of "guaranteed basic income" has been tried, and the results weren't as feared. Everybody figured that giving every human being food, shelter, and education would result in a world where NOBODY EVER WORKS at anything. People would just sit around watching TV and drinking beer all day. Now, who built the TVs or brewed the beer? When they actually tried it (in FInland, IIRC) it turned out that idle people got BORED. SOmetimes they'd just make trouble, but sometimes people would would take up a skill that interested them and get good at it. Maybe someone who had been barely able to afford rent and food working at a suit-and-tie job takes up embroidery, and becomes a fabulous fabric artist. Or someone walking by sees me fixing my bicycle and asks me if I could fix theirs for them. Eventually I wind up teaching people how to fix their own bicycles. And someone teaches me how to set up a kitchen garden, or gives me a delicious cake recipe, or helps me paint my house. This is now a VILLAGE. We are connected by how we conduct our lives together.
One human being alone, isn't likely to have all the skills to survive - how to hunt, how to build shelter, how to make tools, how to recognize weather - So this is why we lived in families, clans, tribes, and villages. The blacksmith can't weave. The baker can't fight very well. The weaver is a terrible cook. And the fey little child who can barely speak communicates perfectly well with horses, cows, pigs, and sheep. And the kid with the funny-looking foot is amazingly artistic. So, without capitalism, everyone's basic needs get met. I wish we could try it.