A battle is raging for our cultural future. On the one side sit the old guard, extolling the virtues of traditional values such as hard work and sacrifice.
Younger generations don’t share those values. They see the exponential gains in technology as an opportunity to create better lives for everyone.
The debate made its way to the popular Antiwork community on Reddit when one user shared a Tweet from a popular Twitter account asking why we force people to labor for 60+ hours per week just to survive when the technology exists to allow everyone a basic standard of living.
Fake Scarcity
The Tweet asserts that scarcity is fake, created by the powers that be to maintain their wealth, and asks why everyone can’t see it.
Most users of the Antiwork subreddit agree. Society fakes scarcity to enrich the already wealthy and keep everyone else fighting for scraps.
Discover why fake scarcity is a real problem, and how we can solve it.
Technology Should Enhance Our Lives
The goal of technological advancements is to enhance humanity. Every human achievement, from the cotton gin to the printing press, from agriculture to computer chips, was created to solve a problem of human labor. These improvements make the world better and make labor easier.
The vast majority were supposed to grant us (humanity in general) time and opportunity for higher pursuits. We don’t have to toil in the fields, so we should be able to pursue art, care for family, learn more about the world, and enjoy our lives.
Technology Makes Things Worse
Unfortunately, as one user pointed out, it’s had the opposite effect thus far, especially the newest advances in AI.
“The dream was AI will be created and do all the dirty work, so people can turn to science and the arts. It turns out the AI is doing science and art, and humans are doing the dirty jobs,” they said.
Another summed it up far more succinctly. “We were all so worried about robots taking our labor that we didn’t notice when they took our leisure instead.”
The Same Song Over and Over
Users pointed out that faking scarcity isn’t new. Greedy people will always do what they can to maintain their wealth.
“This has been demonstrated several times,” stated one user. “ For example, we can artificially create diamonds, yet companies are artificially restricting the supply to keep prices high when they should be relatively cheap, as diamonds go.”
Of course, comparing a luxury item like diamonds to necessities like housing and healthcare is unfair.
“In America, people are rationing insulin,” exclaimed one user, adding that “a government’s entire job is to make a country the best place to live for all people, and instead, health care is about fleecing everyone for billionaires personal gain.”
And Throughout History
Though Reddit users focused on modern problems, the issues of fake scarcity go back much further.
The Industrial Revolution serves as the best example. The 17th century saw an influx of technological improvements as humanity moved away from the fields, harnessed energy, and shifted to a manufacturing society.
We learned how to grow abundant food for all, yet most of the gains went to the millionaire class. People who couldn’t work in factories starved in the streets, despite the world of plenty on rich people’s tables.
Society’s Obsession with Scarcity
Our society is so obsessed with scarcity that we fake it to boost our egos and justify our greed.
Some belief systems, such as the prosperity gospel and the just world fallacy, teach that struggling people somehow deserve to suffer, while those who are successful are somehow superior, and their success is a reward for their “goodness.”
One Redditor said this could be a reason why people want others to suffer.
“Many people actually believe the struggle is justified, since ‘success’ is the measure of one’s worth as a person,” they said.
Propaganda Makes us Fear Scarcity
Many said there’s a simple reason why most people don’t see the truth about fake scarcity: propaganda.
Big corporations control the media. They control the narrative. They push out content that fits their agenda, making people believe that scarcity is real.
“There’s a multi-billion-dollar propaganda machine devoted to the idea that anything more progressive than feudalism is a plot by poor people to take your money and get a free ride,” said one user.
The propaganda promoting fake scarcity keeps people scared and angry. They’re worried any legislation that helps people will harm them. They’re worried they will lose the small amount they have.
Scarcity is Real if You’re Poor
Vitaliy Abbasov via Shutterstock.com.
The propaganda isn’t necessarily wrong. People are suffering. People are living with scarcity, and they’re terrified that things will get worse.
But the propaganda puts the blame on the wrong people. The poor and middle class are facing real struggles with scarcity, not because there’s not enough to go around, but because the wealthy are hoarding all the resources for themselves.
On a societal level, scarcity is fake because there’s more than enough to go around, but most of us are living with it.
How to Solve the Fake Scarcity Problem
Solving the fake scarcity problem will take a massive cultural shift. We need to shake off the idea that the rich and powerful deserve their wealth because they worked hard for it, especially when the hardest workers of society barely make enough to survive.
We need to deprogram from centuries of propaganda telling us we deserve to be poor, that there’s not enough to go around, and that lifting someone else up will harm us.
I’m not advocating for full-on socialism. I understand that humans do best with motivation, and that people who work hard should have more than lazy freeloaders. However, I am advocating for programs that ensure nobody starves in the streets, dies because they can’t afford medical care, and goes unhoused because they can’t afford a roof over their heads. I am advocating that the ruling class share the wealth with those whose labor created it.
We can provide for everyone’s basic needs; we just need the political will to make it happen.
Source: Reddit