| I’ve seen these ideas pitched on Hacker News but is there any examples of HN users: 1. Starting a business that generally pays minimum wage and attempting to pay their employees more 2. Buying property and renting it out at below market rates 3. Supporting, training or helping people who are unemployed. 4. Going to work as teachers in underserved school districts. 5. Offering university level education for free 6. Buying USA made only Hasn’t this traditionally been the American way? People going out and trying to experiment and build the things they wish to see in the world? I think everyone wants the things you mention but for some reason we are unable to execute on them and a convenient scape goat is that the government should solve it or that “the other party” is getting in the way. Where is the “You must be the change you seek” crowd these days? Wouldn’t trying to make a small change in your community have more impact than all the comments posted in this thread? |
Money, markets - the cost of things regulates behavior, more money = more permissive behavior
Physics - the rules of the world regulate behavior, and the better our understanding, the more lax this regulation is
Norms - mutually agreed upon and generally, widely enforced "rules" that are not laws, but do impose rewards and consequences for behavior.
Laws - like norms, but more formal, and with real teeth beyond being shunned or praised.
Norms and laws act post fact. They do not actually prevent behavior, but can reward for it, or punish for it.
Physics and markets, money do inhibit behaviors. The rules of the world are the rules. Violations = failure. Inability to bear costs = failure.
A few entities trying to set new norms, and play against the generally running market, can do that to some degree, but money and markets are very strong forces compared to norms. And what Dan Price is doing with his $70K minimum wage at Gravity Payments is an excellent example. Price is establishing a norm. Weak sauce in the scheme of what regulates behavior.
Law needs to bolster those ideas and it's law and norms that can change how we value things and with those changes come real market dynamic changes, IMHO.
And this is why "be the change you seek" has limited power and cred. In the niche Price is in, it's possible, and he's doing that and arguably doing it at what others who do not value things like he does, would say he's doing it at a very significant opportunity cost.
And given the current state of affairs, they are RIGHT!!
This does not invalidate an effort like Price is making, nor the ideas, nor the potential for things to operate differently and to a much different overall effect for the population and it's elite members. Not to mention Price himself valuing things in ways that clearly make it all worth it for him to operate how he is. He talks about this all the time too.
But, scope and motivation are sharply limited. It's hard advocacy, and again as the opponents of Price would argue, very, very expensive advocacy.