Improving Our Standard of Living (Wattpad Edition)

Chapter 55: How to Fix the World

I've covered almost every topic I can think of pertaining to the improvement of the human condition. The bullets below are a summary of how to elevate national living standards.

* Lift all forms of censorship, especially against media that's considered offensive. Countries with a greater extent of free speech are more democratic and have better living standards. So-called "offensive" speech must be protected because what is considered acceptable today could be considered subversive tomorrow. An oligarchic government that has restricted "unwarranted" speech will also have the capacity to prohibit valid criticisms against authoritarian actions and misbehaving corporations. Note that free speech doesn't mean that a business, such as YouTube or an online forum, can't have control over the kinds of content its users post. It means every individual has the right to say what they want on their own property, such as an online forum they made, a book they wrote, a blog they created, a film they recorded, etc. Also, coordinated plans of physical harm against another person shouldn't fall in the realm of free speech.

* End the War on Drugs and don't ban private ownership of any medicines or tools (including guns). Hiring officials to hold people by the collar is a less efficient use of resources than reducing poverty and promoting economic growth. Moreover, pointing guns at people and throwing them in jail for what they do in their private lives places a society further toward the oligarchic end of the spectrum, and therefore, away from democracy and freedom. Also, policies that are highly restrictive tend to reduce economic growth for reasons that aren't always obvious. Show me a nation that places more restrictions on what people can do in their private lives and with their own property, and I will show you a country that scores worse on the Standard of Living Index.

* Don't ban money. It's a useful tool for allocating scarce resources.

* Don't ban cryptocurrency. That would be a serious market restriction. Permit businesses to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment, as long as they comply with tax laws.

* Don't impose price controls. It's better for people to vote with their money than to have resources distributed by government bureaucrats.

* Implement policies that grow the GDP. More wealth leads to the creation of more tools and opportunities.

* Increase market freedom. Reduce restrictions and regulations on businesses as much as practical. This makes it easier for people to start their own firms and increases competition. If there are more competing companies, prices will be lower and the quality of goods and services will be higher.

* Be friendly to free trade. Reduce the tariff rate to zero and ban all trade barriers. Support trade deals like NAFTA and TPP.

* Eliminate all corporate welfare. Make it illegal for the government to give tax revenue to corporations.

* Economic growth is slowing in industrialized nations mostly because working-age people are declining as a share of the population. The economic slowdown isn't due to a failure of capitalism. Undoing capitalist policies would worsen the problem.

* Greater inequality is also linked to slower economic growth.

* Most of the wealth in the world is produced by the working class, which, in some countries, receives the smallest share of national income. In other words, gross inequality exists when the stockholders take too much of the profit generated from the sale of goods and services. Put another way: Most products are created by working class people. In some nations, they receive the smallest share of the fruits of their labors. The public needs to be aware of this.

* Abolish all laws that make the formation of unions difficult. For example, get rid of the Taft–Hartley Act.

* Create an institution that calculates the minimum income required to meet the most basic human needs in each city. This would be the living wage. One possibility for reducing inequality would be to make the minimum wage equal to the living wage. (This law might not be necessary or desirable if the one mentioned after this bullet is implemented instead.)