Category: Global Issues Affecting all of Us

So, where are we at?

Socialism came in with a bang in Russia in 1917, and went out bust in 1991.

China’s dictatorial social experiement morphed into a quasi controlled market economy that allows a form of social freedom.  As the boundaries between the state and human desires clash, the government will fail or morph further – there is a lot of wisdom in 5,000 years of contiguous society.

Capitalism’s slow burn grew into a raging furnace that is now fizzing and sputtering in all regions of the world.

Consumerism; sustainable growth; materialism: oxymoronic terms that deny simple truths like finite resources, the importance of biological diversity and the quality of living.

Governments – groups of people who volunteer to work together to do the low paying jobs, providing the services that society needs but doesn’t value – are buying into private institutions with funds intended for social infrastructure, not balance sheet support.

Argentina just “socialised” the largest pension funds of that country – some see it as a grab for cash to fund the next 2 years operations, their unions are celebrating the increase in “security”, private pension fund workers are protesting that 1,600 jobs are now at risk.

Corporations grew into mega-corporations and workers became more an more marginalised.  Minimised.  Thinking stopped, questioning stopped, waiting for the paycheck became the most important task of the working week.

What has happened?

We forgot that we’re human.  We know we like to work in small groups.  We know we like to talk, socialise, discuss ideas, share, laugh, dream.  That’s what the web is all about. This blog. All the other blogs out there.

That’s what we forgot for, what 50, 60, 80, 100 years?

The two largest experiments in society coordination – socialism, and capitalism – both denied these basic human attributes.  They both viewed a human as a part of a larger unit, an element to be adjusted, trained, indoctrinated, made to work hard, motivated and so on.

And one can say pretty convincingly, that both have failed.

So what will take their place?  A combination of course.  A new mix and mash of trial and error – what we’re all about.

Semco type companies, companies that manage people as people, forming an agreement that suits both the needs of the business and the needs of the people.  These companies will emerge and continue into the future.  It won’t be a big thing.  It will just happen.

We learn to walk by falling over thousands of times; to speak by sounding like an imbecile for years.

When we are young we are forgiven these errors, and now and in the future we will again be patient while someone learns a new skill, understands a new idea, remembers a new phrase.

That’s where we are going.

Jeremiah Josey

The involvement of the governments in bailing out private companies means that the governments are selling their future earnings: That means they are binding themselves to the income from taxation from the people of their country.

This will result in an even bigger collapse in the near future (say 15-20 years time).

Why?

There’ll be a revolt by the taxed few who are supporting the many.

1) Infrastructure is in decline in all major cities of the world (except Tokyo, Singapore and Dubai!), that means lots of public spending needs to be done to maintain living standards (ride the subway in Tokyo, New York and London and compare the different management policies behind them).

2) The aging – retiring – population means a burden on social services (and no tax being paid by those retiring)

3) Lower birth rates across the western world means fewer people to pay taxes, so the taxes must rise to cover expenses

4) The financial burden is now added to by this bail out – it has either changed a social transition from one financial, governmental system to another into a collapse of the present systems or it has brought forward a collapse of the present systems.

Fewer people and higher expenses means higher taxes, which means less incentive to do more, better, innovate.

Governments will spend more and more money trying to secure their tax income (more laws, more audits, bigger fines, more control of the population – protection of income).

People who are smart enough to see what is happening will leave.  Those who don’t will stay, and because they stay it means they are not necessary that bright.  This then has an effect on the quality of the society that remains – it slides to…?

The revolt will be a move: both fiscally and geographically.  People will move their businesses online and “offshore”, and they will move their bodies to other countries looking for neutral environments to live in.

That will be the end of the industrial revolution.

Companies running in a Semco manner (http://semco.locaweb.com.br/en/) will thrive.  All others will grind to a halt… A brave new world…

Those in their 50’s now won’t care.  Those in their 30’s and 40’s will dabble with it.  Their children will have to handle it. The children of their children will be born into it.

Jeremiah Josey