Tuesday, January 8, 2013

A Vision for the New Year and Beyond, Part 5


Factoring in the hidden costs and considering the interdependence of our so-called ‘systems’ would enable us to more accurately see where the resources are going and what we’re getting for them (follow the money). Then we could shift resources around to get more of what we want and less of what we don’t want. Doing this analysis and subsequent shifting will unbalance current power alignments and will be resisted by these alignments. We need to persist anyway and expect this resistance.

 

So, instead of thinking in terms of an employment contract between a worker and an employer, looking at the ‘hidden’ costs and interrelationships inherent in such a concept we might perhaps realize that the most effective and efficient thing to do for all concerned—employee, government, capital, etc., would be to simply guarantee every person health care, education, and the essentials of life, then find a way to recognize and reward different degrees of individual talent and initiative.

 

How we go from where we are to this radical new view, allowing that one can even understand and accept the new view, is the challenge. In addition to committing to the idea that a sustainable world that works compassionately to bring out the full potential and best for everyone and everything in it, a mix of centralization and decentralization, private and public (a distinction without much meaning) would be needed, as well as a commitment to a benign world view based on cooperation, not competition, on both community and individuals, both spirit and science, values other that the dog-eat-dog, exploitative, original sin view of life that have created, sustained and maintained much of traditional western, christian, capitalist civilization.

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