- A world with acceptable levels of income inequality. There used to be a time when CEOs rarely earned more than 30 times what their lowest-paid employees earned. Now it's likely to be hundreds if not thousands of times what their lowest-paid employee earns. Some measure of inequality is essential in order to foster innovation and enterprise, but it's gotten wildly out of control in the past twenty or so years after Reagonomics and Thatcherism came to be the basis of our Western economic systems. A return to that ratio of 30 to 1 would foster a more equal labor market, and greatly ease social tensions.
- A world where a bigger slice of businesses are employee-owned cooperatives. By allowing everyone an equal say in the running of the company and an equal slice of the profits that company earns, you reduce the stratification of the workforce and allow for there to be a greater emphasis on what an employee knows (i.e, their actual on-the-job skills) rather than the degree the employee holds (as is the case with most entrants into upper management these days). Again, this would reduce the current social tensions arising from the many, many stratified levels that exist in modern companies, each with their own pay scale and 'worth' to the company itself. I'm not saying the whole economy should be based on these cooperatives: again, having some traditional corporations around is necessary to ensure a level of consumer satisfaction arising from the cheaper/quicker/easier access to goods these companies often provide through their ability to easily expand (due to their structure). But cooperatives should make up a larger slice of the economy: say a quarter, if you include credit unions and agricultural cooperatives.
- A world where consumers are less concerned with instant self-gratification and a little more willing to make a few concessions to preserve the cohesion and relative equality of society. For example, going to your local store in rural areas instead of flocking to the nearest supermarket, or putting your money in a credit union instead of in a quick access big bank that then hands it to its own investment arm, which then fritters it away at casino banking. You may still choose to do so, of course: it's just that in this world, you would first consider the benefits trusting your local store or credit union would bring to your entire area, not just yourself, before you head to the big banks and store chains.
- A world where all major utilities (power, water, public transport) are under government control.
- A world where all nations that can afford it implement some form of Germany's social market economy model. For those unsure of what that is, it's an economic system that contains most central elements of a free market economy such as private property, free foreign trade, exchange of goods, and free formation of prices, but one where the government plays an active regulatory role, guaranteeing a social security system that includes pensions, universal healthcare, unemployment insurance, educational policies, housing policies and income distribution policies, and issuing stern regulations to combat the worst excesses of unrestrained free market economies (anti-trust codes, laws against the abuse of market power, safety laws, banking regulations, etcetera). The government funds these guarantees of social security, healthcare and pensions via an agreed-upon system of equal contributions from employers, employees and the state, plus the issuing of subsidies. There is an insistence upon strong labor-bargaining rights (statues providing for strong unions), and union members often sit on the boards of major companies to help make important decisions. Employment is easier to find thanks to the availability of the dual-education system that combines vocational training and courses right out of school, guaranteed by employing companies and monitored to strict standards by the government. Crucially, this system abhors both socialism (insisting on private ownership of the means of production) and unrestrained libertarianism (insisting on strong regulation and social support by the government): it is, in effect, a middle way.
- Crucially, a world where employees, recognizing the powers given to them by the government in the aforementioned social market model, work
with their employers rather than against them, valuing hard work and loyalty to their companies over constant self-gratification through endless demands for higher wages and more benefits. A company is not merely a money-making machine: it is a social union between respectful employers and reasonable employees, working together towards a common cause, and sharing common values of relative equality and relative solidarity. The employees don't push their luck by using their strong guaranteed rights to drive employers to ruin, but equally the employers treat their employees with respect and as relative equals in the running of the company. This happens to an extent in Germany (one of the reasons they never had the union troubles that the UK did), and all the above mentioned points (relative income equality, more cooperatives, consumer awareness, the social market model) tie into this idea: that society is driven by
both self-interest and solidarity, that both equality and advancement are taken into account when making decisions that affect whole groups of people. A far cry from the zero-hours contracts, easy redundancy processes and 'flexible' labour markets being pursued by the Conservatives nowadays.
- A world in which working fewer hours is not seen as a horrendously bad thing. The West is becoming more mechanized, which will inevitably lead to less work. Inevitably, as in this is inevitable, the progress of history: it cannot be stopped. Robots and computers are making production easier than ever, and granting faster access to goods than has ever been possible. And yet, because employers in the West tie lower hours to lower wages, this leads to untold tensions as workers everywhere protest the loss of their primary and secondary-industry jobs. If the social market model above existed, and crucially if (again) employers and employees saw each other as partners instead of as antagonists, then there would be more accord over the pace and scale of mechanization, and wages would not be as depressed by the cheap availability of mechanized (and offsourced) labour as they are now. The relative income equality of society would also help, as would consumers choosing what to buy (mechanized or non-mechanized, local or foreign-manufactured) , and we as a whole (the West, I mean) would learn to deal with the loss of all but service-industry jobs in a more reasoned, accepting way. We would see a 35 or 30 hour work week as not a burden or a doom upon us all, but as an opportunity to lead happier, more contented lives, doing things we were free to do, and improving our minds, while still feeling like a part of a functioning society (due to relative wage equality, government-guaranteed social security and democratic employer-employee relations). We would not view free time as the privilege of the rich or lazy, but something everyone had plenty of, and as a good thing, not as the bane of society.
- A world where Chelsea Football Club has ceased to exist.
All of the above (save for maybe the Chelsea one: they're like ****roaches, unkillable) are achievable. It requires a whole lotta organizational overhaul, a complete re-balancing of the Western way of life, and a newfound co-operation between formerly bitter enemies (employees and employers), setting aside all feelings of jealously, discrimination and greed in favour of a collective re-organization of the way we as societies function. It requires burying the remnants of 'trickle-down' Reaganomics and Thatcherism, possibly the greatest lies ever fed to us, the gullible public. It requires setting aside notions of socialism and communism that will only be achieved when we as a species overcome our limitations of greed, envy and primal competitiveness (i.e, when the singularity occurs, or when we all embrace transhumanism and augment ourselves to think on a higher level). But crucially, it can be done: it does not require a Jesus or a temporal loop or a magic wand, it only requires resolve.
I'm not holding my breath, though.
