Open Letter to Dr. Adam Reich
Dear Dr. Reich,
I found your blog after seeing your father's tweet about your new book and would really appreciate to hear what you think of an idea I have to make a union that anyone could join. It wouldn't be tied to a specific workplace or trade, just open to anyone that wanted services similar to a union. I like to think of it as a 'Happiness Service Provider', helping people make the most of their resources through collaboration.
By not being linked to a specific workplace, it wouldn't be looking at fighting a specific corporations management team, but more general issues caused by all corporations which are trying to make us spend time and money we don't have, consuming lower and lower quality products for more and more money, only to benefit their shareholders.
Am I crazy and paranoid or is something like this needed? It seems like corporations are ganging up on us and convincing us we need to keep buying things in the endless pursuit of material happiness, making us work longer and longer hours, and distracting us with media designed to keep us from doing much about it?
I've just watched movies like The Corporation and Shadows of Liberty, which makes the outlook somewhat bleak, and I've read Buckminster Fuller's books stating that we have the technology to make the world work for 100% of humanity at no expense to anyone, and your father's movie on the inequality gap. And it makes me wonder if the answer could be as easy as a Happiness Service Provider. Maybe that's what the government was supposed to be, but it seems like it serves a more basic function, or maybe it's lost its effectiveness due to voter indifference and powerful lobbyists.
I wrote an open letter to your father suggesting that he should start one of these Happiness Service Providers, in order to achieve his goals around equality, but I put it in terms of a Homo Economicus service, helping people make day to day decisions. I'm wondering what you think of the idea. I noticed that you taught a class called 'Organizing: People, Power and Change' so I'm very interested in your thoughts on the subject.
Sincerely,
@SpontCoop
Dear Dr. Reich,
I found your blog after seeing your father's tweet about your new book and would really appreciate to hear what you think of an idea I have to make a union that anyone could join. It wouldn't be tied to a specific workplace or trade, just open to anyone that wanted services similar to a union. I like to think of it as a 'Happiness Service Provider', helping people make the most of their resources through collaboration.
By not being linked to a specific workplace, it wouldn't be looking at fighting a specific corporations management team, but more general issues caused by all corporations which are trying to make us spend time and money we don't have, consuming lower and lower quality products for more and more money, only to benefit their shareholders.
Am I crazy and paranoid or is something like this needed? It seems like corporations are ganging up on us and convincing us we need to keep buying things in the endless pursuit of material happiness, making us work longer and longer hours, and distracting us with media designed to keep us from doing much about it?
I've just watched movies like The Corporation and Shadows of Liberty, which makes the outlook somewhat bleak, and I've read Buckminster Fuller's books stating that we have the technology to make the world work for 100% of humanity at no expense to anyone, and your father's movie on the inequality gap. And it makes me wonder if the answer could be as easy as a Happiness Service Provider. Maybe that's what the government was supposed to be, but it seems like it serves a more basic function, or maybe it's lost its effectiveness due to voter indifference and powerful lobbyists.
I wrote an open letter to your father suggesting that he should start one of these Happiness Service Providers, in order to achieve his goals around equality, but I put it in terms of a Homo Economicus service, helping people make day to day decisions. I'm wondering what you think of the idea. I noticed that you taught a class called 'Organizing: People, Power and Change' so I'm very interested in your thoughts on the subject.
Sincerely,
@SpontCoop