Behold!

Some of the weird shit I was subjected to in highschool.

Who's ready to pay some bills, ya'll!

I certainly am. The check I get on Friday will be the biggest one I've ever received. That +$2 hazard pay pushed me over the top. In fact, I already paid my rent last week, so I'm golden.

But this really isn't about me, is it?

This entire situation has, thus far, had zero negative effect on me personally.
I've been "sheltering at home" my whole life. I'm good.

However, what about everyone else?

It's no secret that millions of citizens are unemployed, and far more are temporarily out of work. How long can this lockdown continue without dire ramifications? A $1200 stimulus check isn't going to go very far...

Someone posted this gem in Discord the other day. Couldn't help but chuckle a bit. It is quite a slap in the face, watching big businesses/banks getting bailed out for trillions of dollars once again while the common folk get an amount that, in all likelihood, won't even make up for the work they missed out on.

Add to that the fact that the checks aren't even going to be fully distributed for over a full month, and we have a real problem.

But wait! That's not all!

What about people that don't even get checks? Obviously undocumented folks are going to get completely shafted.

I'm sure a lot of people aren't worried about that at all. Perhaps they are even elated.

Yeah! That'll teach them to be in our country illegally!

Hm well, that's nice, but they are still a significant part of the economy, and it is a known fact that messing around with the economy like this on such a grand scale is bound to have several unintended consequences.

If it somehow becomes no longer viable for migrant workers to operate within our borders, who's going to do all those shit jobs that nobody wants? Do you want to pick strawberries, repair rooftops, wash dishes, or work in a factory farm? Pass.

Hard pass.

Meanwhile, on the crypto side of things, the industry have proven beyond any doubt that we were not ready for this. Our floundering infrastructure has taken quite a huge hit. We've been floating on speculation alone. As predicted by many, we're probably gonna have to wait at least another decade for the next recession to hit before we have any kind of real adoption or tools that can mitigate these kinds of disasters.

Food/water/shelter into generic production.

These are the things crypto needs to stabilize its value.
It becomes obvious that 3D printing will have a lot to do with our success in the future.

Automation is key.

Automation increase the value of currency and creates abundance. But clearly, automation isn't enough. The distribution of resources produced from automation has to be equitable to the community it serves. If some rich investor comes in and builds all the automation and owns everything, this is worthless.

Even less than worthless.

Centralizing wealth is no longer helpful to humanity. What would happen if everything was automated and their were no "real jobs" left?

There is a very real chance that things like food/water/power/shelter won't have any value because they are so abundant.

Sounds nice, but obviously a situation like this would cause a lot of weird problems. How do you stop overpopulation when the necessities for procreation come free and without limit? This is clearly a governance issue. How it will be solved is anyone's guess. Perhaps we can start by not giving tax breaks to people who have more kids. This isn't a serious suggestion, simply an observation that hasn't made sense to me for a long time. One thing is certain: technology creates abundance.

What is the point of money?

Take a look at the objects around you in your immediate vicinity. Chances are, you wouldn't be able to create a single one of these objects. This is very obvious to most people when it comes to big ticket items like cars, houses, computers, and the like, but most people don't think about it when it comes down to simpler things like keys, water bottles, pens, etc.

It takes $10M to create a single ball-point pen. Luckily after you can create one you can create a billion more without the high overhead costs. If you took a disposable water bottle 200 years into the past they'd think it was some kind of miracle product.

Flexible, light, durable, water proof...

How'd you get the printing on the label to be so small and perfect? How'd you create the threading on the cap to fit so precisely it becomes airtight? What is it even made out of?

These are the kinds of questions they'd ask.

They'd think it's a miracle, you'd think it's garbage. The pace of tech over the last hundred years has been obscene.

What was the point of currency again?

Well, if you had an army of robot butlers that could build anything you wanted (including more robot butlers) then you'd really have no use for currency, would you? The only point of currency is to get something from another human that you require. Currency is a language that conveys value to other people and society at large. We are a colony; we are a hive (which is why our rebrand to Hive is so smart IMO).

Jobs of the future.

Honestly, the jobs of the future aren't going to make a lot of sense to people like us once automation is in full swing. What can one human do that has value to another human when the foundation of society is fully automated? I already don't understand things like https://twitch.tv.

Gamers are being paid to stream video games? What? It doesn't make sense to me... and I'm an avid gamer. It really really doesn't make sense to previous generations. I get the feeling technology, crypto, and automation are going to leave us all in the dust wondering what is going on. Children are the future (that's why COVID-19 loves them so much... lol).

It used to be that one person could create a product from start to finish.

A blacksmith could create a sword. A tailor could fashion a pair of pants. Now it takes large groups of people to do simple things (like creating pens). The complex pyramids we've built lead to gross centralization of wealth. Centralization of wealth is holding everyone back, including the wealthy.

Conclusion

This economic lockdown has proved beyond any doubt that everyone is vulnerable. Crypto does not have the infrastructure to pick up the slack at the moment. We may have been caught off guard, but the struggle is real, and the struggle will produce results.

Return from First of the Month + Centralized Economics to edicted's Web3 Blog