The future

 Everything's good.

I'm walking down the street in my neighbourhood, but there's a problem.

Who do I report it to?

Well the city councel is a good place to start.

But what if nothing happens then?

How do I escalate the problem?

Local politicians?

What if they can't help either?

Well, then you're stuffed.

The chain of accountability is only so long.

In fact, this chain was only so long to begin with.

As a result, we end up with a system that dodges responsibility, without accountability.

This is the definition of a broken system.

Let's look at right to repair.

Manufacturers know that if they don't sell the new shiny thing, they will go out of business.

This is counter to the wishes of their consumers, who just want the thing to work.

So the seller puts their loyal consumers on a fashion treadmill.

What, you're still using that "so last year" product?

Embrace the change or forever be the jettison of "progress".

The truth is, we're all participants in a dog and pony show.

A folly.

We play along so as not to seem out of place, but seeming out of place is not our decision to make.

The system can be harsh, if not by accident but perhaps by design. Or lack of design.

See how powerful dodging responsibility is?

"See what happened to them" is a pretty convincing stick compared to the carrot of conformity.

Even if confromity means being the stick for the system.

Otherwise, how will you ever afford that niche city centre apartment?

I learned this from my encounters with the dental profession.

They aren't interested in cures, you're a revenue stream, in case that wasn't obvious.

I wonder if I had used baking soda to brush my teeth, would I still have all of them?

If/when universal social income becomes a thing, we'd realize that we're all in this together.

We'd know that it's not about milking your customers for all they're worth.

We'd know that it's not about selling the new shiny thing so they will toss their old thing into landfill.

We and the manufacturers would consider reuse as a top priority.

Which is a subset of making the most efficient use of the resources we have to hand.

Where we're going, we won't have the resources we currently squander on dog and pony shows.

That will shine a light on how far out of whack our system currently is.

Let's try to get out in front of this so we don't end up looking like complete idiots.