Free To Live, Pay To Party

I’m taking a break from my consulting work next week to make music. I’m calling it “Beat Week”. I haven’t even worked out the details yet, but I’m planning on writing multiple music sketches a day, brushing off the studio rust, and hopefully creating some great grooves.

I’m fortunate and privileged enough to be able to do this. 65% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, with no appreciable savings, and can’t afford to pursue their creative whims, impulses toward social service, or other non-income-generating pursuits.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The majority of people are working too much, with too little time to relax and play, because of massive wealth inequality. With a minor wealth tax, we could afford universal healthcare and free education for everyone. These two benefits alone would ease so much suffering, improve mental and physical health outcomes, generate more free time, and raise our national happiness.

As a society, we don’t have to choose between corruption-riddled communism or exploitation-based capitalism as our only two economic options.

There are literally an infinite number of economic models we can choose from.

Free to Live, Pay to Party

What if, as a citizen, you could count on the following services being provided to you and your family, regardless of your economic means?

• Healthcare, including preventive, medical treatments, vision and dental
• Education, from early childhood to PhD
• Emergency services, including fire and police
• Libraries, parks, and other public facilities
• Local transportation
• Basic internet and phone service

We already get some of those, so it’s not too hard to imagine, right?

Suddenly life is easier. You don’t have to worry about going bankrupt if you get sick. You have no student loans to pay back. You don’t have to own a car. If you want to live a simple, inexpensive life, that’s available to you.

What if, in addition to the services above, your municipality or region enacted policies to encourage abundant supply (and thus lower cost) of the following? Or perhaps even provided these for free for all citizens?

• Non-luxury housing
• Staple healthful plant food production (fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, etc.)

An affordable roof over your head, and plenty to eat. No more homelessness. No more tents lining the streets of every major city.

But what if you want to live large? What if you want to wear designer clothes and drive a sports car and eat sushi prepared by the finest chefs? What if you want to eat a big steak every night and drive a giant oversized truck? What if you want bionic legs to run really fast?

Get a job, slacker! Or start a business. And use your paycheck and/or profits to pay for the following:

• Restaurant dining and luxury foods
• Air/space travel and tourism
• Cosmetic body modifications
• Cybernetic enhancements
• Life extension treatments beyond the average natural maximum (~100 years)
• Luxury items (fancy watches, yachts, designer clothing, etc.)
• Drugs, alcohol, and other non-essential consumables
• Entertainment media and experiences
• Non-essential personalized services
• Mansions and other large/luxurious domiciles
• Computers and electronics

Would this “free to live, pay to party” model work in reality? Would there be sufficient motivation for people to work? Could the government afford to pay for all these services?

Yes and yes. All basic income experiments demonstrate little to no drop in personal productivity. And a 2% wealth tax on the ultra-rich would generate between and 2 and 4 trillion USD per year. Right now American’s spend between three and four trillion per year on healthcare, but that includes huge corporate profits for private healthcare providers. Other countries provide excellent healthcare to their citizens for a fraction of this cost, and there’s no reason we can’t do the same.

Automation and robotics are creating real wealth and efficiencies. The problem is all that wealth “naturally” trickles up if we don’t intervene. A minor wealth tax fixes this. We don’t all have to work this hard.

It’s not communism! Under this model, private ownership still exists, as does a reasonably regulated free market. And even with a minor wealth tax, the ultra-rich stay ultra-rich (and probably keep getting richer). Sure, it’s wealth redistribution, but only a little bit of wealth redistribution. And there’s no cap on how rich an individual can get.

But the rest of us get to work a fifteen or twenty hour work week, spend as much time with our family and friends as we want, take multiple vacations per year, and live rich, varied, free lives. We get medical care when we need it, and we go to school as long as we want without incurring debt. Even if we’re not rich.

Does all this sound too good to be true? If it does, you don’t understand how extreme wealth inequality is in this country. Yes, a 2% wealth tax pays for it all, even if we maintain our ridiculous military budget at current levels.

How Does Human Consciousness Change?

What happens when a society organizes itself so that basic life becomes affordable for everyone?

• We all relax a little more
• We all feel less fear and desperation
• Maybe we’re all a little more charitable toward our neighbors
• We don’t feel resentful, because everyone gets the same deal (no means testing)
• We have enough time to sleep, exercise, prepare healthful food, and socialize, making us healthier and happier

Just spend five minutes imagining your life under this kind of socioeconomic system. It’s completely within our grasp.

Free to live, pay to party.