Working on transition – more

“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Just a quick amendment to the previous post about a Universal Basic Income. This podcast brilliantly lays out the plan:

For more information on the initiatives for a basic income and a 21hr work week, follow the links below:

Washington Post - How about a universal basic income?

Wikipedia – Basic Income Guarantee

Business Insider – Universal Basic Income

New Economics Foundation – 21 Hours

About Time – 21 hours

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Working on transition

“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

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The things that have gotten many people anxious about our current paradigm of economics is that we don’t know where we’re going in the future. The world economy is still extremely slow and countries such as France are falling back into recession. Husky City has more or less laid out the main goal of a resource based economy… but how do we get there? Every little thing helps to make the transition. Such as being aware of planned obsolescence, buying only what you need, growing your own food, producing your own electric, become independent from oil, etc. But what we need are huge steps to work towards. Perhaps if we looked at achieving those goals, then we may be able to achieve a full resource based economy.

Two things come to mind. Perhaps we can

Take Control of Energy

“Energy watchdog Ofgem chief warns of bill rises” -BBC

“Energy bill rises will outpace inflation next year, forecasters warn” -The Telegraph

“Energy prices: a political power play” -The Guardian

These are headlines that have been dominating the news every time we enter a new year. And every year, the general population are taken for as mugs. We sit stoically as we bitch and complain that gas and electric is going to go up and we are told to use less to keep the costs down. But why do we have to take it year upon year? The government doesn’t seem to have any interest in us when it comes to energy. Sure, the politicians and political parties have their pledges to import less energy and produce more green and sustainable energy on our own land. But what’s holding them back? It’s all down to

Corporations are not people. People are corporations!

It is widely known that according to Mitt Romney, and many Republicans in the United States, the beliefs are that corporations are people. I highly doubt that. I haven’t come across a corporation that has its best interests in its customers or the people that use them. Their main goal is to make a profit and keep their investors happy. Why do you think Walmart and Primark and others use or have used child slave labour in China and other countries? It’s because corporations save money on paying very little for the work than to hire local. That’s the reason of outsourcing jobs abroad. The US isn’t the only ones guilty of it. The United Kingdom regularly uses India for its call centres and other countries for sweatshop activities. The pay, I’m sure, isn’t the best for those who work in such places and they work long and hard just to put food on their tables. All the while the corporations are getting fatter with money and greed.

Open Sourcing

“Our goal is to be destructive but in the cause of making the world a better place.” -Founder of Skype.

According to Wikipedia, Open Source is “a philosophy, or pragmatic methodology that promotes free redistribution and access to an end product’s design and implementation details.” Open sourcing is an idea that has been around for centuries. Artists and sculptors have always been proud to show off their work and allow public access to their works. It’s kind of a “Look what I did!” type mentality. I can even feel it when I edit together an amazing video. But open sourcing is also quite pragmatic and almost philanthropic to humanity. Take a look at information and the internet. Before we had the internet, our research would had to have been done in a local library or through publications such as encyclopaedias and periodicals. An entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica would set you back hundreds of dollars. Jacques Fresco once said, “You don’t fight for a ‘new system’ if you want change, you need to offer something that makes the old system obsolete.” This is what the founder of Wikipedia decided to do. Information was seen to be something that all humans deserve to have access to. Not just the wealthy who could afford the encyclopaedias. In fact, during the SOPA/PIPA fight in the US Congress, Wikipedia took it on their own to block their website for a day and placed it with a graphic which said, “IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT FREE KNOWLEDGE – For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage this site and your ability to access information online. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.”

It’s All About Sharing

I went into my loft today to find a couple of odd cables that I needed for my new Raspberry Pi. Story of my life. Actually, what I came across was tons of junk that has been collected over the years that I just don’t care to really see anymore. Odd books. Old CDs that haven’t been digitised yet. Cables for computers. Even old VHS tapes. None of it is really sellable. I even have a garden shed full of tools and equipment that I use maybe a few times a year. If I’m not using them, then it means no one is and they sit all alone in a lonely place. Why can’t they just go to use whenever anyone needs something? It reminds me of this conversation:

Ned Flanders: Uh, huh-huh… Homer, ah… About those things you borrowed from me over the years, you know, the TV trays, the power sander, the downstairs bathtub… You gonna be… needing those things in Cypress Creek?
Homer: Yes.
Ned Flanders: Oh. Uh…
Homer: [coaches Flanders] Okily dokily…
Ned Flanders: Okily dokily!

It all may be funny, but do we really need to have these items hidden in a shed or loft somewhere? I can think of loads of things that I don’t use on a regular basis that I don’t mind people using them if they need to use it. Like my pitcher I use for my summer Pimms. I’m hardly going to be using it in winter. Although, someone might be having a summer themed party in the

Future of Education

Grow up. Go to school. Learn. Go up a year. Learn. Go up a year. Graduate. Learn how to do a job. Do the job. Retire. Die.

We shouldn’t have to keep doing this constantly for generations. It reminds me of a factory assembly line. Kids being pushed through in batches, built up for a job and then off to work. But it’s what our governments do to our children. They put them through school to learn jobs to keep up the economy. Once you finish high school, you may be one of the lucky ones to get a scholarship, or have wealthy parents to pay for the extortionate university fees. Some even join the military to get educational benefits, like myself, to help towards getting a degree.

Let’s start with the University degree. How useful is it now? Are employers looking at them as much as they used to? It seems not. Most employers are now