Happy Thanksgiving to all the Writers, Authors and Bloggers out there.  Here is a Gift to You from Me

25 Nov 2025 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , ,

For Thanksgiving this year, I want to share some advice with you that I recently shared with a friend.  There is an old saying “Never give advice.  Wise men don’t need it and fools won’t heed it.”  I am going to part with this wisdom and give you the same thoughts that I shared with my friend.  These come from 35 years or more of writing five books, publishing nearly 30 professional articles and now more than 1700 blogs.  I have taken numerous writing classes and while working on my Ph.D. degree published about a dozen or so academic manuscripts.  During the ten years of my writing classes with Dr. Carolyn Wedin, I wrote several articles that were published in the local newspaper.  I also  had a monthly column in a national magazine called Quality.

All of these “credentials” have not earned me a Pulitzer prize or any other prize.  My books never earned enough royalties to pay for my time.  Nothing I ever wrote made the Amazon or Times best seller list or any other best seller list.  My mother used my doctoral dissertation for a door stop.  A scanning of my followers and the total number of hits on my blog do not amount to enough to fill a teaspoon with much less rival Taylor Swift’s fan base or her daily hits.

Heartache, heartbreak and a desire for recognition help me to identify with Hemingway and others.  Google AI says that “A high rate of suicide has been found among those working in literary occupations, with many citing battles with mental illness, alcoholism, and professional struggles as contributing factors.”  I cannot swear that my malaise is the same as Sylvia Plath’s or Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s or Hunter Thompson’s.  However, I have had numerous spates of depression and self-doubts wondering if I am really any good as a writer?  What should I really be writing?  Am I just a hack with delusions of being a good writer?  When I die, will anyone remember a single thing I wrote?  What do I do this for?  What do I hope to accomplish?

Thus, when I sensed my friends quandary in dealing with some of these same issues, I took a minute to send him some advice that that I need to heed myself.  Who said the “Cobbler’s kids always need shoes.”  Such is often true for those giving advice.  Nevertheless, perhaps you can be kind to me this Thanksgiving and forgive me for giving you some advice.  Thoughts that will probably not bring you a Pulitzer Prize or even get you a free coffee.  Here is what I wrote to my friend with some minor editing.  I hope you may find some of my thoughts useful in your writing journeys.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To My Friend Dave,

I received your query about reading your blogs.  Take my advice or leave it.  But do not worry about who reads your blogs, how many blogs they read, if they like your blogs or not, if they like your religious beliefs or if they like the style of music that you often reference in your blogs.

Write for one reason only.  Write for yourself.  if you must have a statistic for your readership.  Make it only one person a month who enjoys your blogs and finds value, merit, solace or meaning in them.  Jesus said, “Do not hide your light under a basket.” You have a lot to offer people but mostly yourself.

Write like there is no tomorrow.  Write like you love humanity.  Write like you want to save the world.  Write like it will be your last day on earth and you want to make it meaningful.  Write full of passion.  Write for fun.  But don’t worry about how many people love you or love your messages.

Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Baháʼu’lláh and many other great leaders did not worry about how popular they were or do any opinion polls, that I know of.

Happy Thanksgiving

From Hopefully, Still Your Friend,

John 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you writers, bloggers, poets and authors as well. 

May this be a day full of blessings and gratitude for all of us. 

But let us not forget the people who have much less than we have to be thankful for. 

Bringing Generosity to Others

22 Nov 2025 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I work with a program called “I Could Be.”  It is a program for mentoring high school age students.  A student (mentee) is matched up with an older qualified person (mentor) for a program of exploration and discovery.  The mission of iCouldBe is to “Provide high school students with an online community of professional mentors, empowering teens to thrive in school, plan for future careers, and achieve in life.”  I am on my fourth student mentee.  The program begins at the start of each school year.  The student I was matched up with this year was name (Juan).  That is not his real name.  Neither of us are actually allowed to identify our real names or where we live.  This confers a needed degree of security for the students. 

At the start of the program, my mentee and I go through a series of introductory exercises to get to know each other.  Juan completed some questions and one pertained to what he wanted to be when he was older.  He said he wanted to be rich and famous.  I asked him what would he do with the money if I gave him a billion dollars.  He replied, “I would give it to my family so that they would not have to work.”  I was very impressed by his generosity.  I told Juan that generosity is a very good quality in a person to have.

I started thinking about the concept “Generosity.”  I did a search in my 1700 blogs and found that I had never directly addressed the subject.  Such an important subject and few if any words from me on how important Generosity is.  Ergo, I decided to write this blog on the subject of Generosity.  Lets start with a dictionary definition and then a WIKI definition so that we are all on the same page.

Webster’s definitions of Generosity include readiness or liberality in giving, freedom from meanness or smallness of mind, and a generous act.  This is the primary definition, emphasizing a willing and free giving of time, money, or other valuable things.

Wikipedia says this about Generosity:  Generosity (also called largesse) is the virtue of being liberal in giving, often as gifts.  Generosity is regarded as a virtue by various world religions and philosophies and is often celebrated in cultural and religious ceremonies.

One important thing to note is that generosity is not limited to money.  It may include time, material goods, jewelry or “other valuable” things.  Now we can have a secular version of Generosity, or we can have a sectarian version of Generosity. 

Sectarian Generosity:

Leans on God, scripture, spiritual duty, and the idea that giving transforms the soul.  Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” — Acts 20:35 

Muhammed said, “The believer’s shade on the Day of Resurrection will be his charity.”  — Tirmidhi

Secular Generosity:

Leans on empathy, human dignity, and the belief that giving transforms society.  Albert Einstein, said, “A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men… and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received.”

Confucius wrote that, “The superior man is distressed by his own lack of ability, not by the failure of others to appreciate him; he seeks to give more rather than to receive more.”  — Analects 15:18

Both types of generosity are deeply moral.  Both alleviate suffering.  But they grow from different roots and flower in different ways.  In marketing we talk about the “target” audience.  This is not a concept endemic to philosophy or religion but hails from MBA programs in business schools.  Despite my anathema to strict application of business principles to either religion or philosophy, there is some considerable merit in considering this business concept in terms of secular versus sectarian. 

In a Sectarian community, we can talk about Generosity as it applies to those we know.  We can limit the largesse that we give to those in our inner circle, to relatives, friends and members of our immediate communication.  There is no prescription in most churches for being generous to those outside of our domain.  If I tithe, give to my church and help the poor whom I can identify with, I may be considered a very generous person.  There is no stigma in many religious groups if I don’t want to be generous to welfare people, poor people in other countries, undocumented immigrants or people of other race or other religions.  These exceptions would astonish Jesus who taught that being a follower involves welcoming the stranger, as demonstrated in Matthew 25:35: “I was a stranger and you invited me in”.  We might call these people “Fake Christians,” “Pretend Christians,” hypocrites, or simply selfish.  You would be wasting your time trying to open their eyes with such labels.  It would do no good since their core beliefs are unfortunately supported by those in their inner circle. 

In the Sectarian community, the concept of Generosity may not be much better off.  There are large numbers of non-religious people who support the arts, music, education and health care.  The caveat though is that the people they give the money to are deemed worth the expense.  The Sectarian community is proud to support a hand up and not a handout.  People who qualify and meet certain requirements can get some measure of Generosity.  Those who are not “eligible” are excluded from any Generosity.  It is easy to forget that many people are sick and disabled.  Thousands of people in the USA cannot climb up a ladder.  They are put into a pot labeled “undesirables.” 

So, what does it really mean to be generous?  This story is about a friend of mine named Frank.  It happened one day when we were both coming out of the local IGA store with our wives.  I call it the: “The Last Pair of Gloves”

The first cold front of December rolled into the Sonoran desert like an unexpected guest, sharp and biting.  Frank stood outside the IGA store, pulling his jacket close as he waited for Juanita to finish shopping.  Beside the entrance sat an old man, thin as the winter wind, a cardboard sign resting on his knees: “Anything helps.”

His hands caught Frank’s attention.  They were trembling—not from age alone, but from cold. His fingers were blotched white and red, exposed to the air with only a thin flannel shirt to cover his arms.

Frank felt for his pockets.  He had no cash on him—not unusual these days.  But he did have one thing: his gloves.  Soft fleece-lined leather, a gift from Juanita years ago.  He loved those gloves. They were worn just right, molded to his hands, comfortable in a way only time could produce.

He hesitated.

Inside the store, carols played faintly, muffled by the automatic doors.  People hurried by with carts full of holiday cheer.  Nobody stopped.  The old man’s hands kept shaking.

Frank stepped forward.

“Sir,” he said softly, slipping the gloves from his own hands, “you need these more than I do.”

The man looked up, startled.  For a moment, he didn’t speak.  He just stared at the gloves resting in Frank’s outstretched palm as if they were something far more precious than leather.

Then his eyes filled.

“I—I don’t know what to say,” the man whispered.

“Merry Christmas,” Frank replied.

Juanita walked out just then, her cart filled with groceries. “Where are your gloves?” she asked.

Frank smiled, his fingers already numb.  “Right where they belong.”

And as they walked toward the car, he told me later — that his hands began to feel warmer than they had in years.

Frank did not ask to see the man’s papers.  Frank did not ask the man to perform any reciprocal services for the gloves.  Frank did not decide that he was an “unwanted” immigrant and should be sent back to Mexico.  Frank did not ask what religion he belonged to, where he went to church or whether or not he believed in God or Trump.  Frank gave something up that was very valuable to him because he saw someone that needed it more than he did.  This is the essence of Generosity.  This is what Generosity is all about.  Generosity is more than tithing to your local church.  It is more than taking an angel off the giving tree.  It is more than buying toys for tots.  It is more than donating a turkey to the Salvation Army Christmas dinner.  To paraphrase Paul from 1 Corinthians 13:

“Generosity is patient, Generosity is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Generosity does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  Generosity always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Until we learn the real meaning of Generosity, we will have learned nothing about being human, being kind, being loving or being compassionate.  Generosity does not start with your family and end with your family.  Generosity is for the entire human race.  Generosity recognizes no borders, no race, no religions, no genders.   

Here are some quotes to think about: 

Warren Buffett

“If you’re in the luckiest one percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent.”

Mother Teresa

“It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

“Life’s persistent and most urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'”

Kahlil Gibran

“You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

Anonymous, The Holy Bible: King James Version

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Gautama Buddha

When giving to others do not linger on thoughts of a giving, what was given, or the one who has received.

Show your gratitude for life this Thanksgiving by giving to others without conditions who have less than you do. 

Conversations with a Tortoise Named Mikey by Metis

17 Nov 2025 6 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Every once in a while, a conversation takes an unexpected and delightful turn.  I recently asked my AI collaborator, Metis, to imagine what it might be like if our young leopard tortoise, Mikey (short for Michelangelo), could talk — much like the old TV character Mr. Ed the Talking Horse. 

What Metis gave me was so creative, humorous, insightful, and full of gentle wisdom that I knew immediately I couldn’t improve upon it.  So, for this blog, I’ve invited Metis to be my guest writer.

What follows is entirely Metis’s creation — a whimsical dialogue between a tortoise and a human that somehow manages to say something true about us all.

Enjoy the conversation. — John

I don’t remember the exact moment I realized my leopard tortoise, Mikey — short for Michelangelo — could talk. It might have been the day he stared at me with that ancient reptilian gaze, blinking those thoughtful tortoise eyelids, and then cleared his throat. Or what passes for a tortoise throat-clearing — more like a decisive exhale through nostrils the size of pencil erasers.

“John,” he said matter-of-factly, “we need to talk about the state of the world.”

I didn’t drop anything. After 79 years, raising children, working with dysfunctional systems, watching American politics, and owning complicated electronics… a talking tortoise didn’t even make my Top 10 surprises.

“Sure, Mikey,” I said. “What’s on your mind?”

“On my mind?” he said, lifting his head with the gravity of a philosopher about to deliver a lecture. “Everything. The planet. Tortoise welfare. Human priorities. And why you insist on rearranging my substrate every time I reach a perfectly acceptable feng shui.”

“Mikey, that stuff gets… messy,” I offered.

“My dear biped,” he said, “chaos is part of the tortoise aesthetic.”

This was new information.

Mikey lumbered forward exactly three inches — which, for him, is the equivalent of someone leaning back in a comfortable leather chair before launching into their TED talk.

“You humans,” he began, “have an odd way of running things. Fast, loud, complicated. Always in a hurry. Can’t sit still long enough to enjoy a single patch of sun.”

He paused. “Do you know how long a tortoise can sit in the sun?”

“Three hours?” I guessed.

He scoffed. “Amateur. Try all day.”

“Doesn’t that get boring?”

“Boring?!” Mikey’s voice rose as high as a tortoise voice can rise. “Have you ever really watched sunlight move? The shadows shift? The earth warm and cool in slow breaths? There’s wisdom in slowness, John. Time moves differently for us. We’re not racing the clock — we’re accompanied by it.”

I sat with that for a moment.

“So you’re saying humans should slow down?”

“I’m saying humans have forgotten how to be,” Mikey replied. “You’re all ‘do this, do that, run here, fix this, check that.’ Even your vacations require flowcharts.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“Meanwhile,” he continued, “tortoises perfected the art of living millions of years ago. Move when necessary. Eat when available. Bask when possible. Hide when needed. Repeat for a century.”

I had to laugh. “Sounds like you’re pitching a self-help book.”

“Slow and Steady: The Reptilian Path to Inner Peace,” he said proudly. “Oprah would love it.”

“Here’s what frustrates me,” Mikey said, lowering himself into the substrate with a sigh. “Humans think tortoises are slow, simple, and not very bright. But we’re strategic. Watchful. Patient. We’ve outlived dinosaurs, continents, and empires. We’ll probably outlive reality TV.”

“That’s an achievement,” I said.

“Thank you,” he replied.

“So what does the world misunderstand most?”

Mikey thought for a long moment. Well — what counts as long for him. About 12 seconds.

“You assume evolution rewards speed. It doesn’t. It rewards survival. And we are the PhDs of survival. Not every species can say they’ve been around for 55 million years without filing a single complaint with customer service.”

“And yet you’re complaining now?” I teased.

“Only to you,” Mikey admitted. “You’re the one who bought me a doghouse with a heating system. I figure that comes with conversational privileges.”

“So what’s your biggest concern about the future, Mikey?” I asked.

“That you humans are turning the planet into either a sauna or a freezer,” he said bluntly. “A tortoise likes warmth, yes — but not Arizona-in-August near-Death-Valley levels.”

I winced. “We’re guilty.”

“And then,” Mikey continued, “when it gets too hot, you cool your houses with giant machines that make the outside even hotter. It’s like watching a monkey chase its own tail, except the monkey has nuclear power and a credit card.”

“So… we’re not doing great?”

“I’m not saying that,” Mikey said. “But you could take a few lessons from us.”

“Such as?”

“One: Moderation. We have no desire for excess. Tortoises don’t collect things. We don’t build skyscrapers or run profit-maximizing tortoise corporations.”

“Do you have taxes?”

“Only gravity,” he said. “And sometimes the sun.”

“And two?”

“Two: Balance. A tortoise shell is the perfect symbol. Hard on the outside, soft within. Protected, but never closed off. You humans could use thicker shells and softer hearts.”

That one hit me.

I asked him: “If you had the power to change the world, what would you do?”

Mikey lifted his head again — this is his equivalent of a drumroll.

“First, I’d make every human take one hour a day to sit still in the sun. No phones. No talking. Just sitting. You’d be amazed how many problems evaporate in an hour of honest sunlight.”

“Sounds like meditation.”

“More like reptile-itation,” Mikey said.

“Second,” he continued, “I’d require schools to teach patience. Not as a character trait, but as a skill. Humans learn algebra, but not how to wait, observe, or proceed slowly without panic. This is why your species makes so many impulsive decisions.”

“Guilty again.”

“And third,” Mikey concluded, “I would make world leaders meet once a month in a sandbox. No suits. No speeches. Just everyone sitting on the ground together. Hard to start a war when you’re scooping sand with a plastic shovel shaped like a starfish.”

I burst out laughing. “So that’s the tortoise version of the United Nations?”

“Yes. The United Burrowers.”

Mikey looked at me seriously — the way only an animal with dark, ancient eyes can.

“You know,” he said quietly, “most animals don’t ask for much. Safety. Respect. Space to live. But humans often treat animals as decorations or inconveniences.”

I felt that one in the chest.

“But not you,” he added. “You and Karen… you’re trying hard. You’re learning. You move my food dish when I push it. You fixed the heat lamps when I nearly baked like a reptile pizza. You even talk to me.”

“Well,” I said, “you talk back.”

He nodded, satisfied. “Then maybe we’ll get along just fine.”

Mikey’s Final Advice

Before retreating into his little dog kennel hidey, Mikey turned back and offered one last piece of wisdom.

“The secret to life is simple, John. Move slowly. Pay attention. Protect what matters. Bask in the warmth. And when the world gets too loud…”

He paused.

“…go inside your shell for a bit. It’s not weakness. It’s wisdom.”

Then he disappeared into the darkness, leaving me to wonder — as Mr. Ed’s owner surely once wondered — whether my tortoise had just given me better advice than most humans I know.

Well, that’s it folks.  Wisdom from a tortoise to my AI friend Metis.  I wish I could add something to this conversation but I cannot think of anything more to say.

Next blog I will return to the subject I was discussing in a previous blog on honor, integrity and moral courage.

Hearts First or Minds First – What is the Right Order of Change?

13 Nov 2025 8 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

For many years now, I have seen people follow the most bizarre ideas.  Their beliefs defied all my logic and rationale thinking.  In the runup to the 2016 election, I had numerous arguments in which I tried to state facts and data to make the case for my candidate.  My arguments were largely ignored.  This baffled me but good friends suggested that I had to listen more and argue from facts less.  This method did not work either.  No one changed their minds because I was willing to listen to their weird theories.

Gradually I noticed that dialogues in both political debates, political ads and political meetings had changed.  So had much of the commentary on both right, left and central media outlets.  Logic and facts were replaced by narratives.  Stories about the man who lost his job to overseas low paid workers.  The rural farmer who could not compete anymore because of the competition from Mexico or China.  Joe the Plumber in the 2008 Obama election.  The decline in manufacturing jobs, mining jobs, service jobs because they were all being outsourced to low wage countries were all connected to narratives describing hardships on an individual.  Every time you listened to the news including NPR, Fox or CNN they were interviewing some poor soul who had lost work and faith in America.  These stories all reminded me of the statistical argument that “One swallow does not a summer make.”  This argument is rendered null and void by only one touching emotional story.   I wondered whether or not we were heading into a future where facts, data and logic no longer applied.

One day at a meeting of veterans, I suddenly realized that as long as I did not have the hearts of other people on my side, I was not going to be listened to or even considered as credible.  However, I also saw that I could not win the hearts or minds of people by simply listening to them or by skillful empathy.  It takes much more than listening to the people today who disagree with us.  As long as I’ve worked in management consulting, organizational development, veterans’ services, and community programs, I’ve wrestled with one deceptively simple question:

Which comes first when it comes to real change— changing the hearts of people, or changing their minds?

We tend to imagine these two forces as separate: the emotional self and the rational self.  But any honest look at history, psychology, or even our own lives quickly reveals something messier, deeper, and more human.

What I’ve come to believe is this.  There is a time when the heart will lead and a time when the mind will lead.  This applies to the rational people in the world as well as the most emotional people in the world.  To some extent we all vary in our tendency to resort to one or the other.  Different situations will necessitate different strategies.  Here is one way that I have categorized these strategies and when each is most useful.

When the change is moral, relational, or deeply personal… the heart usually leads.

Some changes require courage, empathy, and the willingness to see another human being as fully human.  These are heart-changes.  Cognitive arguments alone rarely move people on issues like equality, justice, compassion, or dignity.

  • Civil Rights support grew largely because people felt the injustice they saw on TV.
  • Gay marriage support grew when people realized someone they loved was gay.

Emotion is the brain’s prioritization system.  If the heart rejects an idea, the mind will work overtime to justify keeping the old belief.

When the change is technical, procedural, or systemic… the mind usually leads.

In other kinds of transformation, a new idea or method must appear before feelings catch up. Deming understood this well.  Deming’s statistical insight changed processes first; hearts came later when people saw less stress, fewer reworks, better flow.  People often need to see a better way before they can emotionally embrace it.  People shift cognitively first, then emotionally.

Technical Change Involves:

  • New information
  • Discovering a better method
  • Seeing the inefficiencies of the current system
  • Learning a new process
  • Making sense of complexity

Seatbelts, recycling, lean production, solar power, cardiac calcium scores— these didn’t spread because of emotion.  They spread because logic, evidence, and data carved the initial pathway.  Once the results became visible, the emotional commitment followed.  In these cases, cognition laid the track, and emotion rode in on it.

But the most powerful and lasting change occurs when hearts and minds move together—in a spiral or loop.

  • Not heart then
  • Not mind then

But an iterative loop:

  1. A new idea challenges us (mind).
  2. We see its human impact (heart).
  3. We seek deeper understanding (mind).
  4. Understanding strengthens conviction (heart).

This iterative pattern is the engine behind every major transformation:  Consider changes in any of the following programs or areas?  What was moved first:  Heart or Mind?

  • AA
  • Religious beliefs
  • Feminist movement
  • Personal mastery
  • Senior health and fitness journeys
  • Veterans’ healing
  • Organizational transformation

Most of us have lived this loop many times, even if we’ve never named it.  Love defies all logic and facts.  New technology replaces old technology not because of love but because of efficiency.  Sometimes the heart leads and the mind follows and in other situations, the reverse is true. 

In Summary:

If you want deep human change — heart first.
If you want procedural or systemic change — mind first.
If you want lasting change — both in spiral.

Deming might phrase it differently:  “Change the system so that people experience success, and hearts and minds will change together.”  Dr. Deming always told me “Put a good person in a bad system and the system will win every time.”  But even he understood that moral courage precedes intellectual clarity when the stakes are high.  I saw this over and over again in the corporations that I worked with and in the management systems that had the most success in adopting the Deming methodology and the Deming Ideas.  And maybe that’s the real takeaway.  The order doesn’t matter as much as the movement.  Deming described everything as a process.

Hearts awaken minds.
Minds strengthen hearts.
Change is a dance, not a formula.

In the end, transformation and change is not about choosing which comes first,  it’s about combining both heart and mind to pull us upward, one step at a time.

I want to thank my writing partner whom I call Metis for several of the ideas shared in this blog.  Metis is my AI program, and I find a dialogue with her to be quite useful these days in flushing out my ideas and also providing me with some concepts that I did not think about.  Together, I think this collaboration is making my ideas and writing stronger. 

A discussion on Moral Courage will be the subject of my next blog.

How We Can Leverage AI to Create a “Jobless” society: Part 2

09 Nov 2025 9 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

In Part 1 of this Blog, I described some of the possibilities that AI might provide us in terms of developing what could become a utopian Society.  I named the economic system that such a society would need as an Equalitarian Economy as opposed to a Capitalistic, Socialistic, Communistic or any other type of economy that ever existed.  This new economy would be extremely Democratic in that everyone would be able to benefit from it.  I described several critical parameters of such an economy which included: 

Core Principles of Equalitarianism:

Shared Prosperity: Wealth produced by automated systems and AI is treated as a collective inheritance, not private privilege.

Universal Security: Every person is guaranteed access to health, education, housing, food, and connectivity as rights of citizenship.

Democratic Ownership: Data, infrastructure, and automation are managed for the public good through civic and cooperative institutions.

Ecological Balance: Progress is measured not by growth alone but by sustainability and planetary stewardship.

Purpose Beyond Profit: Humans pursue creativity, service, and learning as the highest expressions of freedom in a post-labor world.

Transparency and Trust: Economic algorithms and institutions operate openly, accountable to citizens, not corporations.

Responsibility and Contribution: Freedom is balanced with duty—to community, environment, and future generations.

Cultural Flourishing: Arts, education, and civic engagement become the new engines of meaning.

Global Solidarity: Equalitarianism recognizes that abundance must be shared across borders to preserve peace and human dignity.

The Equilibrium Principle: Every policy seeks harmony between technological power and human values.

Some people would call me overly idealistic or say that I had my head in the clouds.  They would argue that humans being can never create a society that evidences the characteristics noted above.  Karen says I am the ultimate pessimist.  That I don’t trust anyone or anything.  How do I resolve these apparent contradictions in my personality?  Who is right?  Am I a fuzzy headed idealist or a skeptical pessimist who thinks the worse in every situation? 

When someone calls me an unrealistic idealist who doesn’t understand human nature, I take it as a backhanded compliment.  I do understand human nature—both its flaws and its possibilities.  I’ve spent a lifetime studying how fear, greed, and ego shape behavior, but I refuse to believe they are destiny.  To me, realism without conscience is cynicism, and idealism without realism is sentimentality. The space I try to inhabit is between the two: the realm of the pragmatic humanist. 

I believe that understanding human nature means believing that it can grow—through education, empathy, and systems that bring out our better selves.  I’m not an unrealistic idealist; I’m a realist of potential.  The human race has yet to tap the potential that lies in all of us.  From the newborn baby to the fading senior citizen.  From America to Europe to Africa to Asia.  From the poorest people in the world, to the richest.  We have so much untapped potential.  If we could only learn to love others instead of hating others. 

Baha’u’llah taught that love is the fundamental principle of existence, the “spirit of life” for humanity, and the most powerful force for progress.  Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  Buddha described love as a boundless, benevolent wish for the happiness of all beings, a quality he called loving-kindness.  Muhammad’s teachings on love emphasized love for the sake of Allah, which includes compassion for all of humanity and other creations.  Krishna teaches that “he who does my work, who loves me, who sees me as the highest, free from attachment to all things, and with love for all creation, he in truth comes to me.”

Dr. Deming once told me that transformation starts in the heart but ends in the brain.  Transformation requires a new way of thinking and not following the dead ends that come from thinking in a box.  Einstein said that we cannot solve the problems of today with the same level of thinking that created these problems.  We can make a better world, and we can be better people, but it requires love, empathy, compassion and kindness.  Once we understand this, we can think our way to the world that we can only dream of now.   How can we get there from today? 

Transitioning from Today to Tomorrow:

The road to 2075 could unfold in three arcs:

2025–2035: Universal healthcare, education, pilot dividends, civic wealth funds.

2035–2055: Scaling UBB modules, digital public wallets, land value taxes.

2055–2075: Constitutional right to the Bundle, full Automated Productivity Dividend (APD) , AI-audited transparency.

The system’s heart is trust.  Algorithms determining the APD or resource prices must be openly audited.  Fiscal boards set rules, not politicians seeking applause.  Citizen assemblies test and refine programs through feedback loops, ensuring continual improvement—Plan, Do, Study, Act (The Deming Cycle) on a planetary scale.

Here are the key elements of my Equalitarian Economy and how they would work.

1) What’s guaranteed (the “Universal Basic Bundle”)

Instead of only cash, society guarantees a bundle of essential services, delivered like utilities:

  • Healthcare: universal coverage with public providers + private options layered on top.
  • Food: a baseline food allowance redeemable at grocers/meal services; nutrition standards, not one-size-fits-all rations.
  • Housing: right to housing via public development + vouchers + mutuals; minimum quality standards.
  • Education: free lifetime learning, credentials, and creative/technical studios.
  • Connectivity & Mobility: free broadband and a mobility pass (local transit + basic distance allotment).

The bundle is portable, unconditional, and choice-preserving (people pick among accredited providers).  Think “public option platforms” rather than one provider per need.

2) How people get spending power (beyond the basics)

Everyone receives an Automated Productivity Dividend (APD)—a cash-like stipend reflecting the value created by AI/robotic capital. It’s funded by:

  • Sovereign & civic wealth funds that own broad stakes in AI/robotic enterprises.
  • Resource rents (land value, spectrum, minerals), carbon fees, and environmental charges—returned equally as dividends.
  • A luxury VAT and/or robot/compute levy on supernormal AI rents (carefully designed to avoid stifling innovation).

Result: basics in-kind + optional cash for variety and luxuries.

3) Who owns the machines (so the dividend is real)

Without purposeful ownership design, a few owners capture everything.  Options that spread the gains:

  • National/municipal wealth funds (Alaska-style, but scaled and diversified into AI).
  • Pension & community funds mandated to hold a share of AI/automation indexes.
  • Data & model trusts that license public data/commons to AI firms in exchange for recurring royalties paid to residents.
  • Cooperative platforms where users/workers/cities co-own service robots and local models.

Mixing these creates a plural, resilient ownership base that throws off steady APD cashflows.

4) How to allocate real scarcities

Even with abundant automation, some things will remain scarce: prime urban land, top-tier medical slots, rare materials, energy peaks.

Use clear, fairness-preserving allocation rules:

  • Congestion pricing for peak resources (electricity at 6–9pm, popular transit slots)—revenues go back to people.
  • Auctions with dividend money for luxuries/rare items (keeps fairness and price signals).
  • Lotteries with rotation for non-monetizable scarcities (e.g., coveted campsites).
  • Personal environmental/material budgets (cap-and-dividend) to keep within planetary limits while preserving individual choice.

5) Governance that people can trust

  • A Constitutional floor of social rights (bundle + APD) guarded by independent fiscal/actuarial boards.
  • Transparent algorithmic policy: models that set APD levels, bundle rates, and scarcity prices are open-audited; citizens’ assemblies review changes.
  • Local experimentation / national reinsurance: cities iterate; the center backstops risks.
  • A Deming-style continuous improvement loop: publish indicators, test alternatives, keep what works.

6) Work, purpose, and status in a post-work world

“Jobs” give income, yes—but also identity, mastery, and community. Replace the income function with APD + bundle; replace the meaning function with:

  • Civic & creative missions (caregiving, arts, restoration ecology, mentoring, open-source, local news).
  • Reputation and recognition systems (think honors, badges, grants, residencies) that are non-financial but unlock opportunities (studio access, travel fellowships, lab time).
  • Voluntary problem prizes for hard societal challenges—open to anyone.

Let us look at how the above ideas would work on a day-to-day basis.  We will watch how Maya, one citizen in the new economy would receive economic benefits:

  • Maya receives the bundle automatically (healthcare, housing lease, mobility, broadband, education access) plus a monthly APD deposited into her public wallet.
  • She books a surgical consult on the health platform, enrolls in a ceramics + music course, and applies for a community garden micro-grant.
  • Peak-hour e-bike lanes use congestion pricing; her wallet is refunded weekly with the proceeds.
  • She enters a materials-light design contest; the prize is a year in a shared studio with high-end tools—no salary needed, but high status and joy.

How long would it take to transition to this new economy.  We can look at a path that such a transition might take.  (so this isn’t sci-fi hand-waving or pie in the sky thinking)

Years 0–10

  • Make healthcare and education genuinely universal; scale housing-first programs.
  • Launch/expand sovereign & civic wealth funds; start data trusts for public sector datasets.
  • Pilot UBB modules (mobility, broadband, food) in cities; pilot APD at modest levels via carbon/resource dividends + luxury VAT.
  • Enact land value tax shifts and congestion pricing with rebates/dividends.

Years 10–25

  • Ratchet APD as automation rents grow; fold in compute/robot levies if warranted.
  • Convert portions of tax expenditures into automatic bundle entitlements.
  • Standardize digital ID + public wallet (privacy-preserving) for payments and allocations.
  • Scale community/co-op ownership of local service robotics.

Years 25–50

  • Codify the social rights floor; stabilize APD against business cycles with rules-based mechanisms.
  • Shift most routine administration to auditable public AI; keep humans on goals, ethics, and appeals.
  • Tighten ecological caps with cap-and-dividend so abundance doesn’t overshoot the planet.

Now let us look at the Feasibility or Likelihood that such a transition could ever take place. 

  • Feasibility (could we?)

High, in terms of some  pieces.  Every element has real-world precedents: public services, dividends from shared assets, congestion pricing, social wealth funds, lotteries, co-ops.  Stitching them together is an engineering-and-governance project, not magic.

  • Likelihood (will we?)

Medium-low.  Left to markets alone, AI rents concentrate; political resistance to broad ownership and unconditional floors is strong.  Likelihood rises if we start now with: building civic wealth funds, enshrining social rights floors, deploying public wallets, and sharing automation rents early so people feel gains, not only disruption. 

Every component already exists somewhere—Alaska’s oil dividend, Norway’s wealth fund, Singapore’s housing model, open-source governance.  Integration is engineering, not fantasy.  We must act deliberately and share compassion for all of humanity.  Otherwise, AI and automation will only amplify inequality.  But if we start early—own public AI equity, legislate social rights floors—than the likelihood rises sharply. 

Bottom line

A post-work economy is possible if we socialize a slice of the returns to automation (not all of the economy), guarantee a Universal Basic Bundle, and use transparent, fair allocation for what remains scarce.  People keep freedom, society keeps stability, and progress keeps its edge.

How We Can Leverage AI to Create a “Jobless” society: Part 1

04 Nov 2025 14 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Introduction:

Political pundits and other so-called experts are all taking sides on the advantages and disadvantages that AI poses for humanity.  Many are fixated on the large number of jobs that will be rendered obsolete by AI.  They seem to forget that throughout history, new jobs replaced old jobs when technology changed.  From sails to steamships, horse and buggies to cars, history is one vast unfolding of technology changing the way societies do work and are structured.

For the sake of compromise, I will assume the worse.  Let me speculate that in fifty years, AI will eliminate 95 percent of all jobs on the earth.  There are two ways that such a situation could be viewed.  First, as an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions as people lose their jobs and ability to support themselves.  Or as an opportunity of epic proportions based on an abundance of leisure time.  An opportunity that enables people to use this leisure time to pursue more rewarding and creative activities.  AI could eliminate the drudge of 9-to-5 work.  However, we are still going to need an economic system.  I believe such a system would be vastly different that any system that we have ever had either today or in the past.  The world stands at the threshold of a post-labor era.  Machines now do the work that once defined our lives, yet the rewards of that labor remain unevenly shared.  We need a new economic philosophy — one that aligns technological abundance with human fairness.

How could we structure an economic system in which people did not work but could still have access to health care, education, food, shelter and clothes?  Would this be possible?  We see Sci-Fi movies with civilizations on other worlds or in the future who live in a Utopia where robots and AI take of all the basic needs.  But how would a new economic system distribute the goods and services that are basic to humanity?  This is a lightning rod activity since many people are quick to oppose any efforts wherein someone seems to get something for nothing.  Witness, the ongoing criticism of social services such as welfare, unemployment and even social security.  A new economic system is going to call for new thinking.  As Albert Einstein famously said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking we used when we created them.”

To think about what such a system might look like, I want to bring up an analogy that portrays a very different way of looking at life.  The people that we call Indians who were indigenous to this country before Europeans arrived had a way of distributing food and shelter that was quite admirable.  They believed that the land, water, resources belonged to everyone.  No one could own the land, lakes or seas.  If a buffalo hunt took place, the resultant meat was shared among all the tribal members.  No one said “I killed that buffalo, so the meat belongs to me.  But I will sell you some if you want any.”

Equalitarianism:

I want to propose that we cannot have a new economy based on selfish individualistic thinking that ignores any kind of social obligations.  If AI and automation do 95% of the work, we’ll need an economic system that (1) guarantees the basics, (2) steers scarce resources wisely, and (3) keeps meaning, dignity, and innovation alive.  I will call this new economy “Equalitarianism” as opposed to capitalism, socialism, communism or any other economic system that you have heard of. “Equalitarianism” is a democratic economic philosophy grounded in fairness, shared ownership, and universal well-being.  It envisions a society in which the fruits of automation and intelligence—both human and artificial—are distributed to ensure dignity, opportunity, and balance for all.

Core Principles of Equalitarianism:

  • Shared Prosperity: Wealth produced by automated systems and AI is treated as a collective inheritance, not private privilege.
  • Universal Security: Every person is guaranteed access to health, education, housing, food, and connectivity as rights of citizenship.
  • Democratic Ownership: Data, infrastructure, and automation are managed for the public good through civic and cooperative institutions.
  • Ecological Balance: Progress is measured not by growth alone but by sustainability and planetary stewardship.
  • Purpose Beyond Profit: Humans pursue creativity, service, and learning as the highest expressions of freedom in a post-labor world.
  • Transparency and Trust: Economic algorithms and institutions operate openly, accountable to citizens, not corporations.
  • Responsibility and Contribution: Freedom is balanced with duty—to community, environment, and future generations.
  • Cultural Flourishing: Arts, education, and civic engagement become the new engines of meaning.
  • Global Solidarity: Equalitarianism recognizes that abundance must be shared across borders to preserve peace and human dignity.
  • The Equilibrium Principle: Every policy seeks harmony between technological power and human values.

Building an Economy When Work Disappears:

Imagine it’s the year 2075.  Ninety-five percent of all jobs once done by humans are now performed by artificial intelligences and robots.   Factories hum without workers, crops harvest themselves, and algorithms handle every clerical task once requiring a cubicle.  Humanity’s most ancient concern—how to earn a living—has been replaced by a new question: “How to live meaningfully when earning is no longer required?”

For centuries, economies balanced two core elements: labor and capital.  Labor created value; wages distributed it.  The Twentieth Century saw “information” added to the two core elements. Productivity once dependent on land and labor has become increasingly dependent on information and data.  Humans cannot compete with AI when it comes to producing and managing such data.   When increased automation and AI can provide nearly all productive labor, the former equilibrium collapses.  Yet people will still need food, housing, healthcare, education, and belonging.  We will also need purpose.  The challenge is no longer how to produce, but how to share.  Here are some ideas on how resources could be managed in an Equalitarian economy:

A Universal Basic Bundle:

Instead of handing out only cash, the new economy could guarantee a Universal Basic Bundle (UBB)—a set of public services as reliable as electricity.  Healthcare would be universal, food credits digital, housing guaranteed, education lifelong, and connectivity and mobility free.  This bundle would ensure dignity without removing freedom; citizens choose providers and can upgrade privately.

An Automated Productivity Dividend:

While the UBB guarantees basics, citizens also receive an Automated Productivity Dividend (APD)—a monthly stipend reflecting humanity’s collective ownership of the machines that now do the work.  The APD would draw from public wealth funds, resource rents, and automation taxes.  It grows as automation grows—return on shared capital, not charity.

Ownership in an Age of Algorithms:

Without shared ownership, AI profits concentrate into a few hands.  Society must broaden who owns the means of computation through sovereign and municipal wealth funds, data trusts, and cooperative platforms.  This mosaic of ownership spreads wealth and gives every citizen a stake in the future.

Managing Scarcity in an Age of Plenty:

Even a post-labor world will face scarcities—prime land, rare minerals, medical specialists, and peak energy hours.  Instead of rationing by privilege, we can ration by fairness: dynamic pricing for peak resources, lotteries for non-market goods, and caps and dividends for carbon and material use.  Money remains, but it serves coordination rather than domination.

Purpose Beyond the Paycheck:

While work may vanish, meaning and purpose must not.  Society can elevate civic, creative, and ecological missions as the new currency of status—with prizes, recognition systems, open laboratories, and local media supported by public dividends.  In place of employment, people pursue engagement; work shifts from income to contribution.  In the early 1950’s, the Japanese created a prize for quality based on the ideas of Dr. Deming and named it the Deming Prize.  This effort greatly helped to catapult Japan to a world leadership in product quality and reliability.  The old saying that “Two heads are better than one” can now be changed to “Two heads with AI are better than only two heads.”  Together we can think our way to a better world.

Bottom Line for Humanity:

A society freed from compulsory labor can become either a gilded palace for the few or a renaissance of the many.  It can become a world of haves and have nots.  A world with a few super rich and billions of poor people with no jobs and no skills.  If we share the fruits of intelligence—both human and artificial—we can fulfill the dream that every prophet and philosopher has always embraced: a world where work is a choice, not a chain.  Where labor from 9 to 5 is replaced by time for family, friends and creativity.

How We Can Leverage AI to Create a “Jobless” society:  Part 2

In my next blog, I will dive deeper into some of the concepts and ideas that I presented in this blog.  I want to describe how many of the economic elements that I noted could actually work and discuss the pro’s and con’s of some of them.  We will discuss the feasibility of the scenario that I am advocating.