2024 is nearly over but the revolution is just beginning✊
Why 2025 may be a turning point in the battle between humans, tech and the billionaire class
This Wednesday we'll be a quarter-century into the 2000s; ten years past the year Marty McFly arrived at in the "future", six years past the year in which Bladerunner was set, three years even after an Alien boarded the Nostromo and decided the best way out of a body is through the chest - so, how's the actual future looking to you?
One thing I notice that all these films have in common is a dystopian outlook defined by morally corrupt corporations that exploit people and planet for profit. Whether it's BiffCo, the Tyrrell Corporation or the Weyland-Yutano Corporation, sci-fi screenwriters seem bonded by their vision of a future gutted by extreme capitalism. But we're here now so, is it true?
The Future Is Now
It's beyond argument (as far as I’m concerned), that capitalism has created miracles and lifted millions, maybe billions, out of poverty but there are signs it may be declining as a force for good. The biggest red flag was the 2008 Global Financial Crisis of course, which revealed the corrupt heart of capitalism to be wrapped in a fatty layer of sub-prime mortgages folded into fraudulent debt instruments. When these failed only the taxpayer could prevent a complete economic meltdown and yet, despite now being shareholders of some of the largest financial institutions on Earth, we're worse off than before. Hmmm 🤔
Conversely, I recently discovered that since 1978 CEO's in the US have increased their salaries by 1400% but their workers salaries by just 18%, which is not an increase at all when one considers inflation has pushed prices up 30% during that time. How did THAT happen?
Simon Sinek gives a pithy explanation in this clip from his recent appearance on the ‘What Now?’ podcast, where he quotes a famous New York Times op-ed by economist Milton Friedman in which he wrote: "The responsibility of business is to maximise profit within the bounds of the law." Sinek claims this distortion of capitalism’s original purpose (competing to produce the best quality goods at the best possible price for the benefit of consumers), is what has given rise to short termism leading to mass layoffs and the "use of human beings' livelihoods to maximise shareholder value". Basically there is more than enough money in the world, it's just that the people who decide what we get paid are hoarding it for themselves leading to increasing inequality and, as Sinek says: "When you have a huge delta between those who have and those who haven't you get revolution."
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The Revolution Will Go Viral
The "revolution" as Sinek describes it may have already begun in various guises; whether it's the rise of populist governments voted in as a protest against the ineffectiveness of incumbent parties to enact radical change, or the more passive protest of nearly 11 million working age adults in the UK not working because, amongst other things, it's a shitty deal that offers them next to no chance of ever owning a home or building wealth.
Across the Channel, it may not surprise you to know, the French are striking again but are doing so more frequently, for longer and for an unenviable array of reasons including worker layoffs, increased taxes and inflation coupled with spending cuts and, most significantly, executive actions taken by the PM deemed undemocratic by both left and right.
In fact, all across the developed world economies are stalling, inflation climbing and wages decreasing, which is a recipe for disaster and even murder.
Yes, this was the year that Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare was murdered, nay assassinated, allegedly by Luigi Mangione, a heinous act greeted with tacit approval by members of the American left AND right who recognise that their healthcare is a racket.
“The visceral response from people across the country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Thompson was, sadly, a married father of two but he was also earning over US$10m a year and yet under investigation for trying to enrich himself further through insider trading, allegedly selling US$15m of his UnitedHealth Group shares, knowing that the company was reportedly facing an antitrust investigation by the US Department of Justice. This on top of the fact that his company routinely declined up to one-third of all claims made by customers who paid hefty premiums for coverage they didn’t receive, plunging them into debt and/or death!
How did America’s other corporations respond to this shocking turn of events? Not by taking a good hard look at themselves and their practices but by removing the faces of their CEOs from websites and social media profiles and enhancing their personal security, which Bill Burr found horrifying and hilarious in equal measure in his hard-hitting comments online.
The mainstream media struggled to comprehend why Mangione would do such an awful thing but curiously chose NOT to publish his manifesto, which the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and NBC were all in possession of and which explains his reasons quite clearly. In the end it came down to independent journalist
, who is not reliant on billionaire funding or corporate advertising, to publish it on his Substack below:
Things Will Get Worse Before They Get Better (but that's probably for the best)
This hasn’t come out of the blue, it was forecast. Ten years ago billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer gave a stunningly candid TED Talk in which he warned that, if inequality was not addressed, the masses would come for him and his fellow plutocrats with pitchforks.
Hanauer’s predictions are now coming true and I am afraid it will have to get worse before it gets better and, hellish though that may be, it’s probably the only way to make positive change because these billionaires are getting bolder.
Elon Musk, a billionaire 400 times over, is practically bragging about his ability to buy elections now; first with his US$277m support for Trump, next with his US$100m pledge to Britain’s right wing Reform Party. Meanwhile, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, a Swedish based fintech company currently valued at a mere US$15 billion, has bragged to Bloomberg about no longer hiring humans because he believes almost everyone can now be replaced with AI, (although he did pledge to increase the wages of the few humans that remain in his employ - I’m skeptical).
If that weren’t dystopian enough, San Francisco startup up Artisan.co is running this miserly, misanthropic ad campaign urging employers to “Stop Hiring Humans” completely and is, again, openly bragging about it! (Let’s hope the author of this campaign is replaced by an AI soon.)
This year I plan to look deeper at these issues and try to uncover solutions that will enable us all to contribute to a more humane world and workplace, I hope you will stick with me and contribute too. Thanks for reading, keep the faith and here’s to a pro-human 2025!
Recommendations
So, my original intention was to write a fairly innocuous end-of-year post featuring all my favourite stuff from 2024 but when I started reflecting I found I’d churned this out instead. Nonetheless I did see, hear, read and do some awesome things this year and here are the most memorable:
Music
This was a great year for music and I couldn’t pick just one album or song I loved so instead I created a playlist of 19 tracks, each pulled from a brilliant album that came out this year or very late last year. Enjoy!
My gig of the year was an easy choice; Singaporean avant-garde savant Abdul Hakiim a.k.a. deførmed whom I caught, free, on the concourse of the Esplanade during the BayBeats Festival. His anthem ‘PISS PEEPEEPOOPOO’ closes out the playlist.
(My podcast choices are so dull they are not worth recounting.)
TV
Joan (UK) - Gorgeous, smoky period crime caper with sizzling chemistry between Sophie Turn and Frank Dillane.
Douglas Is Cancelled (UK) - Depiction of a pale, stale male’s cancellation at the hands of his female colleague for the crime of being a man.
Baby Reindeer (UK) - Tense tale of a failed comic’s relationship with a stalker who, nonetheless, feeds his need for attention.
I have to add a special mention for the final ever episode of Gavin and Stacey, which aired in the UK on Christmas Day to rapturous reviews but hasn’t reached Singapore yet - I can’t wait to watch!
Movies
Didn’t see enough this year but my top three recent releases were:
American Fiction (US) - Brilliant, laugh-out-loud satire of race relations and expectations in America.
Dumb Money (US) - Air-punching underdog story about amateur traders taking on the big dogs!
Perfect Days (KR) - Quiet, meditative drama about the price you pay to live life exactly as you choose.
Books
I aimed to read 18 books this year but I only go through 16, still, my best reads published in 2024 were:
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (UK) - okay, turns out I didn’t read so many new books this year so I will have to include this 2020 Booker Prize winner that I only just got around to; a visceral account of a poor Scottish lad in the 1980s struggling with his sexuality and his mother’s ruinous drinking.
Mania by Lionel Shriver (US) - Another controversial satire on cancel culture from the divisive columnist and novelist.
Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism (UK) by George Monbiot (UK) - George exposes the thinking that has got us here and even proposes a new way foward.
Substacks
The Honest Broker by
is an essential guide to the state of culture
The Kuresihi Chronicles from
is part confessional diary of a literary superstar paralysed from the neck down, part writing guide but all brilliant!
Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter by the titular
is essential reading for those in or building a media business.
Dinners
I would never refer to myself as a foodie but my wife is and it was a big birthday year for her so I did eat some unforgettable meals at the following establishments:
Burnt Ends Bar & Grill, Dempsey Hill, Singapore - the best (and most expensive meat) I have ever tasted! 💲💲💲
Burma Social, Siglap, Singapore - Sumptuous and spicy Southeast Asian fusion 🌶
Monsoon, Colombo, Sri Lanka - More Southeast Asian cuisine but with a Sri Lankan twist 🌶🌶
Destinations
Cempedak Island, Indonesia - A private island resort with a single restaurant and no menu meaning you literally don’t have to make a single decision whilst you’re there!
Kyoto, Japan - The former capital is a perfect mix of old and new, rural and urban, cozy and unfamiliar.
London, England - As I always tell people, it’s an impossible place to live but a bloody brilliant place to visit.
Right, that’ll do ya! Nx