In America vs. Americans, Eric Wade and Phil Herel present American Laborism, a revolutionary new economic system, where the greatest commodity isn’t cash; it’s work.
Despite its successes, capitalism has given us the largest wealth gap in American history, failing Social Security, a weak currency and a looming threat of AI destroying our workforce.
We need a new system—one built around people rather than capital. A system that values each person’s unique contribution, ingenuity and hard work—their labor. A system in which the greatest commodity isn’t cash; it’s work. And a system in which Americans at every level of society and government are working together.
This is the subject of an excerpt from America vs. Americans: How Capitalism Has Failed a Capitalist Nation and What We Can Do About It, being published on Feb. 6 by Forefront Books, and distributed by Simon & Schuster.
Eric Wade is the editor of Stansberry Research’s cryptocurrency investment advisories, which have created millionaires and changed people’s lives. He made internet history selling the first domain name (Wallstreet.com) for more than $1 million, sold a movie script to actor Adam Sandler, and founded a Los Angeles music business that was recognized locally and internationally. Studying economics in college fueled his desire to remake capitalism, reshape our government, reduce taxes, and improve the standard of living for all Americans. He lives in the Coachella Valley with Ana, his wife of 32 years, who is a children’s book author and inspiration for his big ideas.
Phil Herel holds a doctorate in physical therapy from Stony Brook University, complementing his undergraduate studies at SUNY Oneonta, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology. He is the proud proprietor of a thriving outpatient physical therapy clinic situated in California. His clinic specializes in the treatment of orthopedic and neurological ailments, a testament to his ability to navigate the complexities of business ownership in the healthcare sector. He believes in remaking capitalism for a more equitable future and believes in reshaping our government to ensure it serves the best interests of all citizens. He is currently based in California with his wife, Monica, who is not only a gifted singer-songwriter, but also a dedicated fitness and Pilates trainer.
Here is an excerpt from America vs. Americans.
This is a conversation about American Laborism.
This has nothing to do with the Labor Movement, organized labor, the British Labour Party, or going into labor.
American Laborism is a new economic system for managing the entire U.S. and therefore a replacement for capitalism. American Laborism respects labor in the way that capitalism respects capital. Labor is in turn respectful of the individual in ways that capital never could be. Capitalism may seem American but is clearly not in the best interest of all Americans.
Capitalism has its merits. But it also has shortcomings, which most obviously led to where we are today, with the largest wealth inequality gap in American history.
It is the goal of American Laborism to fix that.
That is not an outrageous claim!
American Laborism will soon provide the following benefits:
- Low taxes
- Unlimited, lifelong education
- A strong military
- Zero involuntary homelessness, starvation, or malnutrition
- A sound currency, backed by assets such as gold
Most importantly, Laborism will enjoy enthusiastic participation by all citizens of America, be they rich or poor, young or old, liberal or conservative.
American Laborism isn’t just a replacement for capitalism. It’s an upgrade. Every human has the right to live a life of dignity, to contribute, and to ensure that their basic needs are respected by their society.
I’ve made a great living under capitalism … but it has failed us.
American Laborism, however, can improve the lives of every member of our society by bringing upward the least among us without bringing down anyone else.
We have a heavy burden with this book. We want to introduce a new economic structure for America. We want it to thoroughly alter how people living in poverty or dissatisfied with their current economic condition receive aid from the federal government. We want to radically reduce our high marginal tax brackets and restructure taxes overall. And we want to realign the foundation of our entire economy from focusing on capital to focusing on labor.
But we want to do it without handing you a book full of statistics, projections of doom, and the kind of economics discussion that has earned econ the nickname “the dreadful science.”
We want this to be a light read about heavy subjects.
But more importantly, we want this book to be a conversation with you. Here’s why:
American Laborism is a simple idea. The federal government bureaucracy of the United States of America can provide a safety net of everything everyone who needs a safety net would need, as well as unlimited, free, and lifelong schooling, training, and education.
Yes, from cradle to grave, all needs, and all training or education met for those who need it.
Forever.
You may have read the previous chapter and are asking, “So … is this the end of America?”
No, it isn’t the end of America—although the changes we are proposing are indeed significant.
Replace capitalism. End progressive taxes. Shrink the federal government. Provide free lifetime education. We can see why someone might think the America they know is ending. But you could also argue that we’re getting closer to the beginning of America—and doing so in a way that is fair and respectful to all Americans.
For the next few minutes, pretend you are with an acquaintance, and you are having a conversation to pass the time. Imagine that the question of where we are today in terms of how well America takes care of Americans comes up. Maybe even the concept of America working against Americans—America vs. Americans—is mentioned.
If you don’t think you both will agree on the topic, you might be concerned that the discussion could become heated. Alternatively, you might feel as though it would be best to keep your thoughts to yourself.
Paradoxically, virtually everyone can think of ways that America is on the brink of failing our fellow Americans, be it social issues, wealth inequality, runaway taxation, outrageous debt, or crime. Yet because each of us sees differently how America is failing us, it is likely that talking about it will be challenging.
The benefit of doing that—finding common ground—is that together we can help people who need help, stay out of the way of people who don’t so they can prosper, and work on building an America we can all be proud of.
For many people, this could be a difficult situation, but it doesn’t have to be … if you go purple.
By that, we mean try to find some common ground by approaching the conversation from the standpoint that, even if you don’t know how another person feels about America right now, there must be something you both agree on. The benefit of doing that—finding common ground—is that together we can help people who need help, stay out of the way of people who don’t so they can prosper, and work on building an America we can all be proud of.
The role of government in society and how much power it should have are hotly debated topics in America. Liberals and conservatives have very different views on these issues, and their beliefs have shaped the political landscape of the country.
Liberals often believe government has a duty to provide for the common good of society and ensure that all citizens have access to basic necessities such as healthcare, education, and housing. They believe a powerful government can help create a more just and equal society, and that it is government’s responsibility to safeguard vulnerable groups of people and ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to prosper.
Conservatives, on the other hand, believe government’s role should be limited and that individuals should have more freedom to make their own decisions. They argue that a strong government can have a negative impact on personal liberty and economic growth, and that it is the responsibility of individuals to take care of themselves and their families.
Can anyone say right now that either “side”—and we call that out with quotes, because we are different “sides” as much as the left hand is separated from the right hand (separate but still connected as two parts of one body)—is getting what they want?
Change Is Coming … and It’s Needed Fast (But We Better Get It Right)
There are many reasons we believe that purple thinking will benefit America.
The most obvious reason is that America suffers from division among our people. We won’t go into politics here, and truth be told, some of the things Americans disagree on are important to their respective sides, and they don’t want to agree. But this is an economic improvement we’re undertaking with American Laborism. While we’ll acknowledge that we’re divided, we’re going to focus on the part that we can turn into a purple agreement of how best to provide a lifetime of free education and an improved safety net for people who need it.
So a benefit that purple thinking can provide is at least we can agree that the Americans who need help can be helped by the safety net we’re providing … and that currently, America is spending trillions of dollars, but Americans’ problems aren’t being solved.
Another purple benefit is simply receiving the dividends of that unlimited, free education. Who could argue that our society wouldn’t be improved by anyone who wants to become better educated having access to free training and advancement?
But there are also some powerful examples of why it’s critical that we get this right—and fast.
Let’s dive into how a tool we plan to use to improve the delivery of customized education—artificial intelligence (AI)—is so powerful that it could serve as a disruption simultaneously. Worse, if AI does disrupt our economy or labor force, and we haven’t “gone purple” with American Laborism, our government and our present benefit programs are in no way prepared to handle it.
To offer some background, AI has the potential to disrupt our economy by making some jobs easier, some unnecessary, and others so hyper-efficient that employers and employees will have a lot of adjusting to do. We don’t even know all the ramifications and changes that AI will bring, because AI is rapidly developing.
Some AI technologies can read, understand, and summarize huge amounts of information that formerly required trained professionals such as lawyers, business administrators, engineers, doctors, and subject experts to accomplish. More than that, AI can do this work in minutes, replacing untold hours of human effort.
Other AI technologies can look for (and find) patterns in data that could allow anything from medical or scientific research to criminal investigations to become lightning fast.
One thing is certain, though: AI will be able to build custom lesson plans and educational curriculum for people seeking to learn. If a core offering of American Laborism is access to training and education for all people, it makes sense that AI can be used to determine what a student knows, what they want to study, what their education goals are, and the best path to achieve that. Once AI starts helping our students, it can also determine what improvements or changes need to be made to the lessons to best suit each individual.
Imagine having schooling custom-built for you, rather than having to learn the same as everyone else assigned from a specific textbook. The possibilities of how AI can help us are just as exciting as the threats it poses to job security are scary.
In fact, years before the AI we know today was even possible, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) conducted a review of what it thought the disruptive effects of AI might be.
The report found that, contrary to most people’s fears—which are that robots, automation, and AI would render blue-collar workers jobless—most of the expected disruption MIT found would instead occur among white-collar professionals.
The report revealed a lot, but there are two important findings we want to discuss. First, MIT pointed to another prediction that AI will create as many jobs as it destroys, and that could be as much as 47 percent of jobs.
Destroying nearly half of all jobs and replacing them with different jobs—that is a near-perfect picture of disruption. Wherever you work, imagine half of the workforce gone and replaced by people doing something completely different.
The second finding almost proves the case for American Laborism all by itself. AI disruption is expected to affect white-collar workers the most, “they may find it easier to retrain or find alternate roles”—which is exactly a benefit of free, unlimited, lifelong education.
We believe there will certainly be disruption; some people will lose jobs and need to seek other jobs that may require further education or retraining (which American Laborism will happily provide). However, the leaps in efficiency that AI makes possible in some areas will increase our economy and—ironically—drive a need for more labor. Yes, we think the job-disrupting technology will drive more jobs thanks to efficiencies and processes that took days and weeks that will be reduced to just minutes.
So let’s get back to the question, which might be expanded to read: If American Laborism drastically reduces government, lowers taxes, and shifts our so-generous-they-can-be-easily-robbed benefits … is this the end of America as we know it?
The answer is (still) absolutely not. Though it might be the end of overspending on programs that leave hundreds of thousands of people—perhaps millions of people—without sufficient support while excessively taxing everyone. It would be more accurate to say that this is the beginning of an America where we can be proud of ourselves for taking better care of people, reducing waste, and thinking of an improved future where anyone who wants to can increase the value of their labor with a lifelong free education.
That is something both “sides” of America can agree on.
Excerpted from America vs. Americans: How Capitalism Has Failed a Capitalist Nation and What We Can Do About It, with permission. Copyright 2024, Eric Wade and Phil Herel.