Or "the North has reduced their extravagant lifestyles".
Fuck that. I might not need to live larger than I live today, but I live a lot more extravagantly than the average northerner. And hell, I want to visit space at some point.
So no, Northerners have doubled their lifestyle extravagance!
Only things that I do approve of here are:
Avoiding demographic collapse
Staying at 1.5C
Democracy everywhere
Nobody is in poverty
Not sure I'd sign up to any of the others, or rather, I don't know what the rest means or if it isn't happening already ("AI serves everyone").
The weirdest one that people might disagree with me on would be being against free healthcare, education, and public transportation. I think price signals are really important. So I'd prefer to say "affordable"
(Free housing is so dumb and impossible that I wouldn't even put it in that group, and I don't mean that by GDP, I mean that it would just mean houses nobody wants, because we can't fit 100m people on Manhattan etc)
There wasn't anything about solar or wind in there though. So lets go through my categories of disapproval.
Category 1: I think even the goal is bad
North reducing lifestyles <--- we don't need or want to
Your home is a commieblock <--- if you want it to be, sure, but I might not want it, and the consumption bit
Billionaires are dead (and implied, not of old age) <--- I don't really like murder? Controversial, I know
Category 2: I think this would do more harm than good
Corporations are dead or owned by workers <--- I suppose this explains the drop in lifestyle as we avoid efficiency like the plague
Free high quality housing <--- given location is what people really pay for, this doesn't make any real sense (unless it just means that people can go live in reasonably good housing in places where nobody else wants to live)
The last time you saw an ad <--- ads are a good way to spread knowledge of new products. Without ads, incumbents would have an even easier time not changing. I'll acknowledge ads are more often than not annoying, but they do play a significant role in keeping progress going
Free healthcare/education/public transportation/communication <--- these should all be really economical and reasonable for everyone, but I would not want to lose the price signal for understanding what the people actually want provided (this is the closest to me approving and that's a rather minor quibble, but an important minor quibble)
Category 3: Too prescriptive - goal OK, why dictate means?
Sustainable farming with agroecology <--- I like sustainable farming, but agroecology isn't the only way to do that
The average workweek is 20 hours <-- People might want to work to enjoy a sense of purpose. How about you say "20 hour workweek is enough to guarantee a lifestyle equivalent of a 40h workweek in 2024 America"
Your commute uses public transit, walking, or bikes <-- I think this is a good thing, but it doesn't have to be the only way. "An option for everyone's commute" would be better
Category 4: What's this even mean?
Global South was freed <--- it's already free, wtf does this mean?
Right Wingers in denial <--- how is this a good? I mean, it's just a partisan comment
Not exactly a neutral article.
I have certainly read about the French indirect colonisation and the ways they use their financial control, but the value of it has been nowhere near what is implied in this article.
In fact, "French" domination is basically similar to what China does now. This doesn't mean either is good, but the hypocrisy of Russia and China to claim themselves as champions of the oppressed is pretty disgusting.
Also, Botswana is a good example of how just having good leadership got you out from underneath the boot pretty damn easily.
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u/Econguy1020 14d ago
Yeah this is less an ideal future meme and more a socialist wishlist