In my mind the two are closely related. There is a political school of thought that people's value is to each other, and that people's needs can be fulfilled by commerce. Automation frustrates this concept by removing our needs to rely on human labour.
If people's needs can be fulfilled by commerce then the poor are doomed and always have been. But people who have voluntarily chosen poverty such as Francis of Assisi and Ignatius of Loyola have shown that that's simply not true, and that commerce, while a necessary part of life, is not the fulfillment of our needs, nor are politics.
I get what you're saying. I also have a wife and 6 kids to feed, and it's not easy to be low income. But I've never found my involvement or awareness of politics to in any way help me with that goal, however I have found studying and applying philosophical principles to my life to improve our quality of life significantly, despite being near the poverty line (honestly not sure which side of it we're on).
The fact that some people make one set of life choices does not mean that others should be forced to make the same. Most people don't want to live in poverty. It's really, really not fun.
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In my mind the two are closely related. There is a political school of thought that people's value is to each other, and that people's needs can be fulfilled by commerce. Automation frustrates this concept by removing our needs to rely on human labour.
If people's needs can be fulfilled by commerce then the poor are doomed and always have been. But people who have voluntarily chosen poverty such as Francis of Assisi and Ignatius of Loyola have shown that that's simply not true, and that commerce, while a necessary part of life, is not the fulfillment of our needs, nor are politics.
Did Ignatius of Loyola have two kids and a wife to feed?
I get what you're saying. I also have a wife and 6 kids to feed, and it's not easy to be low income. But I've never found my involvement or awareness of politics to in any way help me with that goal, however I have found studying and applying philosophical principles to my life to improve our quality of life significantly, despite being near the poverty line (honestly not sure which side of it we're on).
The fact that some people make one set of life choices does not mean that others should be forced to make the same. Most people don't want to live in poverty. It's really, really not fun.