I’m sure Dave Ramsey has never read Marx, and I’m equally certain he is proud of that fact, so how can he claim to know what Marx did advocate for or would advocate for? I’m not a Marxist, nor an expert in Marxian theory, but I have read and studied some Marx and based on what (admittedly little) I know, I don’t see a connection between Marxism and universal basic income. In fact, I think Marx would have been opposed to UBI, maybe even viewing it as something that would strengthen the capitalist class and weaken the working class.

As I’ve said many times: I don’t hate Windows, I hate Microsoft. If Windows were owned by a not-for-profit, or a consortium or some other democratically run organization of interested groups, I don’t think I would have any need for Linux. But, as it is, Linux is absolutely necessary. I hope some day that Windows is replaced by a Linux distribution that is owned and maintained by an organization that gives all stakeholders, including and especially end users, a tangible voice in its management.

The solution requires a new ideological paradigm, but transitioning into the right paradigm would be extremely difficult and it would likely take a very long time.

I think the US is already in the process of transitioning to a new paradigm, away from neoliberalism, which was the dominant paradigm over the past half century or so, to something else. However, I’m not sure we are transitioning into the “right” paradigm. I think the paradigm we are transitioning into is more protectionist than neoliberalism. We are moving away from globalization and towards something more like the cold war era, where the world was divided along ideological lines into a “first world” and a “second world.” I expect the new paradigm we are shifting into to be more antagonistic toward “unfriendly” nations. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were to lead to some kind of major conflict.

I haven’t read the book but I wonder if it should have been called ‘Why the global free market would save the world’. It sounds more like the author is making philosophical arguments for global free market capitalism, that they are stating why global capitalism should be the globe economic paradigm, rather than providing evidence that global capitalism will weather the current storm and reassert itself as the dominant global paradigm.

The tide certainly seems to be turning against globalization, and not just from the far right or far left, even the moderate establishment seems to be revaluating globalization, to at least some degree. This speech by president Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, to the Brookings Institute outlines some of the problems that have arisen as a result of globalization.

If you’ll notice, I used past tense. I have made a number of changes to my life over the past several years. One of the first things I did was quit my job. My life now isn’t perfect, but it is improved. I drink less and I don’t smoke pot any more. I also don’t eat out hardly at all. I learned to cook and now I prepare nearly all of my own meals. I don’t know that I’d say I’m happy, but I’m certainly less miserable.

Jobs suck. That’s not news, everyone has known that for a very long time. Sure, some jobs suck less than others, and some people genuinely enjoy their job, but generally jobs just suck. That’s why they have to pay you to do them. But it takes more than a paycheck to make a job worth it. There was a time in America where the average person could work a job (albeit, often a sucky one) making a decent wage working only 40 hours a week, take a vacation every year, own a home, have a family and a community, all the things that make working a sucky job worth it. Over the last fifty years or so, many or all of the things that make working a sucky job worth it have slowly become less and less accessible to many people.

I am one of those people. I worked full time. It sucked, as many jobs do, but after putting in a full day’s work I didn’t go home to a wife and kids or a life that made me feel happy and fulfilled. I would drive my hour commute, which I hated, pick up take out or fast food, come home and watch TV, play video games, smoke pot, and drink. I’d go to sleep, wake up the next day and do exactly the same thing. I did that for years. I was absolutely miserable. People can’t live like that.

Just one of the many, many examples of what you get when you build an entire society around the idea that making a profit is more important than anything else.

There’s no bind here. Investors have no loyalty to any nation, they take their capital wherever they feel they can get the best return. They care only about themselves and their own financial interests. US investors do not care if US power is undermined. The US could collapse tomorrow and they would abandon the nation like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

(Post) modern life is so empty, it’s so soulless. Society has been deconstructed and we are all now fully atomized, utility maximizing individuals in an endless cycle of earning and consuming. Earn, consume - make money, spend money. Interpersonal relationships, family, community have all become secondary to the earn/consume cycle. We now all only live to serve the endless profit behemoth. Even nature itself is only a tool for profit.

We need to reintegrate back into the natural world and refocus on community and human relationships. We need to prioritize sustainability, health, happiness, and well being for ourselves and future generations over short term individual gains and immediate gratification.