I want to be thinking bigger. "All software is free software" seems within reach. I think we can have a sustainable software ecosystem in which all software is free software and all participants have bread on the table.
@drewdevault If the goal of free software is for software to be accessible to everyone, for everyone to participate in some way, and we want all participants to have bread on the table, then what you're describing is a very different economic/political system, one where no one is allowed to starve (not just an elite of programmers). To be clear, I would be in favor of that.
But I don't think you can get there by shuffling revenue from free software around, under capitalism.
@skyfaller free as in freedom != free as in beer
though to be clear I want a socialist utopia as much as the next guy
@drewdevault Let me clarify: I think a core value of free software is / should be participatory culture, making it possible for anyone to understand and modify their software. If you want all participants to have bread on the table, you either need to narrow "participants" to only include a professional elite, or change society. I'm not saying that your goal is bad, but that without widening your scope to the politics of feeding people, you will instead tend to exclude people.
@skyfaller I understand what you mean, but I don't see it in such from such a binary perspective. Rest assured that I am a card-carrying socialist and I don't fail to see the relationship between software and society, particularly for marginalized people. I just don't see "fix society" as a blocker for "fix software", per-se. In some ways I see "fix software" as a tool for "fix society"
Just make people aware of #ModernMonetaryTheory and use that for #JobGuarantee , #FreeHealthcare , #FreeEducation and #FreeSoftware for almost everything.
After record deficits during Covid19, it is clear that #MMT is correct and it is an opportunity to abandon macroeconomic dogmas once and for all.
