brainiac conspiracy

Are There No Prisons?

One thing that doesn't get mentioned nearly enough is that a guaranteed annual income, besides alleviating a great deal of human misery in America, would also make us, in the aggregate, a healthier---and hence more productive---nation. Because we have known for quite some time that poverty and positive health outcomes don't go hand-in-hand. Medicaid surely helps, but nowhere near enough.

---Baron V

Totally Unacceptable

This.

More to the point, if we are ever to have a truly healthy and productive society that works for everyone and not only the wealthy, a job should be a right, not a privilege. If there aren't enough jobs to accommodate everyone who wants one---which is gonna be a long-term problem---we will need to earnestly discuss one day a guaranteed annual income. Sure, we'll never eliminate poverty and unemployment entirely, but the people who govern us today aren't even pretending to care about the misery and suffering of their constituents that could be alleviated tomorrow if they chose to.

---Baron V

"Those People"

You know, they're the ones who don't want to work and who mooch all your hard-earned tax dollars in the form of food stamps and welfare. It's been a standard right-wing trope for nearly as long as I've been alive, and obviously, it's been quite successful at gaining them the allegiance of many white voters. One reason for this success, I think, is that a great many white folks have had very few real-life encounters with many of "those people" because America is still, you know, a deeply segregated society. It's easy to stereotype people you don't know, after all.

---Baron V

General Strikes

I've been lobbying for them for years. Guess the idea's catching on!

To the point, if we can't repatriate all of the wealth the kleptocrats have stolen from us, we can at least refuse to participate in their economy and to withhold what's left of our money from them for as long as humanly possible. This won't be easy but it can be done. Need groceries? Find a local co-op or farmer's market, and fuck Wal-Mart. Need clothes? Hit the thrift store, not the department store. Need to travel? Take the bus or carpool, and leave your car in the garage. Like I said, it can be done, but several millions of wage-earners will need to agree as one that they're going to take, oh I dunno, let's say a month off of work. Again, not easy---and even a bit scary, given high unemployment---but it can be accomplished via strike funds, food banks, etc. This will need to be accompanied by nonviolent mass demonstrations that disrupt the plutocrats' ability to conduct commerce by blocking access to ports and railways, to name only two examples. The oligarchs need us a lot more than they or their benefactors in our government realize, and I suspect we won't see any significant movement toward greater economic equality in this country until we see some socially convulsive mass mobilization that hits them squarely in their most sensitive spot---their wallets. They've taken the power of the ballot from us---what other choice do we have absent violence?

---Baron V

It Isn't Only Me Who Notices This

But it really does seem as though the decline of the Republic, while noticeable for some time, has accelerated rapidly over the last decade or so. In my neighborhood in the Marxist dystopia, there has been an explosion in the number of homeless street people over the last five years, and their numbers seem to grow every week. Since I live in a community filled with million-dollar homes, I can only imagine what conditions must be like in poorer parts of the city. Why didn't we do something about this when we had the opportunity?

---Baron V

Crazy Ideas

They're breaking out all over!

More to the point, sooner or later we will need to disabuse ourselves of notions we've held since the Bronze Age regarding work and worth---"by the sweat of your brow, ye shall eat your bread", etc.---and accept the fact that there will be a surplus of people and a deficit of labor for us as robots and computers give all of us more leisure time. This could really be a great blessing to humanity, but policymakers will need to unlearn centuries' worth of conventional wisdom and enact legislation that ensures that no one should go wanting in the world's richest nation. I'm not terribly optimistic that this will ever happen, but those of us who believe in a guaranteed annual income should keep arguing for it all the same.

---Baron V

The Employee Skills Gap

Following up on a post from yesterday, it's all bullshit. There are more skilled workers than there are available positions for them. This highlights what has become sort of the overarching mission of this stupid blog, i.e., to point out that we are going to be looking at chronic high unemployment, basically, forever as more and more work gets outsourced to robots and computers. All those unemployed millions are going to need to support themselves, so sooner or later, we had better start a discussion about implementing some sort of guaranteed annual income. Of course, to initiate this we will need a political leadership class that actually cares about the welfare of its constituents, which means, essentially, that we'll need regime change in Washington across the board.

---Baron V

Reclaiming The Dream

It may be true that American labor doesn't wield as much clout as it did, say, forty years ago, and that a broader-based organizational effort will be needed in the coming (hopelessly nonviolent) class war. But unions do provide the kind of infrastructure that's going to be essential for mass mobilizations and general strikes: Meeting halls, phone banks, strike funds, food banks, etc. Personally, I'm a little disappointed that the major union bosses haven't already held a summit to discuss the possibility of this, but I still think unions will need to be a major player if we're ever to raise people's class-consciousness to the point where they're ready to take a week, or more, off work to man the barricades.

(Via.)

---Baron V

We Are the 80 Percent

Present company included:

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

The things people have needed for the last five years---jobs, and money, and mortgage relief---are the same exact things that they still need now. Why do our leaders treat us so shabbily, and how much longer do we wait before mobilizing for general strikes?

---Baron V

Housing Should Be A Right

And with a surplus of existing housing inventory, there is absolutely no reason why anyone should be forced into homelessness. Sure, some people will choose to live as vagabonds, but most won't, and those who are willing to assume the responsibility of maintaining a home or apartment should be rented one to live in. Who pays the landlord? Ideally, the tenant, but if the tenant is indigent, then government picks up the tab. Yes, I realize it's going to require a sea change in the way we think about the greedy welfare moochers, but if we could get over that hump, we'd probably discover that ensuring quality housing for all---regardless of ability to pay---just makes economic good sense. It's worth a try!

---Baron V

Going to be a Problem

I know I harp on this a lot, but as robots and computers increasingly govern our lives, there is going to be a surplus of leisure time and a deficit of jobs for everyone who wants one, and all these millions of permanently unemployed people are going to need a means to support themselves. Whether we call it unemployment insurance, non-employment compensation or a guaranteed annual income, it matters not. What matters is that policymakers begin to discuss this because it is already needed now.

---Baron V

Who's to Blame For Our Economic Malaise

All those lazy ignorant slackers, of course:

The survey "highlights the impending retirement crisis that we will face over the next 20 years," says Mark Fried, president of TFG Wealth Management in Newtown, Pa. "When I see these numbers I have ask the question: How did we get here? We need more financial education in the schools, in the media, in the workplace."

If possible, people 40 and older should try to save up to 20% of their income, he says. "If you can't afford to do that right now then set this as a target, and as you get annual raises put aside part of each raise until you reach the 20% number," Fried says.

Jesus, what planet does this guy live on.

It's like this: It's really, really difficult to save 20 percent of your income when you are required to take a 20-percent pay cut at your job, as happened to me---and many other people!---a few years ago. It's harder to save 20 percent of your income because you have no income because you are unemployed. And it's harder yet to save 20 percent of your income when every disposable dollar you have is going to pay for overpriced health care, your kids' college tuition, or a mortgage for a home that's still underwater.

Our "impending retirement crisis" wasn't caused by stupid people who don't know how to invest---it was caused by a parasitic financial order that has bled the Republic dry, which throws tantrums whenever anyone suggests we stop feeding it our money, and which is now trying to convince us to accept it as the natural order of things. It doesn't need to be taught in public schools, it needs to be destroyed in total and replaced by another model that doesn't rely upon perpetual rent extraction and the forced impoverishment of millions to create wealth. Party like it's 1789, people.

---Baron V

Path of Least Resistance

Sure, so-called "pay it forward" college tuition initiatives, where people pay off their tuition over 20 years after they've earned their degree, are decidedly better than the existing status quo since students aren't crippled with an oppressive debt burden. But what happens when wealthy students don't participate, and only poorer students are part of the pool? More to the point, how do you pay back your obligation to the university if there are no jobs for you to graduate into beyond a barista at the local java hut?

The simple solution: Make public higher education free to everyone who qualifies for admission, period. No loans, no debt to pay forward, just free. We can afford this---we just need to stop paying administrators and football coaches so damn much money, and maybe cancel a defense contract or two. But when you sit down and do the math, the cost of free college is really not prohibitive.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Bill Gates.

To be fair, he's absolutely correct in his assessment that in the future, there will be a surplus of working-age people, and an insufficient number of jobs for them. Heck, it's already true now! Now, all these millions of jobless persons will need to be supported somehow, and this is why we will need, eventually, to discuss implementing a guaranteed annual income, and how we will marshall the resources to pay for it: Print more money, mint some platinum coins, raise Bill Gates' top marginal income-tax rate to 90 percent, there are a number of ways to do it. But we will need to do it!

---Baron V

The Forever Fake Recovery

It will be fake in perpetuity so long as the only sectors of the economy that are expanding are billionaires and poor people. Too bad nobody thought to do something about it when he actually had the votes.

---Baron V

Unserious Persons

Their numbers are growing with each passing day.

More to the point, we'll never be able to approach full employment unless (a) government takes up the slack with a jobs program, or (b) people start spending more money on stuff so that the job creators who sell the stuff can hire more workers to make more stuff. Unfortunately, too many people can't afford to spend much money for stuff because their savings and nest eggs were looted during the recession, and since the government refuses to repatriate the money from the guilty parties, here we are in a state of permanent malaise with a looming poverty crisis on our hands. This is what a guaranteed annual income is designed to prevent, and the sooner policymakers start thinking about it, the better off the Republic will be. But whatever they decide, the ultimate fix is to get more money into more people's hands. Annual government stimulus checks or government-augmented incomes aren't the only ways to achieve this---they're just among the simplest and the most cost-effective because there's no private-sector middle man, e.g., shareholders, to siphon off wealth.

---Baron V

Credit Where Due

Better late than never---of course, with the usual caveat:

The proposed new regulations would increase the number of people who qualify for overtime and continue Mr. Obama’s fight against what he says is a crisis of economic inequality in the country. Changes to the regulations will be subject to public comment before final approval by the Labor Department, and it is possible that strong opposition could cause Mr. Obama to scale back his proposal.

I am guessing this means, in grown-up-speak, that we must invite all of the stakeholders to the table because fairness, even though many of the stakeholders have grown obscenely rich by spreading default and destruction, and trafficking in human misery. If the Goldberg Act is any indicator, we shouldn't be surprised to see this order delayed. But hey, appreciate the thought!

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Paul Ryan:

“We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with," he said on Bill Bennett's "Morning In America," as recorded by Think Progress.

Remember when this racist grifter was being feted in the press as a Man of Bold Ideas? Good times!

---Baron V

Got an Easy Answer For That

No.

And no, it doesn't matter. Most white men in America are insane, bigoted racists. The good news is, they are slowly dying off as a percentage of the population. That fact alone may yet save our Republic.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Edmund G. Brown, Jr.

In-home health-caretakers have some of the toughest jobs and the lowest pay, and due to the nature of their work, they can't always just punch the clock at 5:00 and abandon their charges for the night. Sometimes they need to work overtime---sometimes, even around the clock---and they deserve to be paid for it. Taxes can be raised on rich people to pay for it. Otherwise, you're either screwing low-wage workers, or needlessly endangering the lives of the elderly, both of which are, frankly, evil.

---Baron V