Avram Alpert

After all, in a winner-take-all economy with vast inequality, if you do not strive to be at the top of the economic pyramid, you run the risk of facing ongoing economic precarity.

recognizing the value of different kinds of labor as connected parts of a meaningful society, none of which is possible without the others (no presidents without janitors); (2) allowing people
to strive more for the sake of the task (excellence of the craft itself) than for wealth or mere survival; (3) ensuring respect and decency and quality of life for people not able to engage in traditional forms of labor; (4) taking concrete steps to redress past exploitation, not by vengeance, but by careful attention to integration into the good-enough, which may require consideration for those of any background who haven’t had previous advantages, or who remain subjects of stigma even when they have achieved equality in class status; (5) relying on everyone’s abilities to cooperatively participate in ways not commanded by a punitive state or corporate monopolies; (6) by bringing in more people and more technology, allowing each of us to do less, so that there is both more abundance and leisure; and (7) understanding and appreciating that the results of this system will still be imperfect, that some inequalities will remain and some failures will occur, but those inequalities will be limited and those failures will be shared by everyone, as will any success made during a recovery.

unifying theme cuts across much that troubles us in life. We can call this unifying theme greatness: a method of ordering the world so that some humans are considered better than others, humanity as a whole is considered greater than nature, and our task as individuals should be to prove ourselves worthy of possessing power and privilege. This vision of the world has given us an epidemic of stress, anxiety, inequality, and ecological damage.