In the first half of the 20th century, it was forecast the workweek would be shortened to 3 days before the mid-21st century. Without a loss in standard of living.
Then, in 1980, Ronald Reagan became president. He ushered in the era of business before humans at all costs. Corporate profits before anything else. This released the oligarchs from their bonds to society. Without their support, the machine that keeps the corporations moving is crumbling.
Ironically, the place espoused by most conservatives here, the place they like to call socialist, Europe, is closer to realizing the 3 or 4-day workweek. We shall likely never see it in this country.
Economy of scale. That’s the thing libertarians usually forget.
We need transport to get things to where they are needed. Even in a farm-to-market economy, where no one buys Chilean tomatoes or Argentinian coffee, the farmer either has to get their product to market or the market has to come to them. It would be prohibitively expensive for the farmer to build the road alone. It’s not a lot better when only the market pays for the road, as that road also works for so many others.
The devices each of us is using to access this mailing list had to have material sources from around the world, transported to the locations to build its parts, and then transported again for final assembly. Finally, it gets sent to the market where we purchased it. Online shopping doesn’t eliminate any of that.
We built these things and somewhere along the way, someone got the idea they didn’t need school anymore, so why should they pay for it. No one is an island. We all depend on others for our existence. We stand a much better chance of surviving birth if we have healthcare, and exiting this life will be a whole lot less painful with healthcare.
All education, healthcare, childcare, food and water, and basic shelter should be available to all that need it, at no cost to the end user.
This was actually in the plan, and the wealthiest country in the world with the highest GDP and only 4% of the world’s population was in a position to do just that. Then Reagan happened. The kicker is that Eisenhower warned us about this in the 1950s. 75 years ago.
The war on education has worked well to keep us in shackles.
