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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