Capitalism has failed, let's consider other options

Capitalism is a failed system, it's the main problem as it has no limits on the gap in wealth distribution, capitalism is the biggest problem in our world today.

Personally I believe in a perks system, one where jobs and positions within them are designated worth based on a calculation of difficulty, required education, physical toll on the body and or mind, benefit to society, needed number of bodies for the job, ect. And then perks are designated to the worker based on both these qualities, and their productivity, with each job having a minimum and maximum productivity worth with perks varying based upon hours worked x productivity.

What this means is, a minimal amount of productivity is required to gain the perks of the job, but one can only get the highest perks of the job by being productive at said job. Hard work is encouraged as the more productive a person is, the least amount of time is required to achieve the maximum perk level of the job.

At the same time, it discourages not working, since each job has a minimum productivity, meaning to keep the perks of said job, one must meet the minimum quota of the job, otherwise perks are removed and they may be required to move to a job with less perks.

No one is incapable of working, even if the job is as simple as being a greeter. Everyone can be of some use to society. As such at minimum even if the job is so simple as to say hello to everyone that comes in to an establishment, everyone should have a job no matter how minor and in doing so be provided with food and shelter. Refusing to work at all in any capacity should be a crime. Exception existing for extreme disability, being paraplegic for example is an obvious exception. Lot's of details would need to be ironed out.

Also to discourage excess children, each child reduces from the perks of the parents as the child receives their own separate perks, so until the child has reached the age of work, the parent's perks foot the bill so to speak, lowing the maximum and minimum worth of their job while they are caring for their children. Attempting to use perks designated for the children for one's self would be illegal and a crime designated as child abuse and neglect.

No one should be without food or shelter, and no one needs 3 personal jets, 2000 acres, 5 pools, 20 cars... you get the idea. Wealth should have a cap and a minimum. No one deserves all those things, and even the least of us, as long as they are doing their part deserves food, shelter and medical care.

This is a rough draft ideology, tell me what you all think? Is such a system feasible? Is there potential to remove cash as incentive and replace it with standard of living instead? Ideas, suggestions? Criticisms?

a reply to: Puppylove

Capitalism is a failed system, it's the main problem as it has no limits on the gap in wealth distribution, capitalism is the biggest problem in our world today.

Thats not capitalism. More like indentured servitude to the "job" , which is what you want?

Modern Servitude

You are sort of describing capitalism.

You take a job. The worth of the job is based on the value of the labor and the better you are at it and the harder you work, the more you get paid based on your value as a laborer doing that job.

However, economics shows that putting caps on things doesn't work.

Do you know why we wound up with the current health insurance system in the US? It was because the government instituted a wage cap. They felt no one needed to make too much, and in response, employers starting adding benefits (like health insurance) to their salaries in order to lure in a keep the best workers. When the wage caps were finally dropped, health insurance as a benefit of employment was then expected by many employees and could not be decoupled from employment. Unintended consequences.

So if you try to cap wages, employers will find other ways to lure in the best workers. You will create a new problem to add to the mess.

Also, you will never be able to create a system that will not become incredibly corrupt. There will be people at all levels who will game the system. The more complicated you make it, the easier it will be to game and get advantage out of.

even the least of us, as long as they are doing their part deserves food, shelter and medical care.

I couldn't agree more; however if men want to become kings unto themselves through hard work and personal sacrifice, who am I to prevent this and moreover, why should I?

a reply to: Puppylove

Capitalism didn't HAVE TO fail. We didn't HAVE TO create the Federal Reserve Act to establish a central banking system. We didn't HAVE TO ignore the warnings of our Founding Fathers. We didn't HAVE TO allow Citizens United to blow open the flood gates that had been holding corporate money back.

Every system that revolves around MONEY will fail, because we are only human!

Addendum: Just thought of a great way to encourage increased productivity, plus hours worked, any time/productivity past the cap is put towards the next period of work, this accumulates, meaning that the more productive you are and timely you work the more time you can accumulate to not have to work. So if you choose to bust your ass 80 hours a week 7 days out of the week with maximum efficiency at a job that allows for it, then you can rapidly build up long periods of vacation time, even potentially early retirement if you work for it.

You pile up enough time and production at a job, eventually you don't need to work, you've paid your debt to society, this could be done at any job, you just maintain the same standard of living you've worked for by living of the debt society still owes you.

a reply to: six67seven

I can agree with you right up until Citizens. Most people still seem to have no idea what the government was arguing for in that case. But, if you think the government should have been able to ban books ... which is exactly what they were arguing they had the right to do under election law, I guess Citizens was decided wrongly.

But if you really want to clean up election funding, you need to look at Union spending and foreign spending as much as any corporate spending, but Citizens wasn't going to block any of that.

a reply to: ketsuko

There are no wages in this system, standard of living, "employers" as you call them are part of the same system. This is a complete government overhaul. No more corporations, ect, they don't exist in the system.

a reply to: Puppylove


I dont like work.
I shirk it at every opportunity
But Im quite happy volunteering

originally posted by: Puppylove
Addendum: Just thought of a great way to encourage increased productivity, plus hours worked, any time/productivity past the cap is put towards the next period of work, this accumulates, meaning that the more productive you are and timely you work the more time you can accumulate to not have to work. So if you choose to bust your ass 80 hours a week 7 days out of the week with maximum efficiency at a job that allows for it, then you can rapidly build up long periods of vacation time, even potentially early retirement if you work for it.

You pile up enough time and production at a job, eventually you don't need to work, you've paid your debt to society, this could be done at any job, you just maintain the same standard of living you've worked for by living of the debt society still owes you.

This doesn't work.

My husband is extremely productive and works a lot of hours outside his 40, but he also works at a job that had deadlines and schedules. The idea that he could just disappear from his job production schedules aside is ludicrous.

Not only that, but you would be setting up entire economies to just grind to a screeching halt as people all stop working because they take their saved up time.

originally posted by: Puppylove
a reply to: ketsuko

There are no wages in this system, standard of living, "employers" as you call them are part of the same system. This is a complete government overhaul. No more corporations, ect, they don't exist in the system.

Oh you are taking a command economy. That doesn't work either. It's been tried many times.

a reply to: Borisbanger

We could all try hippie communes I herd they were ravishing back in the day.

a reply to: Puppylove

Many nations of the world able to pull their own bootstraps are steadily moving toward methods of being capitalistic.
Given from where most of those economies have been, it is the best bang for the buck going in the world today.

The world is in flux at the time and some of that turmoil is definitely not progressive but regressive. So in the short term perhaps capitalism is not such a bad way to get economies working under their own power. Capitalism can be tamed in its darkest ways by conscientious actions by the public, industry and the government in charge. Each must respect the other and none should be allowed unfettered action on its own. A proper future for all must be envisioned, not merely economic grown for the bankers. Capitalism is not the real enemy, but merely a tool that is easily misused.

originally posted by: TechniXcality
a reply to: Borisbanger

We could all try hippie communes I herd they were ravishing back in the day.

I have nothing against people who want to go off on their own and live that way. More power to them if they can make it work, but there must be a reason why this fad doesn't become a popular thing with communes springing up all over.

a reply to: Puppylove

capitalism is the biggest problem in our world today.

Interesting and what country exactly is this capitalist society that is causing the worlds problem?

Here all this time, I was thinking it was the Copratism that was doing it in America?

a reply to: TechniXcality

Flirt

a reply to: snowen20

Why should we prevent that?

Because while I may not be Christian, there's a good reason greed and gluttony are both deadly sins.

Excessive individual hording of wealth is a crime against humanity, in my opinion no less a crime than murder and rape themselves.

What people have in this life should be based upon their worth in society and the part they play in it, not based on how much they can con out of and take from others. It should be based on worth, not cons and corruption.

No one deserves to live like kings and emperors, no one is worth that, the idea that such an existence is reasonable at all is ludicrous. Such an existence is pure greed, pride, gluttony and arrogance, not to mention sociopathic and and massively inflated sense of self worth.

a reply to: ketsuko

Any way you want to slice it... we don't have a voice any longer.

We are being stripped bare by the system. It no longer works in our best interest. Sure, we could evolve in an attempt to survive within it, but is that what we are about - barely surviving? Stepping on one another to get ahead? Bowing to their system of corruption and greed?

No. We can argue all day about what triggered it but the OP is very accurate with regards to the spirit of this thread. Bare in mind, one person will not have all the answers or be able to make a significant change, but collectively, everyone knows our potential. Hell, we don't even have to be on the same page, we just have to be on the same frequency -- have an understanding that this system is no longer for us.

Alas, we aren't to that point yet.

a reply to: Borisbanger

Sarcastic flirt.

a reply to: Puppylove

There is not a alternative yet.


Not until we get off our arses and start exploiting the resources in the solar system,


Resource abundance is what will make capitalism obsolete.