We’re living in an extreme after-shock of the industrial revolution. The initial wave of industrialization, and each subsequent evolution of it, brought on fear each time, from the basics of “Oh no, machines can do the fieldwork now what are we gonna do?” all the way to the more modern post-internet rumblings of “Learn to code, bro,” and always, to a degree, a new field would spring up to replace the lost one. People would have new avenues to explore, though a generation may have suffered.

But we are entering into a post-post industrial revolution, and the need for post-capitalism (whatever shape that may be) is more evident than ever before.

Let me explain, and I’m pretty moderate, so try to follow the bouncing ball. Say it with me, “nuance” “NEW-ANSE.”

First off, let me not shit on anyone’s idea of which system is best. Any system, in its idealistic sense, should provide an outcome that benefits all. I think we can agree that, generally speaking, what ends up happening is that any system eventually fails and falls prey to the selfish whims of a few people, no matter how good the first intentions are or what philosophies guided it.

Communism seeks to distribute wealth equally, which sounds great!, but it does not work because, after all, no matter what, someone needs to be an engineer, and someone needs to take out the trash. And both are equally as important to society, however it is much more difficult to become a doctor or engineer than it is to be a trash collector (in terms of base requirements for entry, no slight to those individuals doing this valuable work). If the incentives for becoming a doctor or engineer were removed, I worry that not enough people would pursue it, if, after all, the reward were the same as becoming a trash collector. Good time to give props to teachers who pursue perhaps the most valuable work in the world (shaping young minds), despite being woefully underpaid, underfunded, and blamed for a lot. No…I do not think that the summer off is enough of a recompense (to all you asshats with that argument) to one of the hardest and most trying jobs in the world. However…as we’ll get into, I don’t think those at the top want a system where the public gets smarter and the teachers are valued more.

Capitalism, on the other end of the spectrum, in its purest form, provides incentives and should allow for rapid development under the presumption that the best product and value point will be guided by demand in the market. The idea that a superior product or a similar product at a better price point will win out. It provides massive benefits for those who win the competition.

Capitalism used to, hand in hand with government (at least in the US), provide a ground where the best solution worked and benefits were spread to the many. It resulted in unions which fought , who fought terrible labor policies (or lack thereof) and the abuse of the few at the expense of the many. In our post World War II heydey (civil rights notwithstanding…I am not trying to harken back to a “golden age” that doesn’t exist), the middle class was strong, and the wealthiest were taxed the most. A person managing a gas station could provide for their family on a single income and even stand a chance at retiring after putting in a solid twenty-thirty years.

Since then, the wealthiest have eaten away at these policies and fought unions, and through a mixture of lobbying, campaign support, and supplanting legal and political allies, have picked away at those policies and replacing them with self serving ones, only seeking to secure their own wealth — mountains of wealth, for no reason other than to just amass more. The system therefore is rigged, and pure capitalism no longer prevails. Cronyism prevails. Oligarchical principles take shape. Likewise, unions have drifted to the extremes almost in a natural pushback to the extreme principles of the private enterprise. Let’s just say that the value of a union is straightforward, but they need some PR work. So many have vilified them and they have not helped themselves in recent years, so much so that often poor right-wing voters have viewed unions as a bad thing…go figure.

I’m not sure how to square one aspect of this — that is to say that if you earn money, why should you have to pay more of it away just because you earned more of it? Isn’t that your money? Shouldn’t you be able to hoard it and do as you see fit? Philosophically, neutrally, yes agree. It’s yours of course. You “earned” it (a discourse for another time). But also, you could also not be a dick. The vast majority of those at the top did not “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” and the notion that anyone can do so is preposterous. And I like making lots of money! I do. I’m not some “lazy have not.” I have a lot. I probably have more than you.

Anyway, the current state of capitalism is cronyism, and continued amassing of wealth and efficiency for the sake of the bottom line, but without proper governance, and without the pure gamification that would drive meaningful innovation (outside of the purpose of sheer profit). A player has appeared on the scene, which has exacerbated the issue as well. Its name is AI. AI is not like any other “industrial revolution” that came before it. It will have the ability to replace every job.

Not just creative jobs or manual jobs.

Eventually, they’ll have AI machines to care for the AI machines…turtles all the way down.

I am not, for the sake of argument, going to even get into the environmental footprint of AI. That is also another issue, and not one that stands to make a dent in the opinion of anyone who could have sway over it. I am also not going to go into the very real problem I have where our cognitive capability as a species is going down because we’re outsourcing so many menial problems to AI. Fewer and fewer are developing their own critical thinking. Fewer and fewer are willing to do the work to expand their own problem solving capability. “Just ask AI”.

At this exact moment, the harm of AI isn’t seen at the top, nor will it be. It will continue to amount to massive efficiencies and growth on the bottom line. It will continue to result in lower headcounts. But the problem is that there is no new burgeoning field that can replace the lost jobs. In a time where cashiers are replaced, self driving delivery vehicles are made, coding, writing, design, video is all beginning to be replaced by AI, there is no industry I can think of for people to run to. “Learn to code bro” becomes insufficient” because no one will need to.

I am not fear mongering. This is going to happen. There is no stopping it. So the question becomes, what do we do about it? When 99.99999999999999% of the wealth and jobs are taken by 0.0000000000000001% of the population, what do the rest of us do while they collect their riches? They won capitalism. Yay. No one else has anything except them. Woohoo. Good game. Now what?

What do we do in a post-post industrial, post capitalist society? A society where there are literally no jobs. And of the jobs that might hang on for a while longer, trust me, you coddled babies don’t have the grit or humility to do them (unlike the immigrants you suppose are “taking your jobs”).

So I think it’s time we stop talking about socialism like it’s a bad word. We already do it for crying out loud. Our public schools (regardless of how you feel about them), social security, our national highway system, and many other facets that you take for granted are in fact, socialism. In fact the biggest, purest socialist society we have, lives right under our noses. I’m talking about our military. It is one big socialist commune and many seem to ignore that fact. Because you wield the word as it suits you. And the word “socialism” suits right-wingers as a dirty word. But so many military people are right-wingers…so square that?

The poor right-wingers of the country have more in common with all of the people that they’ve been made to fear and hate as a device by the few at the top of the stack. When Cletus the redneck is interviewed on FOX news and regurgitates how the lefties “wanna tax everyone” I want to scream. They aren’t going to tax you, Cletus. You don’t have enough to tax. The people they’re talking about pander to you, but wouldn’t be caught dead with you. But they do need your votes.

When Cletus talks about “tariffs” after seeing a talking head spew about how it’s some magic silver bullet (even though Cletus does not know what a tariff is nor how it works) they’ve got him right where they want him. They do not want him or you or me to actually know what things mean. They do not want you to work on your own critical thinking. They want you scared of a person of a different faith, a person of a different color, a foreign person, or a person that identifies in a way that challenges your worldview. 

**Side note: I don’t know how to square the incentivization of news across channels that are supposed to be impartial (another result of a rigged system and cronyism requiring disinformation and fear and ad dollars). Everyone on every side is screwed with that occurring…except for the people making money on it in the short-term.

I’ve probably lost all of you that actually need to hear this by now. It’s a frustration born out of the fact that “trickle-down” economics was a failure from the start, and the only thing resources given back to the top means is more hoarding at the top.

So what the hell do we do about it? We need a solution. A social, communal solution, that understands that no matter what, at this rate, whatever jobs that are left over will not be enough for the population we have. The population will continue to grow along with the hoards of money at the top. We are going to have to feed, cloth, educate people.

We are going to need to start thinking about what UBI (universal basic income) looks like. We are going to have to think about what people do when there is nothing to do and people are relegated to the menial and unnecessary (read Vonnegut’s “Player Piano”). Because every other time that has happened for an extended period of time the end result was bloody. 

I realize, of course, that I’m screaming into a void here and nothing will change in the near future. Only people that agree will get this far. People that disagree with me will have already decried me as some sort of leftist fanatic. I am not. I wish to be wealthy too. I am doing well for myself. I am a veteran. I am a married father of three. But I want what’s best for the many. Not just the few. Even if that means giving up a few more slices of my cake.

We’re all screwed and I’m just sorry for my kids about it. There’s a few that might be able to fix it, but the system does not provide an incentive for them to do so. So they won’t.