The End of History

[Ideologue]

Yi:

No.  The brain surgeon would probably make about what they make now; the hospital administrator would probably be shot.  Not really, but they wouldn't make as much as they do now.  Nor university presidents.  Nor, especially, CEOs and other executives.  Filthy recipients of passive income would have it the worst, since after the nationalization of key industries, their major streams of unearned income would be redirected to the people.

There would also be fewer burger flippers, as the enlightened command economy does not suppose that everyone is needed, and will automate all that it can, while distributing the productivity gains across the whole population.  The first five year plan would probably see U-6 at historical levels, but that would no longer be a meaningful metric.  Instead of hanging on to an old paradigm, as America's awesome and universally-beloved despot I would ease the transition into a laborless future populated by balls of light.

This is the most important thing.  Also pervasive surveillance and information gathering that would end crime and (perhaps) the spread of disease within the first half decade.  Also an incentive-based eugenics/dieback program.  Also solar power satellites and a phased relinquishing of fossil fuels.

I could probably retire after fifteen years.  It'd be ridiculously easy, conceptually, to fix society.  It would simply be investment-heavy, and require poor, confused dissidents to give up long-cherished beliefs, like "market rewards are equivalent to social value," "work is necessary to dignity," "privacy is a human right," and "I need make no reference to moral axioms when deciding whether or not to bring children into an overcrowded world, regardless of their probability of success and happiness."  I.e., impossible--not least because no person could or should be trusted with the power to fix society--and I'm just dreaming of an orderly, great society that, in all likelihood, I would have no more place in than this one.

That said, a slower, more confused, but more popular social democracy that incorporates these ideas is probably on its way.  Nobody has faith in the market anymore.  Surveillance is already kind of a thing, only toothless.  We all realize that robots will make most of us redundant to the economy.  Eugenics will probably not ever make a comeback, but embryo selection exists and there is certainly a demand for genetic engineering, but it could only be morally palatable to most if it is adminstered and paid for by the state.

To whom is the "powerful-but-accountable state" accountable to?

Discounting the possibility that I personally become dictator, elections probably do still need to be held.

[CountDeMoney]

All IT departments need to be shot.  Right after they turn off and turn back on their computers.

[MadImmortalMan]

All IT departments need to be shot.  Right after they turn off and turn back on their computers.

One day the philistines will die off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8

[The Minsky Moment]

Yi:

No.  The brain surgeon would probably make about what they make now;

He's pulling your leg here Yi.  The brain surgeons will be all shot, on the theory that properly working brains pose a risk to this system.