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July 17, 2020 - Real Coffe - Scott Adams
29:00
Episode 1060 Scott Adams: My Idea for Fixing Everything by Forming a Socialist Country Within a Capitalist Country. Wwwwwhaaaat???
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Hey, guess what?
Yeah, it's me.
It's not the morning.
Isn't that weird?
Well, some of you have been asking for some evening periscopes.
I don't know if I'll do this often, but I thought, well, you probably miss me, right?
A little bit? A little bit?
And so I thought I would make a very special evening periscope in which I will tell you how to fix absolutely everything.
Everything in the country.
Every problem. I'm going to show you how to fix the risk of robots taking over our jobs.
I'll fix systemic racism.
I'm going to fix the economy.
I'm going to fix retirement.
I'm going to fix the environment.
All of it, really. And I see that there are roughly enough of you here for me to tell you how to do that.
Now let me give you the setup first.
Here's the setup. I don't believe that in the future that capitalism will work for everybody.
So that's the starting point.
In the future, capitalism just won't work for everybody.
Now that's always been true, right?
It's always been true that there are winners and losers in capitalism.
But, because what it takes to succeed in capitalism will be harder and harder, meaning if you don't have a STEM degree, you don't have something special going on, it's going to be harder and harder.
To make it in capitalism, it's going to be harder to get yourself an education.
The cost of moving someplace and getting a place to live before you get started, it's very hard.
So the first assumption is that capitalism hasn't always worked for everybody.
But that that situation will get worse.
And then as the robots come in, well then it's really bad.
Because the people who are rich will own the robots and get richer.
The people whose only way to make money was to work will be replaced by robots.
So the first assumption is there is no circumstance in which capitalism just by itself, without a tweak, can work in the future.
Because it'll just be an increasing number of people for whom it doesn't work.
That's pretty much guaranteed.
Likewise, here's another system that absolutely can't work.
Socialism. Right?
A pure socialist system.
Something that maybe the Marxists in Black Lives Matter might like.
You know, the leaders are trained Marxists, some of them.
So they might like a world...
Where there's more equality.
People are treated more fairly.
There's less, or ideally no, institutional racism.
So they're like that kind of a world.
But what's the one big problem with the world that socialists would prefer?
There's one really big problem, isn't it?
That they would be conquered by a capitalist country.
They would be conquered by Almost immediately by, I don't know, China, Russia, anybody who wants to take a go at it, Mexico, Canada, pretty much anybody.
Because if you're just trying to make everything fair, you're not really putting a lot of money into the military and eventually you're just sort of a sitting duck.
So we've got two systems on the table that I would say neither of them could possibly work in the long run.
Capitalism will fail because the robots will unemploy too many people, and then it's only good for the few capitalists.
Socialism can't work because eventually the average comes down.
You're not creating extra money because you don't have the same incentives as capitalism.
And then you can't fund a proper army, and you have other problems as well, and so it collapses on itself.
So what do you do?
Here is my suggestion out of the box.
Now, if you're new to my Periscopes, let me tell you that when I give you a wild-ass idea, don't take it too seriously, okay?
They're usually designed just to make you think differently, maybe think optimistically, maybe give you some starting point where you say, well, you know, Scott, your idea was kind of crap, but it made me think of my own idea that's pretty good.
And if it only does that, That's fine.
So what I'm trying to do is to shake the box here a little bit more than it has been shaken and introduce this new idea.
Are you ready? Two systems in one country.
You get to pick which one you want and you can move back and forth.
Now, before you judge, before you judge, let me map it out for you.
So I'm going to show it to you on the whiteboard and walk you through it.
So that's the starting premise.
Why must we have a system that we know won't work or doesn't work for everybody if, potentially, and I haven't sold you on this, you have to wait for the persuasion part, potentially, why don't we just put two systems in the country and just run them parallel?
I'll give you the explanation, but first let me say, we already do it.
We already do it.
Look at all these senior citizens who are retired.
Basically socialists, right?
So senior citizens are already a whole different system.
They're not capitalists, not per se.
They may have saved up some money for their retirement, but they're not working, and they may be getting more from the government than they're putting in.
So we already have two systems.
It just happens to be for senior citizens.
But we also have a separate system for children.
Don't we? Children don't have the same laws.
They don't have the same rules.
They have a whole different system involved.
You have to go to school. It's not really your choice.
Completely different system.
Children are not working.
They're not really capitalists.
It's a whole different system.
And does it ruin capitalism?
It doesn't. It doesn't.
They seem to coexist.
So here is my framing for two systems In the United States.
Again, if you're just joining me, don't take it too literal.
Just take it as some brainstorming that might make you think a little differently.
That's why you should get out of it.
Now, you want me to call these capitalism and socialism, but I'm not going to do it.
The reason I'm not going to use your labels is that they come with too much baggage.
So I'm just going to say that there might be some people in the country who would want a society that really maximizes equality of outcomes.
So just equality is what they want.
And another part of the country that is more concerned with defense.
Notice I didn't say economics.
It's because economics and national defense or even private defense Are really the same thing.
You need money to fund an army.
You need money to be secure in every way that people need to be secure.
So making money and capitalism is really a defense kind of an idea with extras.
So imagine, if you will, that we carve down some space in the United States, and on the other side of the board, I'm going to show you that idea.
Oh, there's a good part coming.
So if you bail out before I get to the good part, you're not going to know that this is a good idea.
So I hate to tell you, you've got to wait for the good part.
So just imagine that you carve out some space within the United States and you just say, you can live the way you want to live and you can even make up your own constitution or laws and you do not have to fund the military.
You're just not part of the military thing.
We'll do that, the people who want to work.
Because the people who would move to this land were not probably the The scientists, the engineers, because they're probably going to say, you know, I got this engineering degree and I can do pretty good over in the regular country, so I think I'll just stay there.
So you'd have Equality World, which of course would be multi-everything, multi-ethnic, multi-religion, multi-everything.
And of course, both worlds would be multi-ethnic, multi-everything.
So this isn't about Black Lives Matter.
I'm not saying, hey, you make a place where all the black people go.
If you heard that, you're hearing the wrong thing.
So both of these worlds are completely melting pot situations.
They'll just handle it differently.
Over in the defense world, there's capitalism and you've got to be ambitious.
They're going to be paying for the national defense.
They like their police. They're very consumerish and acquisition-oriented.
And they probably have traditional families.
Now, you may say to yourself, wait, Scott.
Why do you have the traditional families only on one side with these money-making capitalists, but you don't have it on the equality side?
Why can't they have strong families?
Because everybody knows a strong nuclear family is a big plus.
Statistically speaking, it seems to be the main variable of keeping you out of jail.
But did you know that a traditional family works best if you got money?
Traditional families work really well for people making a lot of cash.
Because you can get your help, you can have two family incomes and a nanny.
You've got all kinds of resources.
So the rich people don't have to have traditional families.
It wouldn't be a law. It would just turn out that way.
That they would prefer to self-organize around traditional families.
Not required. No requirement whatsoever.
It would just work out that way.
The equality people, they'd have to be self-sustaining.
Did you like that part?
The other part of the country, at least after some startup phase, would not be funding anything that's happening over inequality land.
So they would, for financial and tax reasons, they would just be separate.
Is that entirely possible?
I don't know, but we're going to brainstorm through this just in case.
So this place would be self-sustaining and it would mostly center around low-skilled work, which I will tell you what that will be as my big surprise when I turn over the board.
It would be focused on a very low cost of living, but high design.
When I say high design, I mean this.
Is there any reason that a low-cost homes, organized, and I'll say a neighborhood, is there any reason it couldn't be beautiful?
No. There's actually no reason.
There's no economic reason.
There's no nothing. You could make inexpensive homes in a community really attractive so that you just enjoy being there.
The feng shui of it, the way it makes you feel, there'd be enough green, enough open space.
There's a whole bunch of stuff you can fix just by orientation to the sun, how do the roads work, how far away is your neighbor, Do you have a porch or at least a place to go outdoors?
Is there a place to put the dog?
How far do you have to go to work?
I mean, all of those things are design questions.
They're not spend extra money questions.
It's just where do you organize it?
So if you imagine it's a super low cost of living place and let's say that they've got universal health care and free education.
Well, how do they pay for that?
Well, I'll show you. They're all working.
So just like in defense world, most of them, if they want them, they have jobs.
Because you really can't have a community where nobody does some work.
So there's got to be work.
It would just be low-skilled, and they'd have free education and free universal health care.
Let's assume that they can figure out how to afford that through the work that they do.
Because there would be trade.
So I'm going to show you in a minute that although they might be their own little nation, if you will, within a nation, they would still have lots of people coming through.
They're still trading and still taking money, etc.
They're selling goods, etc.
So they're not just an island.
Then, because they have free education, And they have the other things that would give a kid a good start.
They have a way to change over to the other world if they like.
So let's say a kid is born into this equality world and the kid is super aggressive.
Let's say not aggressive, let's say ambitious.
Kid is super ambitious.
So you say, and the kid says, you know, I've got the internet and I'm seeing this world over here and it looks pretty good.
I don't know if I live here.
This isn't my thing.
You know, the rest of you guys, you can stay here.
I'll visit. But I'm really ambitious.
As long as this kid has free education and they've figured out how to solve the, you know, the fatherless situation and crime and all those other things, which would be part of what they would solve.
So there's, you know, low crime, less gangs, all those things.
So let's assume that they've figured out how to organize in a way that's successful.
So this kid has a complete way to go there.
Likewise, let's say you're a family member of a real successful family, but you're the one who didn't quite do as well as your siblings.
You might want to say, you know, this whole working hard and trying to compete against these geniuses, it's just not for me.
So you would have the complete option To go to some place where you just feel more comfortable.
It's like, yeah, I don't mind working, but, you know, I don't like all the drama of it.
I just want to, you know, do my work, help my community live in peace.
Or maybe that you're an addict.
Maybe you're an addict. So an addict might want to go where there's the best treatment-friendly situation.
I'm not sure which side that would be.
But anyway, you'd have ability to move.
Then you would have non-traditional family units.
I didn't want to use the word tribe, but it is the best word, meaning that you wouldn't necessarily have this little unit of mom, dad, and kids.
They would still exist, but you'd have aunts and friends and uncles, and you'd never have to worry about child care.
Because it would just be a big extended family, essentially.
Now they could organize any way they want, but these are the broad strokes.
Obviously the laws would have to be at least a little bit compatible with the Constitution of the United States because they couldn't have their own Supreme Court.
Now, where would it be?
Where would this hypothetical equality land be?
Where would it be? Here's my suggestion.
A network of bicycle paths around the country.
And you turn the country, the United States, into a bicycle tourism mecca.
So that riding these trails, it's not just possible to ride the trails, it's really fun.
There's greenery. There's something to see.
There are places to stop all along the way.
There's campsites.
There are hotels. There are places made for bicycles.
There's a place to get a bite to eat and some water just all the way along the thing.
You've got to build these.
You've got to do the maintenance on them.
You've got a lot of work from hotels to restaurants to bicycle repair, bicycle rental, bicycle pickup from the road when you've got a flat tire.
So, a network of bicycle paths would create the necessity for an enormous amount of low skilled labor.
An enormous amount.
And the beauty of this is, if you wanted to go to, let's say, live along the path, It's being along the path that is where the equality society lives.
So you could go and live near one of these paths, and let's say if you lived in Florida, let's say your family was there, you might want to be nearby.
So you'd be within driving distance, but you would live in equality land, and you would be sort of subject to that lifestyle and culture.
Now, if you did this, you would have an industry that would be robot-proof.
That's right. It would be robot-proof.
Because robots wouldn't be as great for doing this kind of work, and the people in equality land could just say, eh, no robots.
No robots. We just decided that we won't have any robots in equality land, which is spread along these paths.
And... And they would not be along highways because you don't want your bicycling and your cars to be in the same place.
Now obviously depending on the season there would be different parts of the bicycle paths that would be better in different seasons.
Who's policing the Paz?
Who's policing the Paz would be the citizens of Equalityville.
They would have lights, they would have cameras, they might have humans, but you wouldn't be ever too far away from something civilized.
And yes, a big part of this idea is, a lot of you know, I got an e-bike recently, so it's got a battery that assists you when you pedal.
Now if you have not experienced The fun of riding an electric bike that makes you feel like you have super strong legs, because you always have to pedal it.
It doesn't do anything by itself, but the pedal assist, you'll go up hills like they don't even exist.
You know, senior citizens can easily climb hills with these.
Senior citizen, meaning probably through to your early 70s, you could go up hills pretty easily.
So that's the basic idea.
So if you're just joining me, I will recap.
The idea is to, and again, it's not a proposal.
It's just for brainstorming reasons.
You don't have to love the idea.
But think in terms of letting the people who will never be comfortable in the dog-eat-dog world of capitalism and free markets, why not let them have their own piece of the pie?
And they could build something from scratch that would not be racist, At all.
Now, what would be the alternative?
Well, the alternative is we either live in a country where there's continuous tension about systemic racism, or we say, how about you show us how to do this right?
How about you start in a fresh situation?
Because, you know, if we're being honest, most of the people affected are people who don't have a lot of skills because they've got other problems, right?
The people who have lots of skills probably doing okay.
It's sort of everybody who's below that lots of skill level who's got the extra burden of racism without the benefit of at least I made some money.
Alright. Somebody says that's what homeless encampments are for.
Now the idea here is not to simply put them in some kind of like a Native American reservation.
If you're thinking in terms of It's just like a Native American reservation.
Did that work out? No, we're not talking about that.
I'm talking about a really well-designed society from the ground up using the best knowledge we have and you don't even do the first town along the first bike path until you've got something that looks pretty good.
So you don't have to just say here's a bunch of land Good luck Native Americans with your land.
You can design it right so you know what you're getting into before you go live.
Now, as you might imagine, there are a billion ways this can go wrong.
We have to compare it to the alternatives.
Compare it to the alternatives.
The alternatives are we either fight forever about socialism and systemic racism because it doesn't look like our current system can be tweaked.
It just doesn't look like it can.
I was looking at an announcement from Cornell.
I think it just came out.
And Cornell was talking about all the things that they were doing to address systemic racism.
It was just page after page of this class and this education and we'll fund this and do this.
And it just looks like it will be too hard To retrofit something that's so mature, you know, the rest of the country.
And I would be perfectly okay if the country said, you know what?
If you've got a better idea, let's test it.
Let's test it.
We'll give you some space.
See how it goes.
What about borders?
In this case, the...
Oh, that's a good question.
I would say that One of the questions would be what to do with immigration.
Now because the equality land likes immigration, likes it a lot, and so too does the defense land, but they would prefer the high-skilled workers more so.
You could say that you could have unlimited immigration into these areas as long as people are, let's say, tracked.
Maybe they have to have a phone with a tracker on it so they don't just immediately leave.
But it would be a great place to go.
So if you were an immigrant, let's say this, let's say you're an immigrant and if you went With the approval, I guess they wouldn't even need approval, of the people in equality land that you could just go there.
You just couldn't leave there.
Because you wouldn't have a free pass to go to equality land and then just leave there and go to the rest of the country.
Now how can you do that?
I don't know. Maybe there's some way to...
I've suggested for a long time Immigrants should have some kind of an immigrant phone that has special apps for finding work but also for tracking them and for making sure that they're doing what they need to do.
So there might be some way to allow immigration into the worlds where they want it and control it more for the worlds where they're really just watching the dollars.
So that's the idea.
It's good to see exactly one person who said this is great.
I've got a feeling this wasn't the kind of idea that everybody would light up with.
But if you have a bicycle, it probably excited you.
Somebody says, once again, seniors are not socialists.
Well, you know what I meant.
No, seniors aren't socialists, but you know what I meant.
For the most part, they're not going to work.
They're receiving money.
It's not all the money that they put in.
In most cases, most seniors are getting more from the government than they ever put in in Social Security.
But again, everybody's different.
There's no one thing you could say about seniors that would be true.
Oh, okay, a few more people are saying it's a good idea.
I'm actually going to watch some more of the comments because I have no idea.
Oh, some more people love it.
How about that? And by the way, you could also have your solar panels all the way.
You could have your windmills.
I mean, you could do a lot of cool stuff there.
Yes, I do really like my bike.
I'm sorry if I sound like an e-bike commercial, but if you've experienced it, you would immediately know you're seeing the future because those batteries are going to get better and better.
And even senior citizens will be able to have a three-wheel trike That they could go 100 miles.
I mean, you could go 100 miles on flat ground, well, even with a little bit of hills.
If you're 75 years old and you're willing to sit on a three-wheeled vehicle with a good battery in it, you'll just pedal yourself 100 miles and you'll be happy about it.
So, imagine if you could that going on vacation, a family vacation, how hard is it to go on a family vacation?
Raise your hand if it's the worst freaking thing in the world.
Why? Because nobody wants to do the same stuff.
Good luck getting all the members of your family to do any one thing that they all like equally well.
And then what do the kids say?
The kids say, yeah, I'll go on that vacation with you, mom and dad.
I need to bring a friend.
And then it just becomes impossibly complicated to satisfy everybody's needs and it's really expensive to go on any kind of vacation.
Now imagine that your vacation is, hey kids, we're going to drive and park next to the closest bike path and we're just going to bike and we're going to camp.
How expensive would it be to bike and camp?
It would probably be a really good vacation.
Would the kids like it?
Yeah. The kids can go ahead.
You don't even have to wait for them.
The kids could be 10 miles ahead and playing at the campsite before mom and dad get there, as long as everything's safe.
So we could transform the country into a tourist destination.
We could fill this thing with people who come to love America because they see it up close and have a good experience.
And somebody says, your ass won't let you ride that far.
I am sure that we can fix bicycle seats.
I'm sure we can do that.
It hasn't been done yet, but I feel like we can do it.
Somebody says equality lands sounds like it would take capitalism to make it work.
It would take capitalism to get it going and it would also be functionally capitalistic with whatever rules they wanted.
Because the people who were working there in the hotels and the food services would be getting paid.
They would just have to work out what that means.
Do they pay taxes? Do they share it equally and then everybody gets UBI? Let them work it out.
Alright. Somebody says, are you an artist or scientist?
You've got Google.
Scott, you could just move to Tucson with great biking.
And by the way, there's already plans for a national bicycle path.
So if you hear that somebody's already doing this, I'm aware of it.
I think Maryland is already complete.
So you can ride a bicycle the entire length of Maryland.
On their bicycle path.
I don't know how much of it is on roads, but some of it probably.
And their plans, if they can get it funded, is to connect the entire United States.
But I think one bicycle path would be great, but having a network of them so you could really see the country would be amazing.
I mean, how would you like to know that you could ride your e-bike to see Mount Rushmore?
Kind of cool, right? And somebody would pick you up if you get a flat tire.
You know, everything's organized and friendly.
Alright, that's all I got for you.
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