nothing new

      It is 2012, we were promised jet packs, trips to the moon, food pills and laser swords. What do we have? The same ol’ political corruption, income gaps, starvation, epidemics, poverty – nothing new under the sun. Why do things seemingly never change? People starve just the same they did in the bronze age. They say with the rise of America that human development was accelerated 1000 years, in such a brief time we went from horse and buggy to space stations. But we still have hundreds of millions starving with this beloved technology. Why? Simple, fixing poverty and hunger is not profitable.

      But first, lets focus on the recently celebrated holiday- May Day. While I certainly admire the sacrifices and hard work that went into reducing the work day to eight hours, why have we not expanded on it? It is a fact that almost all professions have been improved with the rise of technology. The strides since 1886 are absolutely outstanding. Things that took weeks to create now take hours or days. Production has sky rocketed since then, yet, we still work eight hours. While I am no math genius, it would seem that if p= production t= time w= work that t x w = p : it seems that as our efficiency of work goes up then our time should go down? Makes sense doesn’t it? But no, with the beauty of capitalism there is always more work to do! With the seemingly (and falsely) endless resources so should there be endless production! In essence you are creating and producing to fill a bottomless abyss.

      You would think we would have been able to create a better system by now. I am sure there are but, as we found out earlier, it would not be as profitable. The more work we do, the more they can exploit. Less work- less exploitation. Dollar sign blind. While I am no expert, I have a simple system that would cut our work days to 2-4 hours a day on average.

      First let us see how big of a hole we have to fill each day! If we took in our local community, the size does not matter, we chart a month’s worth of consumption. We can find out how much waste is produced, food eaten, water, energy… all that can be easily monitored. Then we simply find the average, multiply it by the population and then voila we have the goal of our local labor. A hole that we can fill. We can even determine the increase with localized population growth and take that in account into an equation. Like I said, I am no mathematical genius by any means and an even more exact algorithm,  I am sure could be constructed.

      Now those are the hours that are required to be worked to provide for our own survival. Anything after that can be enjoyed how you wish. Some people would take their free time and work more, helping doctors for instance. Some jobs do not adhere to a schedule but, they would only need to work when needed. This is a rough sketch, mind you, only to point out our own deficiencies. People with the desire for research and science would be free to work as much or little as they want. They would also not be limited to only working on technologies that are profitable and exploitable. They instead work on what they enjoy and certainly improve daily lives. Also, I believe, the medicinal industry would be much more useful and practical as well. No longer having pharmaceuticals binding them to profits they can work purely on the desire to help others not bank accounts.

Back to starvation, anyone who has “dumpster dove” can tell you that restaurants, grocery stores, food processing/distribution plants, all throw out tons(literally) of food a week. This food could go to the starving poor but doesn’t… because of profit. They certainly can not give away food that they also sell! They even cut bags, and invest in very expensive, to purchase and maintain, compactors to keep us from pillaging their trash. They do this so that their boss’s boss’s boss’s boss can get a little bit more in his piggy bank. Such a callous act in the name of consumption, convenience and luxury.

        There is no need to burn down buildings, yet. But, slowly, reject this disgusting system. Raise a black flag, call these injustices. Take a small step to a clean conscience. There needs to be numbers, it is absolutely the only way to be heard. We do not need perfection in escaping this terrible system. But, as long as you are heading down the right path, making positive strides, you are as perfect as you are going to get. There needs to be a better tomorrow.This is nothing new. xoxo brandon