Our Economic System Has Stopped Working
What is the purpose of humanity? Some might say the purpose is divine, some argue its ideological. But no one really knows, do they? And if they think they do, they acknowledge their own ignorance. Without much speculation, the human condition has left a few imprints on the never ending history, and by these imprints I and anyone willing, can judge what a true purpose, or rather, a narrative drives the average human.
Throughout the years, thousands of years, humans have done nothing but advance in technology and societal order. The primitive hunter gathers became farmers or maybe patricians, bartering with a near-by village turned into a monetary economy. A monarchy, with its divine powers and totalitarian structure turned into an individualistic democratic republic. And of course, hunting and farming turned into factories, corporations, office jobs, computers and so on. But why have these changes took place, why do we strive to make things quicker, eat cheaper and divide opportunity and authority over time?
Evolution is a hard concept to grasp, and quite unnatural to our speculative brains. If you logically go back to the point you cannot really explain, it will be this: Something, an energy, keeps making life strive to eat more, fuck more and live longer. This simple rule works in every field of life and organic matter on this planet, from bacterias, to plants to humans. Why does it exist? That question is left unanswered, and I guess will remain unanswered for a long time.
So if you believe that humans by nature want to eat and fuck more, and live longer, and will do everything in their power for these ultimate rules of nature, any of these technological changes are quite easy to explain, and the human condition and its history becomes simple and quite disappointing.
Human population grew, beginning with the industrial revolution and the advances of chemistry and medicine. One billion, second billion, there were more people each day. Thus the demand for resources and their representation in government grew, to supply this increasing demand, factories were built, a centralized place for people from around town to receive money to buy food and pay rent. Revolutions took place, since a growing majority of people felt disfranchised and left in misery by the old, conservative aristocracy. All of these changes root in our hungry mouths and our willingness to do anything to survive and conserve energy.
And since then, pretty much nothing has changed. We have centralized businesses that employ thousands of laborers and replaceable workers, which pay them wages so that these workers can buy shit, and not die from hunger. The economy depends on the number of employed people, consuming the things that they in some way, shape or form make. Well, it ain’t working like that no more!
With robotics and computers, more and more jobs were replaced by machinery. More people, who just fifty years ago could find a stable, well paying job, found themselves unemployed and struggling. The CEO’s and bosses of these factories and businesses saw their profits skyrocket, since firing people yet increasing productivity with new machinery is a helluva business. Thus, there were fewer and fewer people controlling more and more money and wealth in the world, since they didn’t have to share it with their employees. Then they lobbied the government to lower their taxes, so they’d have even more money. Then they bought all the shares they could get their hands on, and thus, fewer people then ever before control the stock market. This is the logistic trajectory of the human condition.
There will be fewer jobs in the future, as taxi drivers, bus drivers, customer support and IT people will replaced by new technology. Less people will have jobs in a world that keeps increasing the amount of cell phones, tablets and all the unnecessary shit and choice that these companies keep ramming down our throats.
Yet therein lies the flaw of today’s economy: as more people will get unemployed, thus getting poorer, less people will buy shit from the companies that produce and make fat stacks off of that. It’s a horrible cycle, which I can only hope, will lead to a renovation and re imagining of this system.