this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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While there's a lot I agree with there, it seems like there's some assumptions made that are doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I guess it's more of a difference in philosophy, but it seems like a core part of your statement is "people given the opportunity to cooperate without risk to themselves would provide enough for everyone, and whatever they don't end up providing is unnecessary."
It's fair to say that there are a lot of things we don't need, but it seems a bit flippant to say those things are completely useless. I'm all for strong safety nets that allow people to give to others without having to sacrifice their own wellbeing, but it seems like you're talking about a quality of life decrease for a large number of people in order to achieve that.
True, in some senses I am definitely expecting a relative decrease in some aspects of quality of life for the middle class and upper middle class. Like decreased access to some food types that aren't local to a community. Significantly reduced transportation and a much heavier reliance on a more robust public transportation system. Less access to new luxury goods and more recycling of technology and resources.
To homeless people, the mentally ill who cannot work, the disabled who cannot work, and to the severely impoverished - to all of them this would result in a huge increase in their quality of life.
Its also not like there would be no pressure to work, simply that you don't face homelessness starvation and death if you are not capable of work. In that event I do believe most people would willingly work to provide for themselves and their communities.
Also, its only a quality of life decrease from our present perspective. The way our society currently functions will eventually result in total failure of supply chains as the climate crisis that we are causing continues to unfold. Which means people will have to depend on their local community to provide for them anyway. But even without that, I believe a society that consumes far less and is consequently much more effective at providing needs for everyone is possible.