On "Up with Chris Hayes" this morning it was asked what would happen if we minted a hundred trillion dollar coin, put it in the treasury and used it as a blank check to pay for all the things we really need. The first thing mentioned was putting all the people who are unemployed construction workers back to work repairing Americas infrastructure.
I listened and wondered would it be inflationary if everybody had a guaranteed income rather than guaranteed employment, could do as they pleased, buy whatever they wished, have no debt, own a home with their mortgage paid off, have access to whatever they wished in terms of education, healthcare, infrastructure...
Suppose there was enough money to do something about climate change mediation, but nobody had to work for a living, spend their life in prison or a mental institution or return from wars a vegetable because they couldn't cope with the Puritan work ethic.
Who would choose to work rather than play? Would it be possible for machines to work and people to think? Would some people just enjoy playing at what used to be work?
Suppose there was a way to provide status and a role in the decision making process according to something other than how much money you had?
Is it really necessary to have poor people and an unbalanced distribution of resources on a planetary level so that there is an incentive to get up at 6:00 AM, commute to work, bust your ass all day at a dirty minimum wage job, or go to school so you can be programmed and certified as employable at a higher wage, require intoxicants to relax at the end of the day and then get up and do it all over again.
Would it be necessary to have resource wars if we could limit population? Could we limit population if religion didn't see itself in having a vested interest in having more believers in its dogma than those of the competition?
I'm really curious what people would do if they didn't have to do anything. Is there anything that interests us enough that we would explore doing it for free? Would there no longer be slavery, pornography, drug dealers, malnutrition or stress?