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Competition

A lot of the issues that we see today can be boiled down to competition.  Companies are competing against each other and so have to make sure that they have the lowest costs, and so are inclined to ignore damage to the environment.  Even in government the parties are more concerned with getting their particular party in power than in making sure that the country runs effectively and efficiently.  I read recently that the house leader for the Republican party in the US is not concerned with getting people working, he is more concerned with getting Obama out of office, and getting a Republican in as president.

People are too concerned with getting the most they can for themselves and not what is best for society as  a whole.  If there was a change in mindset of the people so that they were more concerned about how society is working rather than just making sure that they were going to come out on top, there would be a lot less strife in the world.  There needs to be a change in the way that corporations and government are run, so that cooperation is the driving force.  If there was cooperation between companies, there would be a lot less duplication of effort in research and development, as each company would share the research that they have done.  There could also be more efficient use of equipment, as when one company was under utilizing a piece of equipment, another company could use that free equipment to produce their products.   They would pay for the use of the equipment, and so both companies would win, the owner of the equipment would get some money for the free time on the equipment that would otherwise sit idle, and the other company would be able to increase their production without having to invest in equipment that would likely not be fully utilized.

Greed is also a result of competition.  Some people will do anything to make sure that they have more than everyone else, and as a result they are the only ones that win.  If there was cooperation, then the group could work together to raise all their standard of living.  An example of this is the health care system in the US.  The main reason that I can see that people are opposed to public health care is that they are concerned that their money is being used to treat other people.  If they would look at the public health care in other countries closely, they would find that due to a reduction in bureaucracy, the health care system produces better results for lower costs, lower than they are currently spending for a system that leaves some people without any health care at all, and leaves others bankrupt due to health care bills.  If they used the cooperative model, and all worked together for everyone to have access, the costs would be lower and all citizens would have access.

Cooperation will lead to a more sustainable society, and the sooner that is realized and implemented, the easier it will be to create that sustainable society.

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A Just Society

I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking on the subject of a just society. The Occupy movement is in essence about trying to attain a just society. Right now, there is a major disconnect between those running the government and those that are being governed. The government is favoring the rich and the corporations at the expense of the poor and middle class. It is wrong for some members of society to be earning amounts of money that border on the obscene, while there are others that don’t have even the basic necessities of life.  Even some of the rich, such as Warren Buffet have come to realize this and have asked the government to increase their taxes.  They are not doing this to be altruistic, but because they realize that if conditions get sufficiently bad, the poor will eventually have nothing to lose and rise up against the ruling class.   This has happened before and has resulted in revolutions such as the French and Russian revolutions.

There needs to be a redistribution of wealth, so that all members of society have at least enough food to eat and a roof over their heads.  It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it has to be sufficient.  The government of the day has been doing their best to remove all the supports for the poor and move that money to the rich, who already have way more than is needed.  Before the tax reforms in the 1980’s in the US, the rich were paying up to a 90% tax on some of their income, and this money was used to run the social programs.  This was a time of the greatest standard of living for all people living in the developed world.  Once the tax cuts for the rich started to take place in the US, other countries followed suit, in order to remain competitive (and also because they saw that the middle class didn’t make that much of a fuss).  The real wages in the middle class have been falling ever since.   What is needed is a return to those levels of taxation, so that the poor and the middle class can make headway and improve their standard of living.  A simple solution would be to have a guaranteed minimum income, which would be sufficient to provide food, housing and basic necessities (cable is not a necessity!).  By eliminating poverty, there would also be a corresponding drop in crime, since much crime is a direct result of the poor not being able to supply their needs through their income.  Poverty also often leads to drug abuse, since drugs are used as a way to escape the difficulties that face people in their lives.

If everyone had enough to get by on, they would be able to spend more of their time to improve their lives and as a result the whole of society would be improved.