Our country is heading down a dark path, and it’s got me thinking about what I think government is really for. Here’s my vision for a beautiful society. It is very simple, with only five primary emphases.
Thing 1: Ensuring Universal Human Rights.
This includes a lot of the stuff described in the constitution, but goes farther. Everything from freedom of speech and press to six months maternity and paternity leave. Also included here would be public safety and just, rehabilitative prisons. I suppose this would also have to include our military, which would be dramatically scaled back.
Thing 2: Universal Health Care.
The health insurance system is sucking the life out of our society. People should not be getting rich off the misfortune of others, and people should not go bankrupt for getting sick. It’s time to eliminate the health insurance industry and give everyone health and dental care, kind of like a Medicare for all. There would be a strong emphasis on preventative care, and certain extravagant procedures would likely be excluded. People would talk about advanced directives. There is an endless amount to write about this, so I’m not going to try to write it all.
Thing 3: Universal Education.
This guarantees quality education from 6 months (when full-time maternity and paternity leave ends, and maybe start as something like 12 hours a week of child care) to 20 years. This could include vocational school or university, after which young adults would have one year mandatory service (see Thing 5) before continuing with graduate education or work. The future of our society depends on how we educate ourselves. Again, endless amount to write, so I’m not going to get into it all. It’s a necessity.
Thing 4: Universal Basic Income.
This is probably the most controversial piece here, and could be phased in last. With the increase in automation, it is time for us to separate our “work” from our wellbeing. This is not an argument against automation — I believe automation frees us from work that is often unfulfilling in the first place. But we must recognize how that will affect employment, and recognize that a human being does not need to be employed to create value in the world, or to be valued by society (in fact, only about 48% of Americans have full or part time employment at any given time).
So: Universal Basic Income (UBI) would be something like $15,000 per year, given directly to every adult citizen, no strings attached. It’s not enough to thrive on, but it is enough to get by. This, combined with Universal Health Care, would allow us to eliminate vast swaths of bureaucracy, including Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, SNAP, CHIP, and most other services that work to keep people out of extreme destitution. It would dramatically change our perception of work, however, I believe it would raise the quality of goods and services and allow people to find work they enjoy.
Thing 5: Support for Communities, Locally and Nationally
The biggest new piece of this would be a mandatory year of service (either locally, nationally, or internationally for an approved organization), however it would also include things like support for arts, culture, national parks, highways, science, broadband, and basically everything else infrastructure-related.
How to pay for it?
Taxes. Specifically, primarily through Pigovian Taxes, which are taxes designed to take into account the externalities (costs to society) associated with production or consumption.
First of all, these taxes would be eliminated (or greatly reduced):
Payroll Tax (we WANT employers to hire people, why tax them for it?)
Corporate Tax (we WANT companies to succeed, why tax them for it?)
Income Tax* (we WANT people to work to make money, why tax them for it?)
*The income tax is extremely useful, as it’s what we’ve already got in place. It would be fine to keep it for a while, and make it highly progressive.
Instead, these taxes would be emphasized:
Carbon Tax (climate change is going to cost us a fortune, we don’t want people to use carbon)
Consumption Tax (like VAT in Europe, kind of like sales tax, because consuming goods has a cost to society)
Financial Transactions Tax (we want to discourage high frequency trading)
Capital Gains Tax (we don’t want people to gamble lots of money in the stock exchange)
Sin Taxes on tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, soda, unhealthy food, excessively large vehicles, etc (these things all cost our society, and people should pay more for them)
Holding Property Unused for Investment Tax (we don’t want people to speculate on real estate and keep it out of use)
Luxury/Estate/Wealth Tax (people with vast amounts of money deserve to give more back to the society that facilitated their success, and income inequality has been shown to decrease happiness)
Basically, tax things for a reason. Here’s a good Planet Money episode that talks about a number of those, along with subsidies we should get rid of (I’m pretty much down to get rid of all subsidies, actually. UBI should take care of the rest).
That’s pretty much it. It’s fun to think about how our society would adjust to a system like this, and I think it would go a long way toward healing the divisions in our country today.
What would you do if you knew you would fail?
/1 Comment/in Awareness, Mind, Writing /by mdcalabroI just finished Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book on creative living, Big Magic, which was lovely and worth a read. She wrote a good deal about embracing failure. It’s a standard topic for books on creativity and personal growth, but her approach got me thinking about it in a new way.
Often in this work, we’ll ask ourselves, “What would I do if I could not fail?” This question is useful because it helps tease out what parts of our life we may be suppressing or not pursuing due to our fear of failure. Maybe if I knew I would be successful, I would choose a more creative path, like painting or writing or dancing. It’s easy to imagine how good life would be if I was a successful artist! Wonderful!
But that idea of success in a creative endeavor may bring some unexpected consequences — disappointment when that success doesn’t come, or an idea that there is such a thing as “success” to be had.
So let me reframe the question.
What would you do if you knew you would fail? That is, you would fail at it regardless of how mundane or creative the task. That as an Excel-jockey or middle manager, or as a painter or dancer, you might never make it work. You might have a job waiting tables or mowing lawns indefinitely, because you can never quite get that career off the ground.
What would you do then? Would you keep doing Excel, or even graphic design (more “creative,” but still confined)? Would you keep painting, if success wasn’t a thing? If you love those things, they might be worth keeping around even if it means keeping a side-gig to stay solvent.
What do you love enough to do even if it means always being kind of terrible at it, never finding “success” outside of your pure, personal, ego-free enjoyment of doing the thing?
This isn’t groundbreaking, or a complete reversal of how we usually think about these questions. But it helps me think about it in a slightly different way, and maybe it helps you think about it, too.
Technological Progress and Denial
/1 Comment/in Awareness, Business, Existence, Mind /by mdcalabroOur society is going through major growing pains right now. We’re struggling to cope with some of the most massive changes in human history, and I would argue that we’re not doing an awesome job at it. The current head-in-the-sand approach to globalization (see: Trump, Brexit, Le Pen) isn’t going to get us anywhere except maybe war. We’re addicted to smartphones which make our lives marginally easier, but which don’t make us happier. And we’re nonsensically fighting against automation by easing regulations on coal mining.
These issues are all intertwined, and all similar in our inability to A) take them seriously, and B) act in rational, informed, and compassionate ways about them.
Globalization
Guess what folks, it’s not going away. There is enormous economic and societal gain to be had from embracing, rather than running from globalization. The question is not whether or not to participate, but how to use it to promote freedom and human rights while enriching the world. The “war on terror” will not be won by dropping a bigger bomb, but by changing people’s minds. The “war on drugs” will only be won by legalization and treatment.
Personal Technology
We’ve put ourselves in an enormous psychological research study without any direction, intention, or regard for the health of the test subjects. Perhaps this is what society has always been, but not at this speed. What if we discover that using iPads before the age of five causes psychological or learning disorders in teenagers? It would be impossible to know or study because iPads have only existed for seven years. Clearly they aren’t going away, but the faith people are willing to put into their devices is astounding. To me, the most frightening piece of the personal technology revolution is the trust we’ve put in corporations. We can’t regulate technology when we don’t know the effect it has on our health, and right now tech companies and marketing firms have free rein to use our psychological quirks and patterns for their own profit. Or to win elections.
Automation
Like globalization, this one isn’t going away. The latest TED Radio Hour did a chilling overview of the state of deep learning, which I highly recommend. Long story short: most of us may not have much work in 20 or 30 years. Computers are going to be better than us at pretty much everything, and unlike previous technological revolutions, this one isn’t likely to create other jobs in the process. Driverless cars are an easy example. One team of engineers can create software to put 3+ million professional drivers in the United States alone out of work. Deep learning machines are going to do the same thing to less mechanical tasks, like finding cancer (already done), real-time translation (already done), and global finance (probably close).
This sounds scary, but it doesn’t have to be. Here’s the thing: work is not what defines us as humans. It’s time for our society to start thinking about what happens in a post-employment world. I find that idea hugely compelling, and an opportunity for arts and culture to flourish in ways we’ve never imagined. But it means reorienting our society and finding ways to support everyone, regardless of employment. Personally, I’m a fan of Guaranteed Basic Income, but more important is that we take the question seriously and talk about what our society is really for.
This is the basic idea here. We’ve taken a big step backward in politics in the last year (not just in the U.S.). Clearly this is happening for a reason. People are upset. Unfortunately, putting our heads in the sand and ignoring the issues isn’t going to make them go away. And technology isn’t going to wait for policy to catch up (clean energy, rideshare apps, laws and ethics). It’s time for us to recognize the magnitude of what we’re dealing with, clarify our ideals, and start working on an informed and compassionate way forward.
A Beautiful Society
/1 Comment/in Existence /by mdcalabroOur country is heading down a dark path, and it’s got me thinking about what I think government is really for. Here’s my vision for a beautiful society. It is very simple, with only five primary emphases.
Thing 1: Ensuring Universal Human Rights.
This includes a lot of the stuff described in the constitution, but goes farther. Everything from freedom of speech and press to six months maternity and paternity leave. Also included here would be public safety and just, rehabilitative prisons. I suppose this would also have to include our military, which would be dramatically scaled back.
Thing 2: Universal Health Care.
The health insurance system is sucking the life out of our society. People should not be getting rich off the misfortune of others, and people should not go bankrupt for getting sick. It’s time to eliminate the health insurance industry and give everyone health and dental care, kind of like a Medicare for all. There would be a strong emphasis on preventative care, and certain extravagant procedures would likely be excluded. People would talk about advanced directives. There is an endless amount to write about this, so I’m not going to try to write it all.
Thing 3: Universal Education.
This guarantees quality education from 6 months (when full-time maternity and paternity leave ends, and maybe start as something like 12 hours a week of child care) to 20 years. This could include vocational school or university, after which young adults would have one year mandatory service (see Thing 5) before continuing with graduate education or work. The future of our society depends on how we educate ourselves. Again, endless amount to write, so I’m not going to get into it all. It’s a necessity.
Thing 4: Universal Basic Income.
This is probably the most controversial piece here, and could be phased in last. With the increase in automation, it is time for us to separate our “work” from our wellbeing. This is not an argument against automation — I believe automation frees us from work that is often unfulfilling in the first place. But we must recognize how that will affect employment, and recognize that a human being does not need to be employed to create value in the world, or to be valued by society (in fact, only about 48% of Americans have full or part time employment at any given time).
So: Universal Basic Income (UBI) would be something like $15,000 per year, given directly to every adult citizen, no strings attached. It’s not enough to thrive on, but it is enough to get by. This, combined with Universal Health Care, would allow us to eliminate vast swaths of bureaucracy, including Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, SNAP, CHIP, and most other services that work to keep people out of extreme destitution. It would dramatically change our perception of work, however, I believe it would raise the quality of goods and services and allow people to find work they enjoy.
Thing 5: Support for Communities, Locally and Nationally
The biggest new piece of this would be a mandatory year of service (either locally, nationally, or internationally for an approved organization), however it would also include things like support for arts, culture, national parks, highways, science, broadband, and basically everything else infrastructure-related.
How to pay for it?
Taxes. Specifically, primarily through Pigovian Taxes, which are taxes designed to take into account the externalities (costs to society) associated with production or consumption.
First of all, these taxes would be eliminated (or greatly reduced):
Payroll Tax (we WANT employers to hire people, why tax them for it?)
Corporate Tax (we WANT companies to succeed, why tax them for it?)
Income Tax* (we WANT people to work to make money, why tax them for it?)
*The income tax is extremely useful, as it’s what we’ve already got in place. It would be fine to keep it for a while, and make it highly progressive.
Instead, these taxes would be emphasized:
Carbon Tax (climate change is going to cost us a fortune, we don’t want people to use carbon)
Consumption Tax (like VAT in Europe, kind of like sales tax, because consuming goods has a cost to society)
Financial Transactions Tax (we want to discourage high frequency trading)
Capital Gains Tax (we don’t want people to gamble lots of money in the stock exchange)
Sin Taxes on tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, soda, unhealthy food, excessively large vehicles, etc (these things all cost our society, and people should pay more for them)
Holding Property Unused for Investment Tax (we don’t want people to speculate on real estate and keep it out of use)
Luxury/Estate/Wealth Tax (people with vast amounts of money deserve to give more back to the society that facilitated their success, and income inequality has been shown to decrease happiness)
Basically, tax things for a reason. Here’s a good Planet Money episode that talks about a number of those, along with subsidies we should get rid of (I’m pretty much down to get rid of all subsidies, actually. UBI should take care of the rest).
That’s pretty much it. It’s fun to think about how our society would adjust to a system like this, and I think it would go a long way toward healing the divisions in our country today.
Nothing Matters and I’m an Optimist
/2 Comments/in Awareness, Existence, Meditation, Mind, Spirit /by mdcalabroWhether it’s through spirituality, science, therapy, or philosophy, I always seem to come to the same conclusion: nothing matters. We live short-ish lives, and we die. Everyone we know dies. Our names are forgotten, or are never known in the first place. We make things and they fall apart, disintegrate. We are part of this human society which is very likely destroying itself and the planet to which it belongs.
And I call myself an optimist. To deny these things is not optimism, as some would say, but escapism. They all seem to be true, as best we can figure, without getting into speculation of an afterlife. So the optimism comes after the facts: these truths are enormously liberating. They give us freedom and agency. They allow us to be forgiven, to accept life as it is, and to be present right now.
The first time I was exposed to this idea was in 2008 on a road trip to Arizona. A friend showed me some Alan Watts. I’m pretty sure this is the piece I read:
We spend so much of our short time here wracked with anxiety about the future and the past, about things that probably will never happen and things that certainly already have (or have not). We forget about living right now. These things holding us back, and we can let go of them.
Some Buddhist traditions teach taking five minutes each day to meditate on death. This is not a strange or morbid practice. It is about recognizing the briefness of life and finding resolve to make those remaining minutes, days, years or decades worthwhile.
I’m also not advocating a binge — trading future health and safety for brief moments of joy or thrill. This is the beauty and mystery of life. We can find ways to thrive and be fully engaged in the world while also moving toward a future of the same or better.
What Is Your Quest?
/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by mdcalabroWhat is your name?
What is your quest?
What is your favorite color?
I’m reading Designing Your Life right now, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. These guys have taken industrial and product design theory and applied it to personal development, and to figuring out how to live the life we want. This resonates deeply with me because, 1) I love to take an analytical look at things like this, and 2) I’m working on my own book that has a similar goal, at least in part.
So what’s with the Monty Python questions? Basically, as they talk about in the book, two of those questions are fairly easy to answer, and the other is really hard. What is my quest? Why am I here? What Holy Grail am I seeking in this life?
One of their main points is that we shouldn’t stress too much about “figuring out” our quest. This goes hand-in-hand with a lot of the mindfulness work and therapy I’ve been doing lately. We need to get out of our heads. We’ll be happier when we aren’t trying to think our way through every life experience or situation. The same goes for finding our quest.
Instead of sitting down for a day (or a month, or a decade) to try to “solve” this one, we can gain insight and wisdom by approaching it from different angles, and by trying things out, by noticing our feelings. The five principles they set forth in the book are:
Or, in other words, consider a new approach, try it, look at the issue from another angle, be aware of how it’s going, and ask for help. Pretty solid advice. You’ll have to read the book to really dig into specifics on each of these suggestions, but maybe for now tuck that question away in the back of your mind.
What is my quest?
Aaaand, here you go: