A Modest Proposal

Several internet commenters, including the NYT's  Paul Krugman have noted recent gains in productivity have not resulted in higher pay for workers.  The reasons cited are many, including depressed demand for said workers, globalization of trade, increased competiton and the mechanization of many occupations.  This last I think is perhaps the most important longer term trend.  As any student of agricultural history can tell you, the mechanization of farming over the last 150 years has shrunk the percentage of Americans employed on farms from close to 40% of the population to less than 3%.  Most of those workers displaced by machines were able to find work in the booming factories which led to America's ascent to the world's only superpower.  However, there is at present, no place for the workers whose place is increasingly taken by machines.  In this increasingly capital intensive economy, the relatively unskilled younger workers are unable to gain a toehold in the economic system.  If this generation can't move into more skilled positions, the next gerneration will be even less prepared and more poverty stricken as the nation's wealth becomes more and more concentrated.  Unless we want to live in a society like Orwell's "1984", we need to do something to redress the growing inequality among our citizenry.
Of course, socialism is out because "Freedommmmm".  But perhaps a little back door socialism is the way to go.  Herewith, a modest proposal for Congress whenever it finishes this fiscal cliff farce;  start by declaring that every American is entitled (that dirty word) to health care, a nutritious diet and a warm or cool place to live.  I am thinking in terms of monthly stipends to every man, woman and child in the US to cover these necessities.  Obviously this expansion of the welfare state will have to be covered by the profits and income of the rentier capitalist class.  Once the minimal material needs of everyone are taken care of, people may choose to work for more elaborate lifestyles, or not as they fancy.  I believe most of us will want to work to at least maintain a higher standard of living.  Many people will say this is a utopian fantasy, but as the underclass becomes more and more desperate, the bread and circus route will seem a more supportable alternative than an armed police state and big brother.  Just saying.