Monday, November 28, 2016

Welfare State and Technological Revolution: a Good Pairing

Image by Frits Ahlefeldt under
 Creative Commons License
I always thought that Capitalism was the best economic model. Now, in the face of the new Technological revolution, I feel I have to reconsider this ideology. 
"The World Economic Forum has estimated that five millions jobs will be lost by 2020. A 2013 Oxford study estimated that 47% of U.S. employment is at risk of being computerized."[i]
We need to come up with a way to give proper response to those that cannot make a living no because don´t have the will, but because the system fails to create the right niche timely.
I´m not talking about “socialism” that would imply to withdraw money from people who managed to thrive and make a fortune under the previous model. I don´t believe that is precisely fair. But, I believe that putting taxes over the profits of the new technological activities, and redistribute them to the people that has been left out of the system, is a measure that should be taken by the governments, in order to keep a healthy society.
All the attempts to apply the same capitalist recipes to solve economic problems will fail, if we don´t recognize that we are facing a new and different paradigm.
I think history is making a call for the return of a Welfare model.




[i] McFarland, Matt. "Trump's Populism Is Only the Beginning. Here Come the Robots." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 17 Nov. 2016. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Buckle up your seatbelt: The World in 2017

Image by WikiMedia Commons
The World is shifting."McCarthyism" or "War on Terror" will not longer be sufficient models to explain the complexity of what's going to happen in next years.
Israel standing with Trump while Trump is standing by Putin? In political terms, Putin's goals in the Middle East commune with those of Iran. And in Economic terms, China cannot hide anymore its purpose of being a player in this game. A possible China/Russia/Iran axis is what I fear. Internal divisions in the United States will look small next to the whole World's division. Then, there is the surge of incendiary propaganda: both from Russia and from other groups inside the United States. There is more, much more. Just watch the news, with an open-mind, with no assumptions that things will tend to be pretty much the same as they have been so far.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

United States 2016 Elections Takeaway

Image by DonkeyHotey under Creative Commons License
One of my takeaways from 2016´s election is that Sanders´s campaign proved that "Socialism" is not a bad word in America, anymore. But, does socialism really belong into the Democratic party? I don´t think so. Also, Trump´s campaign proved that white supremacist rhetoric has room in the political arena. But does Neo-nationalism really belong within the GOP? I don´t think so either. I think that the two-parties system is coming to an end in America, and we´ll witness soon the surge of some other parties.