With paltry streaming royalties and a cost-of-touring crisis, it’s harder than ever to make money as a musician. Claudia Cockerell on the household names who are taking up side hustles, and what it says about the state of the music industry
The complexity of the world is spiraling upward at an exponential rate. A 6th grade reading level was just fine and normal when my grandfather was a young man. Today, if you’re struggling that much then you’re lucky if you can keep a roof over your head.
A lot of people now say this is proof that we need universal basic income, free education, health care, public housing for all. I live in Canada where we have some of these things. One of our biggest ongoing political fights is over the issue of how to pay for these things. Tons of people fight against pay raises for teachers and blame teachers for all our problems. Teachers are actually pretty well paid here in Canada, compared to the US.
The other issue is immigration. The more services you get provided by the government, the more of a strain you put on the immigration system because everyone wants to move to your country so they can take advantage of those benefits. On the other hand, the way the US used to be (prior to the 20th century), there were no real social benefits to speak of and so everyone who immigrated had to work and benefit the economy. The US had no restrictions on immigration back then.
The thing I fear most with what has been called The Great Decoupling and the rise of a basic income state is this: the resource curse. Some of the most regressive, brutal, backward countries in the world are also those with the largest decoupling between workers and wealth. Historically these have been resource exporters such as oil and gas and mineral countries.
It’s a tragic reality of life that if people are deemed unnecessary for the productive functioning of the economy then they will come to be seen as politically and socially unnecessary. Then these people are extremely vulnerable to domination by a brutal elite.
If our society goes that way and we end up with a two class system with a small number of vastly wealthy capital owners and a vast number of unproductive basic income recipients then I can’t see that situation remaining stable without some brutal repression.
Hehe, I see you’re the ultra-kind type of person - Hoping that elderly gets swindled. Funny? Sure, whatever floats your boat.
Also, elderly who’ve lost their mental faculties to the point where they’re a danger to themselves should be put under care. Some of my grandparents were, I hope I will if the situation arises. But then again, unlike you I don’t want elderly to be swindled or robbed.
So the fact that most adults read at a 6th grade level is not a problem in your world?
That’s their problem. Literally.
Also, what kind of people do you surround yourself with? I don’t know a single person with the reading skills of a sixth grader.
Ah, so if you’re stupid enough you deserve to get swindled. Got it.
And if someone smarter than you swindled you I bet you’d be like “You got me! No harm, bro.”
Also, it’s a statistical truth 54% of Americans read below a sixth grade level, regardless of who I associate with.
The complexity of the world is spiraling upward at an exponential rate. A 6th grade reading level was just fine and normal when my grandfather was a young man. Today, if you’re struggling that much then you’re lucky if you can keep a roof over your head.
A lot of people now say this is proof that we need universal basic income, free education, health care, public housing for all. I live in Canada where we have some of these things. One of our biggest ongoing political fights is over the issue of how to pay for these things. Tons of people fight against pay raises for teachers and blame teachers for all our problems. Teachers are actually pretty well paid here in Canada, compared to the US.
The other issue is immigration. The more services you get provided by the government, the more of a strain you put on the immigration system because everyone wants to move to your country so they can take advantage of those benefits. On the other hand, the way the US used to be (prior to the 20th century), there were no real social benefits to speak of and so everyone who immigrated had to work and benefit the economy. The US had no restrictions on immigration back then.
The thing I fear most with what has been called The Great Decoupling and the rise of a basic income state is this: the resource curse. Some of the most regressive, brutal, backward countries in the world are also those with the largest decoupling between workers and wealth. Historically these have been resource exporters such as oil and gas and mineral countries.
It’s a tragic reality of life that if people are deemed unnecessary for the productive functioning of the economy then they will come to be seen as politically and socially unnecessary. Then these people are extremely vulnerable to domination by a brutal elite.
If our society goes that way and we end up with a two class system with a small number of vastly wealthy capital owners and a vast number of unproductive basic income recipients then I can’t see that situation remaining stable without some brutal repression.
I’m not American. Neither are ~96% of the world population, so please don’t extrapolate based on a flawed sample.
Huh. Based on your screw-you, got-mine attitude, I did guess you were American. But I guess selfishness exists pretty much everywhere.
If I ever get swindled you can bet I’ll blame myself, that’s the only way to learn to protect myself better so I don’t get swindled again.
Let’s hope it happens when you’re really old and are starting to lose your mental faculties so you end up living on the street.
It’ll be like the ancap version of a Christmas Carol but even funnier.
Hehe, I see you’re the ultra-kind type of person - Hoping that elderly gets swindled. Funny? Sure, whatever floats your boat.
Also, elderly who’ve lost their mental faculties to the point where they’re a danger to themselves should be put under care. Some of my grandparents were, I hope I will if the situation arises. But then again, unlike you I don’t want elderly to be swindled or robbed.