Thank you for sharing these authors. I hadn't heard of them before and now I want to seek out others like them. Instead of just learning U. S. government, schools should teach broader perspectives and challenge students to consider problems and solutions from a wider collection of economic and social theories.
Excellent! I agree with most of what you put forward here Elle. I knew some of these thinkers and others not so much - so thanks for sharing. I actually listened to your voice over while I did some nice art. Anyhow - what most surface thinkers do is conflate the failed Communist states of Russia and China that were actually autocratic nightmares with the more successful post WW2 Democratic Socialist states that is Europe, Canada and other smaller successful countries around the world like Taiwan. The mix of capitalism with socialism works and is necessary because 90% of all new business fail within the first 5 years here in the US. I have lived and traveled around the world and Europe (especially Northern) has the highest quality of life for the majority of citizens as measured by many different respected orgs and indexes-based on Socialism policies that were fought for for hundreds of years with blood, sweat and tears. America's isolation and indoctrination education system kept most thinking Democratic Socialism is the same as failed Communism and that we are the most exceptional country in the world - and for a brief period post WW2 was true - especially if you were white and someone in your family received Gov GI Bill help etc. which created the Middle class in USA as you mentioned. One of the good aspects of the internet and smart phone 24/7 access to information - is the US youth are are now exposed to how youth in other countries live better and have less stress based on Socialist policies. Most of us would gladly pay more taxes if it meant not having to live with the constant stress of going bankrupt to see the doctor or the albatross of student debt or getting some paid family leave after birth etc. etc. Anyway - another solution that will have to happen is a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to redistribute the artificial perverted wealth that has been greedily accumulated by the top 1% over the last 40 years post Reagan sell out to the corporate state. With AI coming hard and fast whether we like it or not - jobs are already disappearing and will only get worse thus the need for a UBI to prevent mass chaos in the streets. It will be a trying transition for most who get their sense of purpose from their work but creatives like myself - I am looking forward to more leisure time to create and spend time with family and get to know my neighbors and community more etc. Andrew Yang's first book - The War on Normal People, which launched him into the public eye - actually has some good ideas about this big AI jobless transition coming fast - as in social credit card system for barter options on top of a UBI and social ratings for special benefits etc - a similar thing is happening in China right now but in a dark Big Brother 1984 autocratic nightmare way. As the old saying goes - the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. Humanity and the USA Moving forward in the next 10 years with so much at stake on so many levels - is certainly going to be interesting to say the least. Peace and Prosperity!
I personally don’t think that AI will cause job loss, just because that’s never happened despite all of the highly disruptive technologies we’ve created in the past 100 years. And as a creative, AI has helped me become exponentially more effective. I imagine it will only continue to do so as it takes on some of my other non writing related tasks! As for UBI, I think it’s worth exploring though I haven’t yet seen a plan for one that any government could afford. I’m a bit more bullish on employee ownership and cooperatives as a method of guaranteeing work and income! But I have more to explore there too! Thanks for the comment and for thinking this all through with me!
Have to agree to disagree. AI is the most disruptive tech humans have created since we split the atom - and should be regulated like Nukes based on the immense dangers it poses. But the billionaires that run the world are pushing AI onto the world stage fast and furious for profits regardless and the results could be catastrophic for the entire world. I am currently reading a book The Coming Wave by one of the AI pioneers M. Sulyman about the good and very real bad it can/will do. There is also a very good new Bill Gates solution orientated show on Netflix with a decent and balanced look at some of the biggest issues facing America and the world including AI. Here is the trailer…
"Sometimes when I go to work in my regular job I feel like going to work in the mines."
My uniform looks to me like those they wear in prisons. Its pretty fucked up.
You make a good point about wondering whether we need many extras today.
"Would we make the same choices if we could work in the way best suited to us?"
My answer is a profound No. During my recent holidays I didn't care about taking supplements, at times I didn't care even to eat. I just loved being free.
Getting closer to our hobbies doesn't make us lazier, it make us happier, more creative, more helpful for the world.
"The more appealing jobs require more weekly hours while the least appealing jobs (like mining) require fewer.
Payment comes in the form of an annual credit applied to their “credit card” with everyone earning the same salary no matter if they are a waiter or a doctor or are unable to work due to disability."
In BF Skinner's utopian novel "Walden Two," salaries are inversely proportional to the pleasantness of the job. Trash collectors are paid a lot, while executives are paid less. Everyone has their basic needs met of course.
I think you could be a valuable contributor or gain a lot from participating in their community.
They are working to create the next best iteration of human organization. I think cooperatives like Mondragon, which I learned about from you, could be a critical piece of this future vision.
I really appreciate your ability to understand utopian ideals pragmatically and abandon pure idealism. If we are to create any semblance of these realities we have to be realistic about what works and what doesn’t.
I followed Palladium for awhile last year but nothing was really going on, thanks for the reminder to check them out again, looks like they’ve done a lot this year!
As someone born in the Soviet Union, every time I see someone flirting with the ideas of Karl Marx, I get the feeling that person is playing golf with hand grenades.
As for Herland, the idea of making children "the one center and focus of all our thoughts" seems very reasonable to me. As the Strugatsky brothers once said in an interview: "All it takes to solve all of humanity's problems is to raise one generation of happy children." It seems like they dedicated their novella The Ugly Swans to this very idea.
Interestingly, the utopias you mention here seem to exclude individuals with the dark triad (machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) from the equation. But it’s exactly these types of people who can ruin any bright idea of social structure—Hitler, for example, was democratically elected.
And this focus on raising healthy, well-rounded, happy children seems like it could partly solve the problem of future dictators emerging in society. Maybe it really does make sense to turn the care of children and childhood into a new kind of religion?
We’ve tried Marx’ ideas, they didn’t work. That doesn’t mean we can’t think about better ones that still might, and we already are!
And you are so right about the people who ruin it for everyone, it’s those edge cases that most of our organization and structures are there to protect us from!
But as you say, maybe investing more in our children will help!
Must admit that I've always been fond of William Morris, both for his artwork and for that book. However, a good deal of things he put on the table left me with questions or hesitations as to how his ideas would actually pan out in the world. In time, I saw a lot of it in a better light. Especially after working on farms in Japan and Korea that do everything without machines or chemicals, and where the only real big work every year is in planting and harvesting (even then, we take breaks to drink, eat, and play music). Yet I thought of that boat heading up the river to the fields in News from Nowhere, and it reminded me a lot of the people and towns we encountered in the countryside out here. Over the years, it felt like, at least in part, some of his ideas really had great merit because I saw them in action. Other ideas, perhaps were more idealistic that what I can imagine, like the murder that takes place in one of the towns and works itself out without intervention. But who knows, maybe give it another hundred years?
I enjoyed the summary you give for Herland, which I've never heard of but will look into. Based on what you mention here, I feel the ecofeminist movement (my favorite kind of feminists) might have borrowed a lot from this book. The ideas behind childcare specialists are new to me, but seeing so many mothers around me struggle (due to the system as it is, and the lack of ability or knowledge or support, or valuing the work of raising a child) perhaps it makes as much sense as the village model of raising children collectively... although it feels Herland might have a bit of both of those things?
At any rate, really enjoyed this. Thank you for the in depth reading and reflections.
You are so right, I do agree that a lot of Morris’ ideas could be (and are) put to use at the community level rather than the governmental level!
Herland is such a masterpiece, I highly recommend it. Having sisters with children totally cements the idea that we could better support them (both at the governmental and at the community levels!)
There are too many parts of this to quote that I loved! I appreciate your habit of getting outside the perspective you're analyzing, summarizing it nicely, and offering your measured response.
I definitely want to read these novels now, and maybe they'll inspire me to write my own in response... Altho I think I need something closer to home to have the same sense of reparte.
Thanks Peter! That means so much coming from you!! If you want something closer to home: A Psalm for the Wildbuilt. It’s the modern version that combines all of these ideas at once. I’m writing about that one next!
I don’t think I’ve heard of “Herland” until now, thanks for introducing it to me. I can tell it’s a compelling book--the fact that it’s about an isolated lab-like utopian society reminds me of Galt’s Gulch from “Atlas Shrugged” and, of course, Pala from “Island”. I liked those books as a teen, so I can see the appeal of the former
Honestly, it’s a bit time-consuming, I only managed to get to the 1068th page out of about 1100 before I had to give up my school library’s copy for the summer. As I remember it, much of the prose is long, self-indulgent and sterile, but my ninth-grade self did take solace in its anti-conformist messages. Even then, though, long philosophical discussions about collectivism in the Nordic model weren’t my cup of tea
I really enjoyed this look at utopian novels from a hundred years ago. As you point out there has been great absolute progress in material conditions for all strata of American society but we are living in a second Gilded Age and people naturally measure their well-being on a relative basis more than on an absolute one.
I do think there is some quiet progress going on that tends to be underreported. One example is the introduction of universal pre-k in some local jurisdictions. Another is the expansion of the Child Tax Credit, although still insufficient.
The biggest issue we face is our federal deficit, which will hamper progress until we have the will to raise as much in taxes as we are spending.
The universal pre-k case is very interesting to me because it is provided by state budgets rather then federal ones. It is states trying to buck the federal system by saying "we want universal childcare and we'll pay for it ourselves if the government won't make it happen federally." I love that! My niece just started at one in California!
And I agree that we need to fix the federal deficit. I don't think budgets should be made by politicians......
> That doesn’t mean Bellamy’s criticisms are now invalid. If anything, they are in need of a resurgence. According to Thomas Piketty, the richest 10% in the US owned 40% to 50% of the national income in 1910. This dropped to less than 35% in the 1950s through 1970s, but since 1980 we have reverted to those 1910 numbers and even surpassed them. After a period of decline, wealth inequality in the United States has made a comeback. The Gini coefficient, which measures inequality over time, shows that the US is more unequal in 2022 than it was in 1913.
Global inequality started going up after the Industrial Revolution. It continued to go up during the so called Golden Age of Social Democracy in the 50s and 60s. It peaked in the late 70s and started falling dramatically in the 90s due to the evil of neoliberalism. We're currently at pre WW1 levels of inequality.
It's interesting to see how socialists who claim to be internationalists constantly bring up national inequality statistics but never the global ones. Perhaps because they would have to admit that they were wrong or perhaps they were nationalists all along. Perhaps they're just opportunists.
As for the claim about Nordic education and childcare. I'm skeptical of childcare investments actually being useful. Every research I've seen shows the impact is marginal at best. So I don't know what you mean by childcare system "working". Like it exists and people like it. Is that your definition of "working". If young parents just need a babysitter, the government can just do cash transfers for low income parents for the first 3-5 years so they hire some teens to babysit instead of some over-educated losers.
As for education, I'm of the opinion that people in the West spend too much on education. I'm skeptical of any education beyond basic numeracy and literacy being useful. Parents have unrealistic expectation from schooling. People forget most of what they learn and I doubt the Nordics are any different.
In my preferred model of education. Kids learn basic literacy and numeracy. Perhaps switch out arithmetic for more statistics. Less science and some basic philosophy. That's it. You graduate at age 14 (12 if you really want) and then start working. You move out at age 18 by which point you have enough savings to go to college or trade school which can financed by income based repayment schemes. Or put a down payment on a mortgage.
Instead of trying to use school to get kids ready for "real world", 4 years of work experience while they live with their parents will act like real life but on training wheels.
Some might say that if you get kids to work, only the working class kids will work while the rich kids won't. To these people I would say, "just because rich kids waste their time doesn't mean poor kids should as well."
Global inequality started going up because some countries became a lot richer. You could solve that by keeping all countries poor—then they would be more equal—but obviously that's a bad idea. A better one would be to make the poorer countries richer (through economic development). That is true within countries as well. The goal is not to make rich people less rich, the goal is to make poorer people more rich.
My comments on the Nordic education systems are based on the book the Nordic Theory of Everything. It goes into great detail on the educational reform the various Scandinavian countries went through to drastically improve their education systems. The results really are in incredible. And I am personally more interested in benefits that are given out universally to all families, rather than "cash transfers for low income" ones. Shouldn't everyone have access to good teachers? (And why would a better educated teacher make them more of a loser?)
I agree that schooling could be more specialized in scope—not every student needs to learn calculus, for example—but there are a lot more basics than just literacy and numeracy that the general public should know about, including our biology, our history, an understanding of our various political systems, how the economy works, the basic workings of astronomy, an understanding of technology. I would also like to see people learn about emotional intelligence and conflict resolution, financial understanding and managing a budget, at least one foreign language, etc. We may not remember our high school physics class but we know the order of the planets and how our governments work. People around the world know another language. It would be strange to have a person only know the vocation of their job and not know what rain is.
Also about the inequality bit. Since the 90s most western countries also grew richer, it's just that the wealth of the developing world increased much faster. Both statements can be true at the same time. Trade is a positive sum game.
Leftists hate the fact the world's poor got a lot richer while also massively increasing the wealth of the global 1%. As Margaret Thatcher said, "the socialists would rather the poor get poorer than the rich get richer."
Kids will never remember the things you mentioned. Most people don't can't even name the three branches of government. Kids in Australia are taught about budgeting and taxes and immediately forget after exam time. Kids from the 80s and 90s were forced to take a second language and most don't remember a single word of it within a few years.
This perpetual escalation of what a school should teach make one wonder if adults have lost all memories of their own childhood. Information goes into one hear and goes out the other.
Stop wasting people's time, stop wasting the kid's time and stop wasting the taxpayer's money. Education cannot and will not create this model, enlightened citizen you're expecting. Trying the same thing over and over expecting different results is the definition of insanity.
Also, on a side note, I think education degrees is a complete waste (outside of special needs kids that make up less than 2% of the student population). When I was growing up, if the school needed a new teacher they force the new recruit to teach a class at random and the principal will hire them based on their performance. It took less than 10 minutes to evaluate the skill and we don't need to bring credentialism into the mix.
About the childcare thing. You haven't addressed the fact that childcare isn't actually useful. In Australia you need a Masters in Early Childhood education to work in a childcare centre. These glorified babysitters have more years of education than lawyers and GPs do. Yes, they're over educated losers.
I use cash transfer instead of government run childcare facilities because I don't care for paternalistic government. Parents can just hire the neighbour's kid to take care of the child. It's not the government's business what the parent chooses the use the money.
A lovely tour of utopias past very pleasantly read. Thanks :)
Thank you for sharing these authors. I hadn't heard of them before and now I want to seek out others like them. Instead of just learning U. S. government, schools should teach broader perspectives and challenge students to consider problems and solutions from a wider collection of economic and social theories.
Totally agree. I would have loved to learn about all the various economic theories!
Excellent! I agree with most of what you put forward here Elle. I knew some of these thinkers and others not so much - so thanks for sharing. I actually listened to your voice over while I did some nice art. Anyhow - what most surface thinkers do is conflate the failed Communist states of Russia and China that were actually autocratic nightmares with the more successful post WW2 Democratic Socialist states that is Europe, Canada and other smaller successful countries around the world like Taiwan. The mix of capitalism with socialism works and is necessary because 90% of all new business fail within the first 5 years here in the US. I have lived and traveled around the world and Europe (especially Northern) has the highest quality of life for the majority of citizens as measured by many different respected orgs and indexes-based on Socialism policies that were fought for for hundreds of years with blood, sweat and tears. America's isolation and indoctrination education system kept most thinking Democratic Socialism is the same as failed Communism and that we are the most exceptional country in the world - and for a brief period post WW2 was true - especially if you were white and someone in your family received Gov GI Bill help etc. which created the Middle class in USA as you mentioned. One of the good aspects of the internet and smart phone 24/7 access to information - is the US youth are are now exposed to how youth in other countries live better and have less stress based on Socialist policies. Most of us would gladly pay more taxes if it meant not having to live with the constant stress of going bankrupt to see the doctor or the albatross of student debt or getting some paid family leave after birth etc. etc. Anyway - another solution that will have to happen is a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to redistribute the artificial perverted wealth that has been greedily accumulated by the top 1% over the last 40 years post Reagan sell out to the corporate state. With AI coming hard and fast whether we like it or not - jobs are already disappearing and will only get worse thus the need for a UBI to prevent mass chaos in the streets. It will be a trying transition for most who get their sense of purpose from their work but creatives like myself - I am looking forward to more leisure time to create and spend time with family and get to know my neighbors and community more etc. Andrew Yang's first book - The War on Normal People, which launched him into the public eye - actually has some good ideas about this big AI jobless transition coming fast - as in social credit card system for barter options on top of a UBI and social ratings for special benefits etc - a similar thing is happening in China right now but in a dark Big Brother 1984 autocratic nightmare way. As the old saying goes - the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. Humanity and the USA Moving forward in the next 10 years with so much at stake on so many levels - is certainly going to be interesting to say the least. Peace and Prosperity!
I personally don’t think that AI will cause job loss, just because that’s never happened despite all of the highly disruptive technologies we’ve created in the past 100 years. And as a creative, AI has helped me become exponentially more effective. I imagine it will only continue to do so as it takes on some of my other non writing related tasks! As for UBI, I think it’s worth exploring though I haven’t yet seen a plan for one that any government could afford. I’m a bit more bullish on employee ownership and cooperatives as a method of guaranteeing work and income! But I have more to explore there too! Thanks for the comment and for thinking this all through with me!
Have to agree to disagree. AI is the most disruptive tech humans have created since we split the atom - and should be regulated like Nukes based on the immense dangers it poses. But the billionaires that run the world are pushing AI onto the world stage fast and furious for profits regardless and the results could be catastrophic for the entire world. I am currently reading a book The Coming Wave by one of the AI pioneers M. Sulyman about the good and very real bad it can/will do. There is also a very good new Bill Gates solution orientated show on Netflix with a decent and balanced look at some of the biggest issues facing America and the world including AI. Here is the trailer…
https://youtu.be/6xxhYr4gbQE?si=jXPRkZU7dhdXsvlo
Hi Elysse,
"Sometimes when I go to work in my regular job I feel like going to work in the mines."
My uniform looks to me like those they wear in prisons. Its pretty fucked up.
You make a good point about wondering whether we need many extras today.
"Would we make the same choices if we could work in the way best suited to us?"
My answer is a profound No. During my recent holidays I didn't care about taking supplements, at times I didn't care even to eat. I just loved being free.
Getting closer to our hobbies doesn't make us lazier, it make us happier, more creative, more helpful for the world.
"The more appealing jobs require more weekly hours while the least appealing jobs (like mining) require fewer.
Payment comes in the form of an annual credit applied to their “credit card” with everyone earning the same salary no matter if they are a waiter or a doctor or are unable to work due to disability."
In BF Skinner's utopian novel "Walden Two," salaries are inversely proportional to the pleasantness of the job. Trash collectors are paid a lot, while executives are paid less. Everyone has their basic needs met of course.
Are you familiar with Palladium Magazine?
I think you could be a valuable contributor or gain a lot from participating in their community.
They are working to create the next best iteration of human organization. I think cooperatives like Mondragon, which I learned about from you, could be a critical piece of this future vision.
I really appreciate your ability to understand utopian ideals pragmatically and abandon pure idealism. If we are to create any semblance of these realities we have to be realistic about what works and what doesn’t.
I followed Palladium for awhile last year but nothing was really going on, thanks for the reminder to check them out again, looks like they’ve done a lot this year!
As someone born in the Soviet Union, every time I see someone flirting with the ideas of Karl Marx, I get the feeling that person is playing golf with hand grenades.
As for Herland, the idea of making children "the one center and focus of all our thoughts" seems very reasonable to me. As the Strugatsky brothers once said in an interview: "All it takes to solve all of humanity's problems is to raise one generation of happy children." It seems like they dedicated their novella The Ugly Swans to this very idea.
Interestingly, the utopias you mention here seem to exclude individuals with the dark triad (machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) from the equation. But it’s exactly these types of people who can ruin any bright idea of social structure—Hitler, for example, was democratically elected.
And this focus on raising healthy, well-rounded, happy children seems like it could partly solve the problem of future dictators emerging in society. Maybe it really does make sense to turn the care of children and childhood into a new kind of religion?
We’ve tried Marx’ ideas, they didn’t work. That doesn’t mean we can’t think about better ones that still might, and we already are!
And you are so right about the people who ruin it for everyone, it’s those edge cases that most of our organization and structures are there to protect us from!
But as you say, maybe investing more in our children will help!
Thank you for this, Elle!
Must admit that I've always been fond of William Morris, both for his artwork and for that book. However, a good deal of things he put on the table left me with questions or hesitations as to how his ideas would actually pan out in the world. In time, I saw a lot of it in a better light. Especially after working on farms in Japan and Korea that do everything without machines or chemicals, and where the only real big work every year is in planting and harvesting (even then, we take breaks to drink, eat, and play music). Yet I thought of that boat heading up the river to the fields in News from Nowhere, and it reminded me a lot of the people and towns we encountered in the countryside out here. Over the years, it felt like, at least in part, some of his ideas really had great merit because I saw them in action. Other ideas, perhaps were more idealistic that what I can imagine, like the murder that takes place in one of the towns and works itself out without intervention. But who knows, maybe give it another hundred years?
I enjoyed the summary you give for Herland, which I've never heard of but will look into. Based on what you mention here, I feel the ecofeminist movement (my favorite kind of feminists) might have borrowed a lot from this book. The ideas behind childcare specialists are new to me, but seeing so many mothers around me struggle (due to the system as it is, and the lack of ability or knowledge or support, or valuing the work of raising a child) perhaps it makes as much sense as the village model of raising children collectively... although it feels Herland might have a bit of both of those things?
At any rate, really enjoyed this. Thank you for the in depth reading and reflections.
You are so right, I do agree that a lot of Morris’ ideas could be (and are) put to use at the community level rather than the governmental level!
Herland is such a masterpiece, I highly recommend it. Having sisters with children totally cements the idea that we could better support them (both at the governmental and at the community levels!)
what can be unburdened by what has been
There are too many parts of this to quote that I loved! I appreciate your habit of getting outside the perspective you're analyzing, summarizing it nicely, and offering your measured response.
I definitely want to read these novels now, and maybe they'll inspire me to write my own in response... Altho I think I need something closer to home to have the same sense of reparte.
Thanks Peter! That means so much coming from you!! If you want something closer to home: A Psalm for the Wildbuilt. It’s the modern version that combines all of these ideas at once. I’m writing about that one next!
Can't wait ✨
I don’t think I’ve heard of “Herland” until now, thanks for introducing it to me. I can tell it’s a compelling book--the fact that it’s about an isolated lab-like utopian society reminds me of Galt’s Gulch from “Atlas Shrugged” and, of course, Pala from “Island”. I liked those books as a teen, so I can see the appeal of the former
Yes!!! Island is very much in that vein. I haven't read Atlas Shrugged yet but I'll have to check it out.
Honestly, it’s a bit time-consuming, I only managed to get to the 1068th page out of about 1100 before I had to give up my school library’s copy for the summer. As I remember it, much of the prose is long, self-indulgent and sterile, but my ninth-grade self did take solace in its anti-conformist messages. Even then, though, long philosophical discussions about collectivism in the Nordic model weren’t my cup of tea
Fair enough, I think I watched the film and all I remember is that it was rather onerous 😆
In short, I don’t recommend it, even before noting that it’s beloved by a lot of cranks in the GOP and Libertarian Party
I really enjoyed this look at utopian novels from a hundred years ago. As you point out there has been great absolute progress in material conditions for all strata of American society but we are living in a second Gilded Age and people naturally measure their well-being on a relative basis more than on an absolute one.
I do think there is some quiet progress going on that tends to be underreported. One example is the introduction of universal pre-k in some local jurisdictions. Another is the expansion of the Child Tax Credit, although still insufficient.
The biggest issue we face is our federal deficit, which will hamper progress until we have the will to raise as much in taxes as we are spending.
The universal pre-k case is very interesting to me because it is provided by state budgets rather then federal ones. It is states trying to buck the federal system by saying "we want universal childcare and we'll pay for it ourselves if the government won't make it happen federally." I love that! My niece just started at one in California!
And I agree that we need to fix the federal deficit. I don't think budgets should be made by politicians......
This is not very nice so I'm removing this comment.
> That doesn’t mean Bellamy’s criticisms are now invalid. If anything, they are in need of a resurgence. According to Thomas Piketty, the richest 10% in the US owned 40% to 50% of the national income in 1910. This dropped to less than 35% in the 1950s through 1970s, but since 1980 we have reverted to those 1910 numbers and even surpassed them. After a period of decline, wealth inequality in the United States has made a comeback. The Gini coefficient, which measures inequality over time, shows that the US is more unequal in 2022 than it was in 1913.
Global inequality started going up after the Industrial Revolution. It continued to go up during the so called Golden Age of Social Democracy in the 50s and 60s. It peaked in the late 70s and started falling dramatically in the 90s due to the evil of neoliberalism. We're currently at pre WW1 levels of inequality.
It's interesting to see how socialists who claim to be internationalists constantly bring up national inequality statistics but never the global ones. Perhaps because they would have to admit that they were wrong or perhaps they were nationalists all along. Perhaps they're just opportunists.
As for the claim about Nordic education and childcare. I'm skeptical of childcare investments actually being useful. Every research I've seen shows the impact is marginal at best. So I don't know what you mean by childcare system "working". Like it exists and people like it. Is that your definition of "working". If young parents just need a babysitter, the government can just do cash transfers for low income parents for the first 3-5 years so they hire some teens to babysit instead of some over-educated losers.
As for education, I'm of the opinion that people in the West spend too much on education. I'm skeptical of any education beyond basic numeracy and literacy being useful. Parents have unrealistic expectation from schooling. People forget most of what they learn and I doubt the Nordics are any different.
In my preferred model of education. Kids learn basic literacy and numeracy. Perhaps switch out arithmetic for more statistics. Less science and some basic philosophy. That's it. You graduate at age 14 (12 if you really want) and then start working. You move out at age 18 by which point you have enough savings to go to college or trade school which can financed by income based repayment schemes. Or put a down payment on a mortgage.
Instead of trying to use school to get kids ready for "real world", 4 years of work experience while they live with their parents will act like real life but on training wheels.
Some might say that if you get kids to work, only the working class kids will work while the rich kids won't. To these people I would say, "just because rich kids waste their time doesn't mean poor kids should as well."
Global inequality started going up because some countries became a lot richer. You could solve that by keeping all countries poor—then they would be more equal—but obviously that's a bad idea. A better one would be to make the poorer countries richer (through economic development). That is true within countries as well. The goal is not to make rich people less rich, the goal is to make poorer people more rich.
My comments on the Nordic education systems are based on the book the Nordic Theory of Everything. It goes into great detail on the educational reform the various Scandinavian countries went through to drastically improve their education systems. The results really are in incredible. And I am personally more interested in benefits that are given out universally to all families, rather than "cash transfers for low income" ones. Shouldn't everyone have access to good teachers? (And why would a better educated teacher make them more of a loser?)
I agree that schooling could be more specialized in scope—not every student needs to learn calculus, for example—but there are a lot more basics than just literacy and numeracy that the general public should know about, including our biology, our history, an understanding of our various political systems, how the economy works, the basic workings of astronomy, an understanding of technology. I would also like to see people learn about emotional intelligence and conflict resolution, financial understanding and managing a budget, at least one foreign language, etc. We may not remember our high school physics class but we know the order of the planets and how our governments work. People around the world know another language. It would be strange to have a person only know the vocation of their job and not know what rain is.
Also about the inequality bit. Since the 90s most western countries also grew richer, it's just that the wealth of the developing world increased much faster. Both statements can be true at the same time. Trade is a positive sum game.
Leftists hate the fact the world's poor got a lot richer while also massively increasing the wealth of the global 1%. As Margaret Thatcher said, "the socialists would rather the poor get poorer than the rich get richer."
Kids will never remember the things you mentioned. Most people don't can't even name the three branches of government. Kids in Australia are taught about budgeting and taxes and immediately forget after exam time. Kids from the 80s and 90s were forced to take a second language and most don't remember a single word of it within a few years.
This perpetual escalation of what a school should teach make one wonder if adults have lost all memories of their own childhood. Information goes into one hear and goes out the other.
Stop wasting people's time, stop wasting the kid's time and stop wasting the taxpayer's money. Education cannot and will not create this model, enlightened citizen you're expecting. Trying the same thing over and over expecting different results is the definition of insanity.
Also, on a side note, I think education degrees is a complete waste (outside of special needs kids that make up less than 2% of the student population). When I was growing up, if the school needed a new teacher they force the new recruit to teach a class at random and the principal will hire them based on their performance. It took less than 10 minutes to evaluate the skill and we don't need to bring credentialism into the mix.
About the childcare thing. You haven't addressed the fact that childcare isn't actually useful. In Australia you need a Masters in Early Childhood education to work in a childcare centre. These glorified babysitters have more years of education than lawyers and GPs do. Yes, they're over educated losers.
I use cash transfer instead of government run childcare facilities because I don't care for paternalistic government. Parents can just hire the neighbour's kid to take care of the child. It's not the government's business what the parent chooses the use the money.