Utopian or Dystopian Future? Star Trek vs The Hunger Games
Lately, I have been thinking (and writing) quite a bit about the future of "work," and the attendant implications for us all. Maybe I spend too much time thinking about the future, and where our society is headed, but it's a topic of interest to me... perhaps moreso as proxy for my grandchildren, than for myself.
What storms are on the horizon?
Mostly, I think a lot of people — particularly those in power — are sticking their heads in the proverbial sand when it comes to taking a deeper look at what we will be facing on the road ahead. Or maybe they are “aware” in a peripheral sort of way… but they are afraid of looking directly at the problem, for fear of contributing to some kind of mass panic, or making a "radical" (even if TRUTHFUL) statement that might jeopardize their re-election bids.
Promises of Jobs
Donald Trump won the US Presidency substantially on the back of strong showings in states where large numbers of people have lost their jobs to automation and outsourcing across various traditional industries.
Salvia in bloom
I admire his assertions that we should be putting people back to work, and Making America Great Again… but as a "cynical realist", I also find myself looking at what he did and reluctantly must conclude that he was — figuratively speaking — “taking out a four-year loan to solve a 50-year problem.”
Sound overly histrionic? Don't think so, but I'll also admit that maybe that’s just what politicians DO. And maybe that’s at the root of what ails us.
I look at the road ahead, and I don’t really care that much about ME. I’m 58 years old, and if I do OK for myself, I might have another 25 years to go. I’ll “make it,” after some fashion… even if I end up eating cat food mixed with boiled rice.
As I said before, my concern now is primarily about what sort of world our actions today will create for our grandkids when they approach my age, 50 years from now.
It seems there are two potential directions… and our choices made today will significantly inform the world they have, 50 years hence.
The World of Star Trek
Although I was never a true hardcore “Trekkie,” I always liked many things about Gene Roddenberry’s rather Utopic Star Trek universe.
Scotch broom
Everybody pretty much gets to do what they want; they evidently find their “niche” and that’s their calling. Some are doctors, some are scientists, some are counselors, some are artists. Captains Kirk, Picard and others pretty much wear the same clothes, live in the same quarters, eat the same food, and so on as the lowest ensign in the crew.
But still, it’s a meritocracy of sorts. Whereas "money" doesn't seem to exist, you have to apply yourself to something to become captain, you don’t just walk in there and it magically happens. But there is no money; no poor, no rich… in the Roddenberry Universe, we’ve put all that behind us. Our consciousness — as a species — seems to have moved beyond going to war over wealth.
Which isn’t to say humans have become “perfect;” fights still break put, people get sick, people have forceful opinions, some need counseling, some suffer horrible trauma and loss… that part of our humanity remains. We have by no means become mindless automatons.
More than anything, it would seem that in the Star Trek Universe, we have left the "Scarcity Model" behind and live in a world where a form of the "World of Plenty" model dominates.
The World of The Hunger Games
The more Dystopian model — and I fear it seems like we have been leaning that way in recent decades — is portrayed by variations of “The Hunger Games,” or the scenario of films like “Elysium.”
Wild rose
In this outcome, there’s a tiny uber-class of maybe ½ to 1% of the population that has 99% of the wealth and resources, while the remaining 99% of the people live in various degrees of squalor and duke it out for the remaining 1% of wealth and resources.
This model is far less of a meritocracy, and more about “birthrights” and “cronyism” and who you know and where you exact influence; violence and inequality abounds It is NOT a pretty picture.
The reason we seem to be “leaning there” is that we are spectators to the inevitable advance of technology that keeps taking away work from the lowest sectors of the job market while feeding only its technocrat creators… and increasingly that technology keeps marching UP the job ”rank” scale.
Morning glory
Today, retail clerks and menial file clerks are at risk, but soon semi-skilled jobs like nursing and medical diagnostics will be at risk.
Sadly, so far our only “solutions” seem to be to “retrain people DOWN the ladder.” You lose your $50K a year job, and we retrain you to do what has in the meantime become a $40K a year job... that will probably be at risk within your lifetime.
On the positive side, I suppose we can pat ourselves on the back for “having retrained and re-jobbed” someone, but fact remains that this person was just kicked about four rungs down the employment ladder. And odds are that this person is already middle-aged, and doesn’t have enough employment years left to claw their way back up from entry level to 20 years of experience.
Re-Thinking Our Values
Without being too alarmist or paranoid, it increasingly seems like our only real hope is to completely re-think both what "working" is, as well as the entire growth paradigm as a measure of what success looks like.
Calendula with dewdrops
In other words, we need to learn that "enough" is a good life, and we don't always need to be striving for "more."
The notion of "scarcity" is basically driven by "machinery" that requires eternal growth for its survival and well-being. Meanwhile, we have developed this "Investor Class" that has been trained to expect returns on their investment that exceeds simply sustaining where we are, or even a slight gradual contraction in what we produce.
Not only that, we somehow have to move away from the emphasis on individual goods (I already have SIX kitchen knives, I don't need ten), towards more "societal goods," like global public Wifi, phone service and healthcare that removes these monthly expenses from the individual bills of workers less and less able to pay for them and instead fund them with part of the labor cost savings from the "cheap automation" we keep inventing.
"But that's SOCIALISM!! GASP!!"
Towards a brighter future, I hope...
No, not really. It's basic survival, in the sense that it could easily become a necessary measure to keep us from sinking into one of those dystopian scenarios.
A lot of folks are fond of pointing at the Scandinavian countries and label them "socialist," but that's actually far from the effective truth... they are simply free market capitalist economies with strong social safety nets.
What do we VALUE? Which future do YOU want? Which one do you think we'll actually GET?
It's just something to think about. There are no easy answers... but it just doesn't seem like our current course is leading us in a better direction...
Thanks for reading!
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Created at 190510 16:51 PST
1011
Capitalism is going to have to evolve if we are to avoid the Hunger Games type future. In fact, it's going to have to evolve if we want to have any future at all. The erosion of the consumer class (rapidly being replaced by machines/AI) will cause capitalism to fail, as capitalism revolves around consumption. So our future could perhaps be better described as a choice between Star Trek or Somalia, say. It's going to be a rough few decades, I expect. The 1% will fight like hell to retain their power and dominance. I expect it's going to get all French Revolution unless they willingly give up some of their immense power and wealth.
So all the jobs are going to end... this is the line we are being fed.
Here is what I say... Exchanging goods and services was never meant to be handled and regulated by a few for the many.
People will always find something of value to do and some way to pay each other.
Maybe we should have never tasked businesses with being responsible for paying your taxes, paying your retirement, paying your healthcare, making sure everything is fair, coming soon handling sexual discrimination and other social issues, while making sure you have paid time off, can make babies and care for your parents.
I am really glad the model is dying, business should only focus on what they do... Provide things and services.
This current model is bad for people and for business. I can't wait for it to fall apart.
Maybe when it dies we will see huge scarcity for a while, but maybe we will see farms and home made goods and lawn mowing services... Neighbors helping build a house.
Or maybe we will all die. lol. Kidding, it will be fine, but not without bumps.
I remember being in college and practically getting kicked out of my finance professor's office (we used to have lengthy discussions) for "daring" to suggest that the corporatocracy version of US capitalism would fall apart, much like east-bloc style communism. He was outraged!
I will be glad to see the old model die, too. I hope the idea of corporations being "a person" gets chopped out of existence, as part of the process.
I'm all in favor of what I call "Mom and Pop capitalism." I hope it returns...
Exactly!
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So many great things come from struggle. We are at a point where it’s so easy to learn a new skill and start your own business. At some point the old methods are just going give like they always have. Far too many tell themselves and their friends “I have this great idea” and never do anything about it. They are surviving just enough that they rather not risk it all and do something more for themselves.
Right now so many big companies are trying to merge and become even bigger. They become slow, weak, and are always needing to buy out there smaller competition who adapt quicker. We seem to be moving in a direction where you build something at a loss and try to gain as much market share as you can before a big guy comes alone and wants to buy you out.
Great articles as always!
even if I end up eating cat food mixed with boiled rice. You make me laugh with this statement. ;)
At the moment I am working hard to build my entrepreneur journey. I don't know how the money will come tomorrow but I believe, act, develop skill and the future will be awesome!