This article lists a great many things that the author believes are wrong in the world. His solutions boil down to a difficult recommendation: increased coercive force that limits the freedom of human beings.
Having read back through the authors work, I recognize that he may be too far invested in seeing his own situation improve to recognize that freedom and prosperity are not a zero sum game. Medium and Patreon are voluntary, free market solutions for content creators. No one forces payment, but they are helping create the authors livelihood.
In every instance in which the authors principles have been applied to society at large, there are a select few who have far greater power, while the masses have severely less. It is only in those places where all individuals are given equal opportunity, but not a guarantee of equal results, that there is a rising tide that carries all ships.
The author brings up some great examples of broken systems: payday lenders, bail bond lenders, student loans, housing problems. In a free market system, any person is free to create a better option. People do this, every day. The theory of Creating Shared Value as proposed by Harvard Business Schools Michael Porter is a fantastic articulation of this concept in action. You can find thousands of examples of positive action by searching for this concept. I encourage the author’s passion, and wish he would create a better payday lender, a better student loan, a better housing option. The only barrier to doing so, ironically, would be greater rules and regulations from a government making doing so more expensive.
The author here describes monopolies as being an issue. I agree. The monopoly of force that government has over people and their livelihoods is back breaking. The solution does not need to include greater coercive governmental force, brought under threat of violence as we have now— free markets are a liberation from all the problems described in this article.
A better future requires taking human action, ensuring conditions in which humans are free from coercion. I will look forward to seeing how the author uses his freedom, and hope it involves lifting all ships, instead of putting a hatchet to the hull.
