Over the years I’ve heard a lot about why UBI wouldn’t work in reality, and I blindly believed it. But recently I’ve been reading two very relevant books (Andrew Yang’s The War on Normal People and David Graeber’s Bullsh*t Jobs) that show a lot of the narrative around UBI is actually myth.

I wanted to share what I’ve learned in case it’s news to you too.

Myth #1: People will stop working if they have a guaranteed income

‘If you pay people to do nothing, they’ll become lazy degenerates.’

This may be the most common fear, that without the threat of starvation, people will stop contributing to society. But that’s not what the evidence has shown.

In Finland’s 2017-2018 basic income trial, 2,000 unemployed people received €560/month with no strings attached. During the two years, employment outcomes stayed the same, and wellbeing, trust and optimism rose significantly.

In Alaska, where residents receive oil dividends annually, employment hasn’t declined since the policy was introduced in 1982.

People want to be useful. People want to do things. And even if they didn’t, there’s nothing amoral about being lazy.

Myth #2: Work is morally good and builds character

‘Suffering through a job you hate is good for you. Everyone has to do it – welcome to the real world.’

This is the persistent moral backbone resisting UBI and upholding the value of work in general.

In Bullsh*t Jobs, David Graeber points out that many modern jobs exist not because they provide value but instead to manufacture an illusion of productivity, to manage a perception of busyness. If you’ve ever worked in corporate, you’re already familiar with presenteeism.

People don’t hate work because they’re lazy – they hate it because they’re forced to spend the majority of their life doing work that is meaningless at best and harmful at worst, just to survive.

The idea that the world isn’t harsh enough and that we need to manufacture hardship to build character is absurd to me. What really builds character isn’t the near-punishing nature of modern work, it’s having the security to choose your own path.

Myth #3: It’s morally wrong to get something for nothing

‘People should earn their keep.’

Andrew Yang addresses this directly: ‘We already have people getting money for doing nothing. They’re called investors and trust fund kids’ (Chapter 22, The War on Normal People).

And Graeber, in his book, points out that vital yet thankless labour (like caregiving, emotional support or community building) goes mostly unpaid.

That’s all to say that people are already being paid to do nothing, and plenty of people are not being paid to do a lot. The great part about UBI is that it recognises that everyone has value beyond productivity, that everyone has basic needs that deserve to be met.

Myth #4: UBI will kill the economy

‘No one will innovate if they aren’t desperate, and inflation will skyrocket.’

I dunno about you, but the times I’ve been the most creative and productive were not when I was stressed out.

When the consequences of failure are so steep, people are much less likely to try new things. UBI acts like a safety net that makes it easier for people to take risks like creating a business or switching careers or doing work that aligns with their personal values.

And UBI doesn’t take money out of the economic system.

A 2017 study by the Roosevelt Institute did some economic modelling and showed a $1,000/month UBI was projected to increase the U.S. economy by $2.5 trillion over eight years, driven mostly by greater consumer spending and improved mental health. This isn't theoretical – pilots around the world have shown that when people have basic financial security, they spend more in local businesses and create economic ripple effects.

As Graeber writes, ‘The ruling class has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger to them’ (Bullsh*t Jobs). Seems to me that that’s the real fear: not that UBI will crash the economy, but that it might actually change who has control over it.

The truth about Universal Basic Income

What UBI actually allows for is this:

• Quitting toxic jobs

• Starting small businesses

• Time and energy for care work, community projects and spending time with friends

• Time to rest, have hobbies and grow

The myths about UBI are less about economics and more about control. When people aren’t trapped in desperation, just trying to survive, they’re able to imagine better ways to live. That’s dangerous to the status quo, and maybe exactly what we need.

Next week let’s look at how we can make a guaranteed income possible, including debunking the myth that UBI causes inflation. 🌈

Snails against the machine

Small ways we’re taking back control of our world

A South African woman named Phumla Makhoba invented a durable, circular material called TexiBoard using fashion waste. TexiBoard can be used to make things like furniture, flooring and even entire homes – meaning this affordable material can make a huge impact on the global south’s housing crisis.

Not only that, the material is open source, and Phulma also runs workshops to teach people how to create TexiBoard to build their own homes.

@we.got.earthIn South Africa, millions don’t have access to safe housing 🏠 Phumla grew up seeing it firsthand and one day, she decided to do something about it. She created TexiBoard: building panels made from fashion waste. They’re low-cost, durable, and made without cutting down a single tree! ♻️🌱 Truly incredible what one person can build when they refuse to wait for change. This is Phumla’s story 🏠🔥 @Studio People

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Have a personal rebellion to share? I’d love to hear it!

Late-stage updates

This week in capitalist whatthefuckery

Not naming names, but here’s a meme inspired by… recent events at work.

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You’d asked about potential dangers, and the others had laughed. There’s nothing out there, they said. It’s just an open field.

But you swear you can feel eyes on you.

You tell yourself not to be ridiculous, but that doesn't stop the sinking feeling in your stomach. You begin to tremble as adrenaline rushes through you. Your hair stands on end. A sickening feeling overwhelms you: I'm going to die.

This same sickening dread is what I experience any time an obligation is placed on me. I have something called PDA – Persistent Drive for Autonomy, also known more officially but less kindly as Pathological Demand Avoidance.

I'm trying to figure out how to make you understand the weight of this fact, because I know there's a chance you're currently rolling your eyes.

But I'm not being dramatic, and it's not something I can simply get over – I have no say in it, in fact. My sympathetic nervous system activates on its own in response to a trigger, just like yours probably would if you saw a bear (or a gilet-wearing finance bro). It just so happens my body perceives demands as a physical threat, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant the demand is, and no matter how much I do or do not want to fulfil the demand.

The problem is, capitalism is built on obligation. It turns basic needs into transactions. In a world designed to let you die if you don't have the money to feed, clothe and house yourself, every money-making task becomes a demand.

This means I have to struggle against my chemistry every single day. And it comes at a cost.

Even if I manage the demands of daily living – like going to work – doing so requires me to suppress the stress and anxiety that arises, and this anxiety compounds the longer I need to suppress it.

Get over yourself, I imagine you thinking. It’s just a bit of anxiety.

Except chronic anxiety isn’t just a mood. It’s a full-body state that corrodes over time. In the short term, it floods me with adrenaline and cortisol, elevating my heart rate, tightening my muscles, scrambling my ability to think clearly. My digestion slows. My sleep suffers. I get sick more easily.1

In the long term, that state becomes a pattern. The stress hormones alters my brain, messing with the parts that help with memory and decision-making.2 My nervous system gets stuck in high alert. It shows up in my blood pressure, my immune system, my gut, my energy levels, my ability to function at all.3 It's not sustainable.

Anxiety disorders were associated with a significantly increased mortality risk4

So when I say that keeping myself alive is killing me, I’m not being metaphorical.

Until recently, I had secretly hoped freelance work would be the answer. It allows for more autonomy than a corporate job, so it had to be a better fit for me.

But last week when it looked like I might get my first freelance client, the same sickening dread overcame me. It weighed me down for days – I couldn’t focus on my day job, and I couldn’t enjoy my free time. I spent a lot of time in bed feeling like I was being dangled over a cliff’s edge.

If something like Universal Basic Income were in place – enough to cover food, shelter and the basics – my life would open up in ways I can barely fathom. My days could be led by my curiosity and shaped by my capacity. The daily panic might ease. I might live as long as my peers.

And I know I'm not the only one. There are so many of us who are struggling, not because we’re lazy or unwilling. We're just exhausted.

A guaranteed income would be a huge step toward a gentler and more humane world, and it’s something I plan to fight for… as much as my PDA will allow.

Late-stage updates

This week in capitalist whatthefuckery

This week I want to use this section to share something that happened recently at work.

Last week I mentioned my employer is going through restructuring (layoffs) and that we had a company-wide Q&A session with leadership. Naturally, a majority of the questions asked were about restructuring. People are worried about their jobs.

As the session was wrapping up, the CEO was asked if he had any closing remarks. He paused a moment before speaking like a disappointed parent – the C-suite had spent the majority of the time being asked about the restructuring and not about the industry or the business itself. It’s human, he said, to be worried during this time but we’re losing focus on the important things.

That’s not verbatim but near enough. I can’t bring myself to listen to what he said again – it makes my blood boil. This is the man who earns five hundred times what the average employee does, and he was admonishing us for not caring about his business enough. It’s unreal.

Shiny things from the curio cabinet

Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share

I’m a slow reader, and I started using Goodreads in 2010. Together these two facts mean I’ve built up an unrealistically-long to-read list over the years.

My tastes have changed a lot during this time too – even books I marked as ‘want to read’ only three years ago tend to not interest me any longer.

So, in pockets of free time over the past few weeks, I’ve been going through the books on my ‘want to read’ list and removing ones I no longer, well, want to read. And so far I’ve removed over 250 books! Super satisfying.

Ideally I’d like to have no more than 100 books on this list – so it feels like I have a chance of actually reading them all one day 🙃 – but we’ll see, because currently there are 500….

If you use Goodreads or StoryGraph, feel free to add me:

• my Goodreads profile

• my StoryGraph profile

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Speaking up at work

I spoke up in a public setting at work last week, during a Q&A with company leadership.

We're going through restructuring, and that has put leadership in the hot seat. They're dodging any kind of real accountability and instead presenting a narrative that fits their agenda.

So I said something.

I don't like that leadership continues to gaslight us, like we’re unreasonable for feeling frustrated, and I pointed out harmful inconsistencies in some of the things leadership was saying.

If leadership saw my comments, they didn’t say anything, but I immediately received a few DMs from people expressing their thanks. They were also frustrated but felt unable to speak up.

This isn't the first job where I've spoken up and then been thanked privately by coworkers. I guess I should feel proud, but mostly I'm just very aware of my autism and how different I am to those around me (and therefore how separate I feel).

Autistic people can have difficulty understanding hierarchies and are also more likely to have a strong sense of justice. I'm not built for unquestioned compliance, and it means I put myself in difficult situations like this one.

Because, even though I stayed professional, and even though I believe what I did was right, there's a reason why people stay silent. Part of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Especially because I’ve already been critical of my employer when they failed to make workplace adjustments in a timely manner.

Am I modelling resistance or just martyrdom?

I want to be someone who doesn't look away or let harm slide when it's easier to ignore it. The world is in a delicate state currently, and I want to join others in their efforts to shape a better future. But I also want to find the line between courage and self-sabotage.

Any other autistic people struggling with this balance?

For now, I'm going to find quieter ways to live my values at work, because I'm playing the long game. I can’t burn out, and I can’t make myself a target. If I want to have a positive impact on my workplace, I need to care for myself too.

Snails against the machine

Small ways we’re taking back control of our world

Two university professors have created a simple yet mighty website to help people make sense of the growing presence of AI (especially large language models like ChatGPT) in our daily communication.

The website offers readers a series of bite-sized lessons that explain the strengths and weaknesses of these AI systems and how they work. More importantly, the lessons help readers build awareness and scepticism in an era where AI can produce convincing information, regardless of its accuracy.

The resource is mostly geared towards students and educators, but honestly, I think anyone would gain a lot from exploring the lessons.

Find the website here 👉 thebullshitmachines.com

Have a personal rebellion to share? I’d love to hear it!

Shiny things from the curio cabinet

Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share

Between the difficulty at work, multiple invasive dentist appointments and a week of cold weather… let’s just say I’ve been better.

To get through this funk, I’m intentionally listening to myself and doing more things just because I want to. Like making this pointless colour palette.

I’ll be fine. Warm weather will come again. And I bet this time next month I’ll be wishing it was cold again haha. (Summer is hell when you don’t have aircon.)

Hope you’re all doing well ☀️

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We’ll always be working this hard until we demand better

Technology will continue to give us more work instead of more time… if we let it.

As part of recent cost-cutting and layoffs restructuring, my employer has begun making AI tools available internally to employees. My coworkers have been sharing excited messages in Slack as they discover new things they can do faster and easier than before.

I don’t want to be a spoil-sport, so I’ve kept my cynicism to myself. But the truth is, the only positive impact these new tools will bring is to the company’s bottom line. Employee jobs will temporarily get easier until they’re expected to do more. They’ll be given more obligations to fill their newfound free time. More responsibility will be put on their shoulders. In reality, nothing has changed for the employee – they still work the same hours for the same pay.

This is something Paul Lafargue pointed out as early as 1883 during industrialisation – advances in machinery meant people didn’t need to work as much to produce the same amount. But their hours never changed to reflect this; instead, the goalpost was moved.

During a 1979 interview filmed for a PBS special, a computer salesman spoke about the impact computers could have on business and productivity. He believed computers would finally make a three-day workweek possible. We know how that turned out.

Economist John Maynard Keynes predicted in 1930 that we’d be working 15-hour workweeks within a century. Well, we’ve still got about five years to prove him right.

The way things are continuing is unsustainable. Companies are competing against one another for their share of the market, squeezing labour from employees in exchange for as little pay as possible. It’s pointless. It’s a dog chasing its own tail. It’s Sisyphean.

Why are we still caught up in their game?

Meaningful change will require systemic intervention at multiple levels (economic, political, social, cultural), and it’s not something we can tackle on our own. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

What can we do?

• We can start by challenging hustle culture, by detaching productivity from the idea that it’s inherently virtuous. You gain nothing by participating in a who-can-be-more-exhausted competition. Productivity should only be considered beneficial if it improves our wellbeing.

• We can actively seek out and support alternative business models like cooperatives, non-profits or other socially-responsible businesses that prioritise worker well-being and sustainability over purely maximising profits.

• We can organise on a local and national level for things like shorter working weeks, employee protections, fairer sharing of company earnings and for Universal Basic Income!

• Finally, we can take care of each other. Reciprocal care is what’s going to get us all through tough times – and all of us will experience tough times at some point in our lives. It’s on each of us to do what we can with what we have wherever we are.

It’s hard not to feel hopeless when I think about how many opportunities there have been for our working culture to not be this way. As a disabled person, it’s really hard to find true work/life balance, because expectations of modern workplaces are so numerous and so demanding. And it negatively impacts all of us. Imagine the amount of freedom you’d have if your basic needs were met and you didn’t have to trade the best hours of your day for your survival.

It shouldn’t be a radical idea to prioritise leisure over maximising profit.

If we want to work less and live better, we can’t wait for permission – we have to organise, push for policy change, build alternatives and reclaim leisure as a right. Every act of defiance and care chips away at the system.

This week, try to find a new way to add more leisure to your life. I'll do the same and report back. ☀️

Snails against the machine

Small ways we’re taking back control of our world

When Columbia University cancelled her popular course on race, identity and international relations, Karen Attiah decided to move it online under the killer name Resistance Summer School.

She writes about the experience on her own Substack:

I wanted to use that opportunity to build a course I never had when I was an international affairs student studying human rights and media at SIPA—one that examined how constructs of race and identity are formed, and how mass media has historically shaped our understanding of race and the global order. I knew that race and identity were rarely taught in international affairs schools—or many journalism schools, for that matter. And I rarely had the opportunity to learn from a professor who looked like me.

Enrolment for the pilot course is now closed, but there’s a waitlist for fall 2025 enrolment and a place to send donations.

Have a personal rebellion to share? I’d love to hear it!

Shiny things from the curio cabinet

Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share

It’s my birthday this week. 🥳 Maybe it’s not a surprise, but I don’t do much for my birthdays.

I do set aside some money throughout the year to get a lil treat on my birthday, but this year I feel like saving that money instead, so I want to find another way to make the day feel special.

It’s a bit too warm to bake myself a cake, so maybe I’ll just spend the afternoon in a hammock drinking some homemade cold brew. 🌴🍹

Do you have any no-spend ways you like to celebrate special occasions?

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Thanks for reading! See you next week.

Corporate jobs are violent. This is how I protect myself.

The stupidly-simple truth is that the more I detach my identity and my value from my job, the more I feel like myself and (cliche warning) the more I feel alive.

I still get a lot of anxiety and feelings of shame when my needs are pitted against what my employer (and society in general really) expects of me. But the more I practice listening to my gut, the easier it gets.

And the more fired up I get when I see others struggling too.

What’s helped me (so far)

These are some of the things that have helped me protect my time, energy and sense of self. I hope they’ll be useful for you too.

• You gotta be your own protector. Boundaries are non-negotiable.

  One way corporate jobs control us is by gaslighting us into not having needs. Take your breaks. Don't work outside your working hours. Find safe ways to say 'no' until you feel more comfortable refusing bigger asks. I deliberately pace myself, in defiance of productivity culture. You're not being lazy or selfish – you're taking care of your physical and emotional health. (Or you might just say ‘no’ because you don’t want to, and that’s just as valid!)
  

• Maintain loyalty to yourself first. Don't be fooled by emotional manipulation.

  Your coworkers aren't your family, and your employer would drop you immediately if it benefited them. Make choices based on what’s best for you – don't be a martyr! Betraying your needs not only harms you, it also makes it harder for those around you to maintain healthy boundaries.
  

• Fight isolation. Find ways to create solidarity with your coworkers.

  Talk openly about salaries, as uncomfortable as it may feel at first. Point out when your employer does something that doesn't make sense – people will probably be relieved someone said it. Oh, and join your union!
  

• Find joy without consumerism.

  Little treats are great, but when I realised capitalism makes our lives inconvenient so they can sell us convenience... it got a whole lot easier to stop buying things, simply out of spite! Practice finding joy in what’s already available to you. Can you make your day feel special without spending money? It might sound restrictive, but I promise it doesn't take long for it to feel empowering. Plus every penny saved adds to your financial safety net, giving you more freedom and flexibility.
  

• It's just a job! It's just a job! It's just a stupid little job!

  I know it’s easier said than done, but try your hardest to detach your identity from your job. Start in small ways. When someone asks, ‘What do you do?’, lead with your hobbies and interests instead of your job title.

Bonus strategy for pigeons ready to peck back

If the above reminders feel like old news and you’re ready for something a little more… actionable 😈 you’ll probably enjoy Specific Suggestions, a collection of ‘practical, everyday actions for reducing systemic harm while minimising vulnerability’.

It’s basically a toolkit for subtle sabotage. Here’s an example suggestion:

Did any of my strategies hit home? Or is there anything you’d add to the list? Let me know!

Leave a comment

Snails against the machine

Small ways we’re taking back control of our world

Right to Repair advocate Louis Rossmann (@rossmanngroup) has created a toolkit to walk people through setting up their own self-managed digital life using open-source software and tools that focus on privacy.

Why might you want to do this?

• Setting up your own server means you have more control over your data and media, lessening your reliance on corrupt for-profit SaaS like Google Drive, Netflix or any other service you use.

• You’re able to set up your own network-wide VPN and ad blocker (rather than browser- or software-based). This means devices are protected by default and you don’t have to manage tools separately across multiple devices.

• Understanding even a small part of the digital environment demystifies technology and makes you less susceptible to manipulation (whether marketing or scams).

• You’ll be joining a community of others who are working toward digital independence!

Louis has said he’s tried to make the guide so easy his grandmother could follow it, so if you’re interested but aren’t the most tech-literate, I hope you’ll give it a go!

I’m planning to follow the guide once I’ve moved house later this year. I’m especially excited to set up a network-level ad blocker. 👀

Learn more or get started here:

• Introduction to the guide (YouTube video)

• The guide (Wiki.org page)

• Video walkthrough, part 1 (YouTube video)

• Video walkthrough, part 2 (YouTube video)

Have a personal rebellion to share? I’d love to hear it!

Late-stage updates

This week in capitalist whatthefuckery

This week I wanted to use this section to highlight my wonderful employer (though not by name so I can still keep my job…).

Recently my employer announced plans for restructuring, meaning lay-offs. Not surprisingly, many employees were upset and made comments that reflected this.

A few weeks later, we all got an email from the Chief People Officer basically scolding those who didn’t respond in ways that ‘reflect the values’ of the company.

This tone policing pissed me off, because if company values actually meant anything, we wouldn’t have a CEO that earns literally 500 times the average employee salary – the highest-paid CEO in our industry and one of the highest-paid of S&P500 companies.

That email from the CPO showed me just how easily company values can be used to control employees instead of inspire them.

And is the CEO taking a voluntary pay cut to help ease the financial impact of the restructuring? Of course not.

Leadership keeps stressing that change is necessary for the company, that we need to be adaptable like Meta and Microsoft to avoid being left behind like Blockbuster or Blackberry. But that adaptivity doesn’t include the CEO’s paycheck, natch.

Shiny things from the curio cabinet

Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share

Last week I had one of those days that reminds me just how disabled I am.

I’ll spare the details, but basically I had to travel into London for a doctor's appointment during one of the hottest days of the year, and between the weather and the crowds and some unexpected Tube suspensions, it was a lot.

It’s been days and I’m still recovering. I feel like crud and have very little energy.

I’ve gotten a lot better about accepting my limitations and treating myself with kindness, but it does still get frustrating. How one unfortunate day can negatively impact my capacity to do other things for days or sometimes weeks.

But there’s no forcing myself past my limits – I didn’t understand that when I was younger, but I know it now. All I can do is be careful about my priorities and how I spend my energy. And it seems to be getting easier to do the more I do it.

If you're reading this, I hope you're taking care of yourself too.

Join the crawl 🐌

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How my corporate job radicalised me

I'm probably not the first person to say that working in corporate feels like being in an abusive relationship, but the more time I spend here, the more obvious it becomes.

Even if you're encouraged to 'bring your whole self to work', you know actually doing this could risk your job. So you perform professionalism and pretend to care about shareholder value. Not only that, you also have to manage the feelings of people with more power than you.

Meanwhile, your employer keeps you compliant by saying you're family. They broadcast meaningless 'kudos' messages in the company Slack to make you feel valued. They provide free fruit and arrange the occasional social event to show how benevolent they are. Just don’t question why the CEO makes two hundred times your salary.

You're paid just enough to survive but not enough to feel stable enough to take risks that could improve your life. Your job has financial control over you, and this control is used to gaslight you into not having needs.

The event that pushed me over the edge

It took my current employer nine months to put disability accommodations in place.

Nine months.

Rather than simply believing me – or the occupational health assessment report they arranged, or the Access to Work award letter from the UK government – HR kept asking if I really needed these things, or if I could make do with x, y or z instead.

I was already fairly anti-work and sceptical of capitalism, but after that, I could no longer pretend corporations were benign or even neutral.

I raised a formal grievance when I first realised things were dragging on, and in the end, my employer admitted partial blame. But there's been no apology, no acknowledgement that nine months is an outrageous timeline.

Instead it feels like I'm meant to forget they spent most of a year fighting me over basic rights. I'm meant to carry on and not feel hurt or discouraged. (Or maybe they’re just hoping I’ll quit.)

If it weren't for my union and my therapist, I would've believed I was overreacting long ago.

During the process, I heard from two other disabled employees – they also struggled to get the accommodations they needed. In the end they gave up. Apparently they decided it was easier to just manage on their own, and I can't blame them.

After everything, it's infuriating to hear company leaders talk about their devotion to diversity and inclusion.

They couldn't have been less prepared to support a disabled employee. And worse, they seem to have learned nothing from it.

Two of my requested accommodations still haven't been provided.

Is it better to quit, or to stay and fight?

I've been thinking a lot about the kind of life I want to live and the kind of impact I want to have. I’ve reached a point where I can no longer turn a blind eye if I feel something is going against my values, even for self-preservation.

My gut says to quit my job as soon as I can, to try to make freelancing work. Corporate jobs are broken, and they say you can't change things from the inside.

But then I read this in the book Work by CrimethInc:

When people “get serious” about fighting capitalism, they often tend to remove themselves from their previous position within it—quitting jobs, dropping out of school, ceasing to participate in processes rather than interrupting them. This serves capitalists just fine—one of the functions of the [unemployed/underemployed] population is to contain all who would cause trouble if they could. It’s better to go on the offensive.

If I quit, I’m not sure if I’d be freeing myself or letting myself be sidelined.

Maybe you can't change a place from the inside, but you can interfere with exploitation. Maybe I can have more of an impact by staying at my job, modelling healthy boundaries and not letting as many corporate fibs slide.

Is it silly that I worry about becoming complicit?

While reading Careless People, I was struck by how critically (rightfully so) Sarah Wynn-Williams wrote about Facebook’s operations, yet seemed to see herself as separate from it, as if she hadn’t been an active participant for six years.

My employer isn’t on the scale of Meta or Google, but it’s not terribly far off. And while I haven’t seen my employer do anything as heinous as what Wynn-Williams described, I wonder if I would be able to keep a discerning eye long enough to notice if they did.

Where that leaves me

I nearly quit my job last week.

I’m having a difficult time working with my manager, and I was just done trying to make it work.

But eventually I decided to hold my ground. Because if I'm not scared of leaving, why not fight to make things better for myself (and maybe for others too)?

I have time to decide. For now I'll try shape my job to fit my life and not the other way around. I’ll practice living my values at work too and not just in my personal life.

At the same time, I’m building a freelance runway. That way if I decide to leave (or they decide they’ve had enough of my stubbornness), I won’t be starting from zero.

Next week I’ll share the strategies I’m using to protect myself from corporate violence… and a few ways we can cause a little mischief of our own.

Snails against the machine

Small ways we’re taking back control of our world

• Josh Donaldson (@earthdr0p) regularly picks up litter and recycles what he can

• Elvarea (@elvarea.bennett) shared a silly and simple act of kindness that made their day

• Katherine (@katherout) purposefully lived within walking distance of her friends for a year and shared how it impacted her life

Late-stage updates

This week in capitalist whatthefuckery

I don't think I've ever in my adult life lived somewhere with appliances that weren't at least a decade old, so I was surprised to learn that the new trend in appliance design is ~oops all apps!~

Apparently a lot (if not most) appliances now rely on touch-sensor buttons and smartphone apps instead of physical buttons and display screens.

I was introduced to this fact by two separate videos – one from Tamara (@UnsightlyOpinions) and another by Jeff Geerling (@Level2Jeff). From what I’ve gathered, it seems like the cons far outweigh the pros:

• Trying to operate an appliance through an app is less intuitive and more cumbersome than using physical buttons.

• These ‘smart’ appliances rely on an internet connection, meaning if your internet goes out, so does your appliance.

• Touchscreens can be significantly more difficult for disabled people to use and are less adaptable than physical buttons.

• There’s the issue of data security – how much of your personal information is the appliance collecting and how is it being used?

• The manufacturer could decide to stop maintaining their digital services, ‘bricking’ the appliance like Spotify and its Car Thing.

• Having to connect an appliance to your wifi network, like in Jeff’s case, puts your local network at risk – because how much do you trust the manufacturer to keep on top of bugs and other issues?

• In Tamara’s case, the app for her stove frequently unpairs and fails to pair, meaning she can’t use the stove on her own.

• And, worst of all, imagine if the manufacturer decided to introduce a subscription service, so you’d have to pay a monthly fee to use the appliance you already own.

What's the point of technological ‘advancements’ if they’re actually pushing usability (and security) backwards?

Shiny things from the curio cabinet

Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share

I've been experimenting with designs for paper toys for my cats. They love bird-feather toys, but they go through them so quickly. I can’t help feel guilty over how the feathers are sourced to keep my two little monsters happy.

So I’m attempting to replicate the same experience they get from the bird-feather toys with card stock, which seems thick enough to not give them paper cuts but still light and fluttery enough to mimic a bird.

Maybe I can share the designs here later for others to try out too. :)

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I hope you’re taking care of yourself too. 💚

Snails against the machine

Small ways we’re taking back control of our world

• Benn Jordan (@BennJordan) shares how he and other musicians are adding subtle interference to their music to confuse AI systems that steal their work for training.

• What if people pooled their money and formed an informal ‘grocery store’ to buy the food they’re already buying, but straight from the food supplier instead of through a grocery store middleman?

• claude joven (@pigeonboy25) tells us how he uses Amazon as a search engine… and then buys from the small business directly.

Late-stage updates

This week in capitalist whatthefuckery

Once upon a time, Uber promised flexibility and fair pay for its drivers. Welp....

A recent video by More Perfect Union (and an academic paper) uncovers how companies like Uber and Lyft use hidden algorithms to determine how much drivers get paid. And surprise: it’s not consistent across drivers. Two highly-rated drivers offered the same job in the same location can get wildly different pay.

In the video, one driver does an experiment that confirms it: drivers are being underpaid based on criteria they’re not allowed to see, let alone challenge.

Uber calls it ‘dynamic pricing’. Researchers are calling it algorithmic wage discrimination.

And because drivers are classified as independent contractors, the companies get to skip out on paying benefits or providing stability. But when you can’t set your own rates and can’t see how you’re being evaluated, are you really an independent contractor?

This kind of manipulation isn’t limited to ride-share either. Big-name stores like Amazon and Walmart are quietly testing similar ‘dynamic’ pricing systems using digital price tags, setting the stage for price gouging.

The more invisible the inner workings of the system, the harder it is to fight. And that’s the point.

We saw a much smaller (but still strange) example of this algorithmic weirdness at home the other day.

My partner and I were both on Uber Eats, looking at the same restaurant on different devices – he was on a laptop, not logged in, and I was using the app on my phone.

One item we’d ordered before had different ratings depending on who was looking. On my phone, it was tagged as ‘#1 most rated’ with a higher average rating. On his device? No tag, lower rating.

It’s a small thing, but it stuck with me. If something as basic as a menu rating can change based on who's looking, what else is being quietly manipulated behind the scenes?

Shiny things from the curio cabinet

Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share

I have good news – the robin fledgling has been spotted in our garden again!

Well, a robin fledgling. No idea if it's the same one we saw before. But it still brought me so much joy because this one can fly now!

It felt like a reminder to my anxious brain that the worst-case scenario doesn’t always happen. Sometimes things just... work out.

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How am I supposed to write if there are no metrics for self-expression?

I’ve been writing since I was a kid. It even became part of my career – through UX writing1 though, not creative writing. And after years of writing to be clear, concise and polished, I feel like I’ve forgotten how to write like… a person.

That’s partly why I started this newsletter.

Yes, it’s a way for me to explore the topics that fascinate (and sometimes overwhelm) me, like the systems that maybe need dismantling and the small ways people are making it happen. But even more selfishly, it’s a structured way to practice expressing myself. A place to focus on output rather than just consuming.

I’ve spent most of my life not knowing who I am. Or knowing but hiding it – it’s hard to tell which. Like many late-diagnosed autistic people, I grew up believing something was wrong with me, something that I needed to mask to stay safe, to belong. I learned to trust others more than myself and to emulate their experiences rather than live my own.

So, when I sit down to write, I’m not always sure who’s showing up.

And I over-analyse and second-guess everything. Will I seem snobbish if I use proper punctuation and grammar? Will I come across as untrustworthy if I don’t? Do I sound unintelligent? Robotic? Will they think I’m AI?

It’s easy to write as a UX Writer, because that’s the kind of writing you can test against metrics.

There are no metrics for self-expression.

I can only hope that if I keep showing up, I’ll start to find my own voice. One that is truly mine, that I can trust and that doesn’t have to be perfect.

All the tired, silly, resilient, contradictory and loving parts of me, finally given the safety to be seen? In this economy?

So thank you for being here. Even if I’m mostly writing this for myself right now, it means something to know that there could be someone on the other side of the screen witnessing my journey.

Snails against the machine

Small ways we’re taking back control of our world

Have you heard of time banks? The idea is this: what if your time and skills were enough to get what you needed, no money involved?

Say you love to cook. You could spend an hour preparing a meal for someone in your community, and in return, you’d earn a time credit. You could then spend that credit on whatever you needed, like house cleaning, dog walking or help with your taxes. One hour equals one hour, no matter the task.

Why does this matter?

• You could be unemployed, disabled, retired or unhoused and still receive what you need without having to earn money first.

• It keeps value within the local community. There’s no Visa or Stripe charging local shops transaction fees, no Uber service fees for booking a ride to a doctor appointment.

• Time banks redefine value. Traditionally under-valued tasks (like care or other domestic tasks) are valued just as much as highly-valued services (like tax help from an accountant or legal advice from a solicitor).

• It builds trust and interdependence within a community.

As a disabled person, I often worry about my ability to stay employed and how I might care for myself in the future. Time banks give me hope.

I was excited to learn that the town I’m moving to later this year already has an active time bank. I’m pretty agoraphobic 🫣 so getting involved probably won’t be an easy task for me. But I am looking forward to reclaiming some control over a tiny part of life.

Interested in finding your own local time bank? Try starting here:

• UK: Timebanking

• US: hOurworld

• International: Community Exchange System

Late-stage updates

This week in capitalist whatthefuckery

What are the most successful movies you can think of? Maybe one of the Harry Potter movies? Or Star Wars? Turns out, despite earning hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, neither of these movies have technically made a profit.

It’s not just a weird accounting fluke – it’s by design.

A video by Morning Brew breaks down how movie studios use creative accounting to make massive hits look like flops, all to avoid paying the talent that made the the movie what it is.

And this kind of trickery isn’t limited to Hollywood. You’ve probably already heard about big businesses fudging numbers like

• Charging themselves inflated fees through things like ‘internal licensing’ or ‘management services’

• Claiming ‘losses’ to delay or avoid taxes altogether

• Shuffling profits into offshore shell companies

I’m not in the film business, but I’ve worked in tech. I’ve seen how value created by workers quietly becomes payouts for shareholders and executives, while everyone else is expected to be grateful to have a job.

It’s easy to feel like there’s nothing we can do against billion-dollar bookkeeping tricks, but these systems depend on our silence. Paying attention is a start. Talking about it is a start. And so is noticing the people already building alternatives in the cracks these systems leave behind.

Shiny things from the curio cabinet

Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share

In my previous newsletter, I mentioned we had a robin nest in our little garden. This week I learned what that actually entails.

Did you know baby robins spend a few weeks of their lives outside the nest but still unable to fly? At this stage they’re called fledglings. They flutter from place to place, still being fed by their parents while they learn how to be birds.

I was… kinda horrified to learn this when we found a robin fledgling fluttering around the garden. We get a lot of neighbourhood cats passing through that I’m sure would love to stumble across a defenceless baby bird.

I keep questioning whether I did the right thing by hanging up that birdhouse. At the time, I didn’t know baby robins needed to survive on the ground for several weeks before they could fly. I guess neighbourhood cats would roam anywhere birds might nest, but still… I can’t help feeling responsible for this fledgling’s fate.

I’m probably too sentimental to be a bird person, I’m realising, or maybe a wildlife person in general. Because of course the mortality rate of wild birds is incredibly high. That’s just how nature works.

The fledgling found a way out of our garden a few days ago, so I may never know what happened to it. But I hope it makes it.

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They want us desperate. I want us defiant.

What if we built a world where billionaires were obsolete? Where their money and power had no value?

This thought has been on my mind a lot lately.

There's a kind of despondency that comes from living a life you don't want. It's what we all have to do to survive, right? It's just how things are.

But is it? Because lately it's looking more and more like the system is designed this way on purpose, to make a select few insanely rich and keep the rest of us tired, poor and desperate.

When we feel powerless, we're more likely to go with the flow, and that's what billionaires depend on – because the status quo benefits them.

We're being exploited. We don't own our media, our software or our data. Quality is being stripped from products even as prices climb. Companies are charging more, offering less and locking us into systems we can't control. Greedflation. Planned obsolescence. Enshitification.

Despair is a natural response to harm like this, but it doesn’t have to be the only response. We've been conditioned to accept this system as inevitable, but we can also reject it.

As a chronically-ill autistic person, I've definitely felt trapped by my circumstances and felt hopeless about the future. I spent years trying to make room for myself in a system that wasn't designed for me (because, in truth, it wasn't designed for most of us).

Then, purely out of necessity, I started to find ways to live outside the status quo, to build a life that made sense to me and had space for me. I started accommodating my needs. I started listening to my gut, to what I knew I needed, rather than the ‘should’s people placed on me. And things got better.

We can just… do what we want.

We won’t be able to rebuild the world overnight, but I think we can start to untangle ourselves from it. Take a moment to imagine the world you want to live in and what steps we could take to get there.

The good news is we can start now, where we are, with what we have.

People are already doing this in small, amazing ways. They're growing food on balconies. Hosting tool libraries. Running refill shops. Sharing knowledge. Reciprocating care.

In my case, I've stopped using Meta products (I already don't use Twitter) and started spending time on Neocities and Bluesky instead, and I buy from independent online shops like Peace with the Wild instead of Amazon. They're tiny choices, but they're aligned with my values. And they're a first step in doing more.

These acts of imagination are acts of defiance and power. Because the truth is we have can have a say in the world we live in. Not just the power to say no but the power to say yes to something different.

It’s not the easy path, but it's the necessary and worthwhile one.

That’s what this newsletter is about. World Without Billionaires is a weekly space to share resistance, put a name to the harm and remind each other that none of us are alone in this.

I don’t know exactly where it’ll lead, but I know I’d rather be here, choosing defiance, than being tricked into thinking I don’t have a say.

I'm glad to have you here. I hope this newsletter can be of use to someone.

Snails against the machine

Small ways we’re taking back control of our world

• Julian Brown (@naturejab) is turning plastic waste into fuel

• @dragonflyatx4 shows us how to subvert plant patents

• Tiffany Ferg (@tiffanyferg) did a deep dive on how the internet is shaped by tech billionaire loser freaks and how it impacts our lives

Late-stage updates

This week in capitalist whatthefuckery

‘Mobile home’ communities, some of the last affordable housing in the US, are being targeted by private equity firms.

A video by More Perfect Union shows how investors are incentivised to prey on vulnerable people just trying to live their lives.

It’s one of many ways the system is built to exploit the vulnerable – another reminder that those in power won’t act in our best interest unless we force them to.

Shiny things from the curio cabinet

Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share

It seems like we’ve had our last frost here in the southeast of England. There’s even a robin building a nest in the birdhouse in our little garden. It’s officially spring! 🌱

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Thanks for reading! See you next week.