'The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.' George Bernard Shaw.
The Solution- Capital Labour Parity
For centuries average returns from investment and ownership of capital have been higher than average returns from investment of time and money in labour. This is why we call today's system Capitalism. The downside to this system is it creates inequality, or as the saying goes 'Money makes money'.
Now though is finally the time for the system to change. Why now? Because we have Capitalism on steroids, thanks largely to Quantitative Easing disasters and Tax Havens. Just consider how the world's economy has been poor at best, hit by the lockdowns and corona virus scandals over the last ten years and consider that price inflation has been relatively stable - there has been inflation in most of the world but hardly sky-rocketing prices, though notable in some sectors of goods.
However, capital has skyrocketed. There has grown an asset bubble so big, it can only equate to asset hyper-inflation. Just consider the Nominal Dow, the Nominal S&P 500 and the Nominal Nasdaq.
After the .com bubble in the early 2000s there was a recession, and after the 2008 AAA sliced derivatives bubble (popped by the widespread American Mortgage Collapse) there was an even bigger recession. However, this asset bubble is so big, no recession can save it. A great depression? A great depression will occur, but it will lead to changes this time. The question we will be answering, is what could have stopped the asset hyperinflation and asset bubble?
Here is the answer, pegging labour (real wages) to capital (stock) not the price level (traditional inflation). Introducing trade union power to enforce such a policy. Making the stock market and hedge-funds more boring, like in the old days the Bond market was known to be.
That way, the average Joe will know how those with capital are faring relative to himself, even though the average Joe doesn't have capital (yet), because it will be faring the same as himself on average.
The fact is governments defend Quantitative Easing and Zero Interest Rate Policies (ZIRP) because they say they want to encourage investment in the economy. The Capital-Labour Parity provides the solution - there will be no incentive to save through investments in capital, beyond the use and enjoyment of actual capital, so more will be invested in labour, and the average Joe spends his money - boosting holiday trade, the housing market, restaurant chains etc.
The answer to capitalism isn't backwards to communism, it is a brand new easy and obvious next step. Capital-Labour parity. An answer that will return prosperity.
Top Down Societal Changes -
Fighting narcissism, psychopathic greed and societies' selfish dependency on altruists
From one angle, my intuition is that psychopaths and the power-mad rise to power precisely because society so stubbornly forces them to the top, through a constantly spread web of so called 'white-lies' and that the damage is an accidental product of widespread naivety, not the cunning genius of a few tricksters. Instead, we like to attribute their success to their perceived genius, but truthfully put, the non-feeling individuals aren't somehow the smartest in other words and naivety is to be blamed first and foremost.
Then whilst a hundred-thousand individual people can make sacrifices to try mend a broken system, by becoming forced-altruists and going against the flow of society to heal the damage created by poor systems put in place (generally to conserve power in a very selfish minority) and they will - I believe - if required do so, exactly do this as science has shown altruism, as well as the selfish gene, is genetically natural for many people; it is much more sensible to attack the systems creating the problems in the first place, and create fairer ones through collective wisdom and action, not self-sacrifice.
That said, the reason why the most effective individual actor in changing society is the moral whistle-blower not the model-civilian who campaigns against nothing but recycles, follows the 12 commandments and holds a steady job, is because the whistle-blower most directly exposes the corporation or institution which systematically condition us.
However, whistle blowers are often persecuted, rarely protected and generally first isolated, so being reliant on that type of altruist to save society from corporate greed and systematic disasters is the most greedy and lazy comfort. It's time for change to come from the every-day workers, not the altruistic risk-takers.
Individual heroism is especially dangerous given the increasing pressures put on us to live more narcissistic lives, where narcissism is even celebrated and thus discretely concealed by populist modern media. Narcissists are known to have the delusions of grandeur that make them overly attracted to playing the hero role in a fantasy world, where only they are right and important. They are most fraudulent to reach such ends and loath teamwork. Yet it is known groups are far more powerful than individuals at achieving change, making narcissists particularly unimportant.
Bottom Up Societal Changes -
Change needs to come from community
As the anthropologist Margeret Mead stated "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." To cite an example, William Wilberforce devoted himself to abolishing the slavery trade in Parliament from 1791- 1833 (the year of his death), but he did so with the support of the Evangelical Clapham Sect and had various political contacts - he was initially supported by his friend William Pitt (who was Prime Minister for 19 years). The feat was much more a product of time and culture, as shown by how the justice aspect of the abolition was severely limited by culture - in that slave-owners were compensated in spite of the recognition that slavery was inhumane, and slaves had to provide free labour before they were finally freed. Everyone remembers the individual leaders but change comes from society first, and it is society who just create mouthpieces.
Equally, should someone have assassinated Hitler before his rise, I am still compelled to believe that the Second World War or another similar war very likely would have taken place still, and I am almost certain that the atomic bomb would still be made. Or if all the head executives of all the guilty banks that provoked the 2008 financial crises were to have been replaced by head executives from any other sector, such as media or technology, I still believe the same crisis would have occurred. Why? Because individuals so often play the puppets of bigger societal movements when their culture is overly-systematic.
Thus, it really is so important to regulate the systems of power put in place, so that they serve us and not enslave us, as the alternative is surely to be constantly subservient to frauds, especially today, in quite frankly the age of narcissism and fraud. This blog is entirely aimed towards the who appreciate the large role of the environment on us individually, and who believe that the first step to wisdom is to understand your environment, so as to not be totally at its mercy. This blog is not aimed towards people who believe in modern-institutions and their mouthpieces blindly, and in that way it represents counter-culture.
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