next »

[Pfotegeist]

This is related more to capitalism and the government of USA.

Democracy and universal income are pretty much originated in the SAME DAMN PLACE, Greece, the birthplace of modern civilization. Income simply used to be food.

First let me establish the current ideas that are not working no matter how I imagine them, in the current state of mental and economic health.

I've heard the idea of a basic universal income. What if that's a bad starting point?

Pro: Ethical, working people will be relieved.
Pro: Ethical, working people off the books will be relieved.

Sort of, the government will have to step in eventually and lock housing prices down, human life is not a free market, goods and services are.


Con: Devaluing a token economy system
1. Tends to lower the value of life, it's a fact. If people get $1 for nothing, they won't work 10 minutes for $1.
2. Impoverished neighborhoods get even worse. Although there's no causality established, there's an enormous correlation.

Con: Homeless seek vice before nourishment


Universal healthcare was a bad starting point. Our education system sucks, and so do the doctors, improve that instead of turning people into guinea pigs on mystery drugs without a control group maybe.


Now this is my own take on universal income, the one that actually completely worked, and never failed, not even a little.

A good starting point is universal food banks, and food delivery.

The banks are for people who believe they need more to eat, but lack any additional income for now. So they'd work just like regular food banks, and stores that sell food will continue to work just like regular grocery stores.

Stage 1 Each person gets a care package, with all the nutrients recommended by the FDA, delivered directly to them.

Stage 2 If they live on the street a drone system can bring them meals 3 - 8 times per day, depending on what they can handle. No storage required.

Stage 3 Specialty cases, very technical care required, manipulate them into accepting the system

If they have a fear of drones for example, send pet assistance, then send a drone that feeds the pet, and the pet can bring them [to] their meal from the drone. Or something like a bigger pet can bring the meal to them.

Less extreme:
- Deliver a touch screen phone/handheld device with programmed surveys and healthcare services in one finger press. Inquire about dietary and mental health issues.

- Deliver a separate form of entertainment like biodegradable magazines.

More extreme:
- If the situation is extremely dire, deliver an entertainment device to match their preference. They still have to take surveys between games and they're rewarded bonuses for memorizing quotes and answering dummy questions consistently.

Pro: We fix the current problems in America.

Con: We'll probably need an increase in tax and food charity to keep the infrastructure secured, and keep living, at least until there's enough automation to make food entirely free.

Pro: Other countries follow suit, and people will encourage it. Nobody wants to be superman right?


Edit: Changed title from "grass root" since that's referring to a local community effecting change. I'm suggesting the government should be reformed to help.

Instead this topic can be about real life paywalls, what makes real life a grind?

[Pfotegeist]

I said to emulate a system. To see if it works. This is pretty simple.

If you play a game like The Sims, your characters need to eat. If they run out of money, someone delivers them meals, game is instantly easier to play.

They may still be evicted in this current system, but they won't die of starvation or become health dependent from nutritional deficiency.

[Pfotegeist]

The reason people worked for food originally is because the system was derived from indenturing servitude rather than expecting people to stay loyal, or seek a career as a nice farmer. If someone does a history check, or watches the 300 movie, and the history around that, it might be pretty clear, the Spartans didn't lose, they were betrayed.

That was awkward, pretty much everyone had slaves, the culture and system of Sparta had no vertical mobility, unless you had a warrior physique and a sharp mind.

The Persians were different, they employed mysticism, not science, to trick people into 'servitude', as well as paid work.

Obviously these things kind of meshed together and we were left with something like the system of serfs and lords, indentured servants, debt prisoners, oh yeah and strait up slavery for a while.

With a little tweak, the slave element is easily mitigated by distributing free food.  Paid work is still a path to vertical mobility because it allows people to live exactly where they want to live instead of a commune, which the US awkwardly fails to provide. Also we can't really get anything done without those goods and services.

[Pfotegeist]

My family needed welfare and the food bank had plenty of green beans. I got plenty of potassium donations, at said bank, from the people who never ate their beans the first few years of middle school. Go figure. I still had practically no energy in school since someone would eat everything of caloric value in the first three days of the week. Having just started puberty, myself, my brother was on the deep end and he began eating every last piece of meat and uncanned vegetable, so that's pretty much all I was stuck with. Oh don't worry he stopped being such a douche when his moral compass finally developed, but he was a weight on my conscious mind the whole time, so it's not like I'll forget how he behaved.

[Pfotegeist]

Oh yeah, out of curiosity for some posterity, I did a little google image search, it looks like Italians and Persians are pretty much a blend now. So after all the tension built up they banged it out.

[Pfotegeist]

This topic can be about real life paywalls, what makes real life a grind? I'm not limiting it to the USA, but that is my foundation of experience.

Mostly I'm thinking about food, shelter, and access to the internet, due to the current system. I have high expectations for online education. I know parents need alone time, so there should also be nannies, daycare, and educational facilities that will take responsibility including schools.

Anything that impacts our basic needs can be given a little nudge in the right direction.

[Pfotegeist]

When the government doesn't provide, and communities won't help themselves, capitalism or some other meritocratic mediation of resources is absolutely necessary. Your notion of how you want to live your life as a simple farmer means you absolutely have to work to own the land. Your notion of working a minimum wage job to get started means you can't even rent a single bedroom apartment.

Houses in a snap of your fingers, that would be grand.

There is a need for land, there are logistical expenses, and people begin min/maxing with staple foods because they have no land.

Health, intelligence is at the mercy of circumstance since birth, never mind earning money. You would have to be lucky just to experience the life I lived outside of USA and that's not a very good reality. And someone who makes the same decisions as me would absolutely be alone, because having a social life is a paywall.

[Pfotegeist]

Time is an immeasurable value we spend on everything we do. So, whether you personally believe you are able to be around people, or if you feel like you need to steal a day or a moment with someone, you still end up spending something that isn't quantifiable in the known universe.

[Pfotegeist]

A little kudos for trying to add variety goes to this website and its reduced price meals:

https://www.hellofresh.com

I'm not allowed to use the stove and it sounds like my mom's not going to let this happen. But maybe other people can enjoy it.

[Pfotegeist]

There are non-profit organizations that are trying to provide resources in one place for public needs.

Hi reader, this Wednesday, for the 5th time recently, we ask you to protect Wikipedia's independence. Thanks to the 2% of readers who donate, Wikipedia and the free knowledge movement are thriving. If everyone who can give $2.75 gives $2.75, and everyone who can give $25 gives $25, then we'll meet our needs. If you are one of our rare donors, we warmly thank you.

The non-profit seems to have about a year of operating expenses in reserve according to what I read. Free information is a price reduction, and a time saver. You would end up having to pay and subscribe to multiple online websites to get information that's no more accurate than one free website.

https://en.wikipedia.org/

[Pfotegeist]

Shoes and clothes I guess, since few people actually know how to make those. My mom said I should buy cheaper shoes, I bought them for about $50 when I was starting my diet and the point of contact with my Achilles tendon has been rubbed and torn so it started poking at my Achilles while I walk. I can't actually go for a walk in these crappy shoes anymore after two months.

There are factors about me that obviously work against the shoe design with very little inner-fabric reinforcement... My Achilles' are thick. My foot size. My weight. The fact I'm either walking up or down a hill 70% of the time. The fact I don't walk very slow. The width of my gait. It all increases the friction with that point on the inside of the shoes.

Also I tried on about three running shoes of this size, so called wide, and they were narrow.

Where the clothes and shoes are made, I've heard some stories. But I still have to point out that the product I'm getting for cheap wears out so fast I don't even want to buy more. The only reason I buy some things and I'm stuck with useless garbage is because it's as if everyone in an industry decided it was ok to lower the quality of their products all at once for profit.

I have a personal saying: Every capital-driven industry wishes it was the food industry.

I check inflation. About 60% price increase since 2000. So, shoes I bought for $30 then would cost $50. Seems to check out, but shoes I bought in 2000 would have lasted until 2002 running track and field without any holes showing up in the Achilles tendon area, so either my feet stopped fitting into shoes, or shoes just suck now.

[Pfotegeist]

So imagine throwing away your health so you can save about $16 per month. That's pretty much what I'm looking at for shoes, that's my mom's priority. We have to pay over $1000 per month on rent.

I estimated how much potassium in the form of fruits would have costed, and it's somehting like $3000 over the course of 10 years. Would you rather pay $25 per month on top of rent or be declared mentally incompetent? Would you pay another $20 for (good quality) shoes? If not, are you ready to become mentally deranged and physically fall apart just to save (45 x 12 x 50 = 27,000) an average of $27,000? Some people will repeatedly make that choice, because saving pennies is how they were raised, and money is their life once they start work.

Definitely, stuff like this has bothered me, not just recently, since I was born with parents who verbally display disapproval at the speed I was growing.

Edit: After some inner debate, I can acknowledge one additional variable. I don't wear the shoes all day, without forcing them to the shape of my foot there's going to be more moving parts as I walk.

[Pfotegeist]

Efficient systems that reduce wasted time increases spare time to do other things.

I can list the reduction in micromanagement involved with bartering goods, on one hand: currency, credit cards.

Of course, we invent tax before currency which increased micromanagement, in fact, it may have been the creation of managerial positions. I'm sure there's a technical solution, like, if workplaces become way too efficient, and your livelihood depends on working there, you should be compensated. And you have free time to do your own thing.

Alright, don't count chickens before they hatch. You should work, if it's within your ability, and if you find you have nothing but free time later, you might prefer to work.