CH Douglas recognised in 1920 that our economic system is founded on a misconception: that full employment is achievable and desirable.
Everybody should be born on this planet with the means to life. Before the enclosures and privatisation, it meant by virtue of your own toil you could house, clothe and feed yourself and your family. The privatisation of land led to the dispossessed being enslaved in labour to earn the means to life. But now technology-driven productivity combined with an expanded population has created a surplus of humans no longer needed for necessary production. Consequently, a whole new raft of "industries" and subsidies have been created to keep the machine going with more and more people doing jobs they don't like and we don't need, creating waste. But now the system's breaking down because declining incomes are reducing effective demand for what's available but unaffordable.
This presentation is not the slickest but it conveys a powerful message which has been suppressed since its emergence a century ago.
We're psychologically damaged by the economic framework which has distorted the way we think. Orwellian speak of "hard working families" reinforces the myth that your right to survival is conditional on forced employment. Single mothers are sent out to work rather than being able to choose to parent their children, leading to perverse social outcomes.
The means to life cannot be conditional. Everybody needs the means to a decent life at which point work becomes a real choice. And yes it is affordable. We just need to share the bounty of the land and abolish interest.
Critical Thinking at the Free University
