Now at least we have institutions which pretend to offer an interim solution. The amount of way, has, I think, gone done, perhaps as a result.
One problem, and this is mirrored perhaps by how things used to be in academia, i.e., that academic figures garnered prestige by publishing, and that prestige was mainly esteemed within the academic circles. It may have been true that teachers were held in high regard, respected, even if they might be paid less (which they definitely are now). Doctors (and lawyers) certainly, and politicians, get respect and renown in the community, whether or not it comes with money.
In academia that's changed -- now it's all about getting results that can generate revenue, goods, profits. There's a direct connection.
Engineers used to be underpaid and treated like shit, but that changed in the 60s. Now they're seen as a necessary input materièle for the profit-making machine, as research professors have come to.
My point is that if we unify nations, and make it all about the all-mighty dollar, it will probably never be stable. The States of the United States may be okay, but in fact there there may still be things like the underpopulated West being effectively subsidized in order to achieve political balance or democratic legitimization of the objectives of the East and Southeast. I forget who said, "water (dam) projects are the currency for bribing the Western States" (or something to that effect).
Professors and doctors and lawyers and teachers, and police, and firefighters, in short pretty much anybody who contributes a positive externality to the economic system (probably should include mothers -- non-dysfunctional ones!) should be systemically awarded extra-economic or non-financial considerations. Things like food stamps, preferential housing, better parking, just plain social customs like letting teachers go first in lines, get seated at restaurants. A lot of these are already in place. Cars with doctor's plates can park anywhere in New York City, military people or retired military people have access to honors and services special for them.
This is an idea I'm still kicking around, but which I've given some thought to just in terms of American society and problems to do with the monetization of academia and other stuff. And just in general ideas about externalities, which happily comes up as a concept in the NYT but I don't tend to see much of it elsewhere, even thought it's a super-important concept.
It may be partly one of the excuses for why Puerto Rico has not become a State (and may never). It's so much poorer than the rest of the United States, that if it had two Senators and a few Congressmen, it might exert all kind of funny pressure on the political system for economic reasons. If it could make its own laws...hmmmm....?
It's the same thing for most countries, except for a few in Europe and Japan, but even still, vis-à-vis the United States. If you combine exchange rate disparities with political and representational power, things could get weird. The UE has had a lot of troubles with this, and it gets even more fun if you throw in things like regulations, not just how much stuff costs and who can vote about stuff. There are a few cool Kurtzgesagt videos about the European Union (Union Européenne).
Extreme example: a country where a person makes $10/day, means a $10,000 car is worth three years' work, full amount, no money for food, while in the States, say, where somebody might make $30,000/year could buy it in a year, and easily borrow money to make that easier.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this. Some kind of "buffer" is needed, and that might involve things like Guaranteed Minimum Income and Universal Health Care and Guaranteed Nutrition and stuff like that, so that countries like the USA could continue to be super-duper-rich, and other countries not.
I may be a bit manic -- it's been one of those days. Hopefully this has at least a nugget or two of sense in it.
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