It's time to rethink our socio-economic system and re-invent our society. Neither Capitalism nor Communism are workable models for the new millennium. We need to invent something completely new that takes into consideration the fact that most of the work that was done during the industrial age is now automated and the few remaining functions that employed our population during that period will soon disappear as well.
Our ingenuity has allowed us to eliminate most of the tedious grunt work that was required to produce the material necessities for our population. Yet we foolishly cling to the outdated mindset that the industrialists called work ethic. A work ethic that declares that each member of society must work hard to do his share in the production of our mutual material needs is no longer appropriate. Machines do most of this work now and will shortly eliminate nearly all of these functions entirely.
We must devise an alternative system that encourages people to take advantage of the time that mechanization has freed up. Instead of demanding that people work at jobs that are becoming extinct we should be encouraging them to work at the enhancement of the human condition. More emphasis needs to be directed towards the encouragement of the arts as a viable and desirable occupation. Similarly, employment in areas that have traditionally been left to volunteerism are now viable as salaried careers.
The service industries which historically have been deemed non-essential and have been allotted minimal financial compensation are presently crucial to the promising new social order and must be compensated for appropriately. It is no longer acceptable to require employees in this industry to subsist on wages that are well below poverty levels.
It is quite possible that the concept of money itself will eventually disappear. Certainly, our present monetary system needs to be re-evaluated. Society cannot endure the continuation of a system that allows a limited elite to accumulate vast amounts of wealth that far outreach any possible valid justification while a rapidly expanding percentage of the population is deprived of the means to maintain shelter and acquire food and the other necessities of life. This cannot be tolerated.
A system that measures the success of our society based on constant growth is outdated. We have reached a point where resources and the planet’s ability to absorb the waste that is produced will not permit this expansion. Those of our leaders who insist on adhering to this system are extraneous. Our present socio/economic system is unsustainable and any attempt to cling to it is irrelevant. If we do not voluntarily re-invent our society, it will collapse. Our only option is to change. If we refuse to do so, change will be forced upon us with devastating results: the collapse of the social order combined with the collapse of the planet’s ability to sustain our growth will be inevitable.
Where are the great thinkers and leaders we so desperately need in this transitional period of social evolution? Let us hope they are among the young people who are part of the TIG community.
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