Elysian Collective | Elle Griffin | Substack A writer's collective exploring utopian futures through collaborative essay collections and print pamphlets. Join us to get the Manifesto! Click to read Elysian Collective, by Elle Griffin, a Substack...

Salary jobs are how we'll get the 20-hour workweek—we already are!

But this is the latest in my series on the future of work. Subscribe to get future essays --> www.elysian.press

The result is that we're using our salary jobs to fund our passion projects: A parallel economy built on the stability of a solid paycheck, and providing enough leisure hours for creative tasks.

AI is further automating work. “I haven’t written a line of code in months," one developer said. "I just refine my prompts.”

If you can get the same work done in half the time…
why shouldn’t the workweek be half as long?

Others joined him—forming the Overemployed community, now 5,000+ strong.

One guy reportedly had nine jobs at once.
(Earning $900K/year. Remote.)

He was so efficient that he finished 40 hours of work in 20.
So he thought: why not do two 20-hour jobs instead of pretending to work 40 at one?

Soon, he was earning two six-figure salaries.

David Le was bored at his job.
So he got a new one—without quitting the old one.
🧵👇🏻

Elle Griffin (@ellegriffin) Coming up on Tuesday, a Guest Lecture with Tiffani McCoy who spearheaded the initiative to tax companies paying executives more than $1 million. It passed, despite opposition from Microsoft, Amazon, ...

Looking forward to our first substack live discussion with @elysian.press this afternoon about our campaign to fund the Seattle Social Housing Developer with an Excess Compensation Payroll Tax.

substack.com/@ellegriffin...

Invest in The Elysian: We Should Own The Economy: Get Ownership in a Book About Creating More Owners We Should Own The Economy: Get Ownership in a Book About Creating More Owners

Thoughts while researching my book.... wefunder.com/elysianpress

We need, not just a minimum wage, but also a minimum salary and a minimum equity share.

You can look at the chart I am referring to to see how each country specifically stacks up on each thing.

Ranking every country in the world A report card on how the world is doing right now.

Europe won the 20th Century, and I think it will still win the 21st, but they'll have to innovate, economically develop, attract international talent, and militarily protect themselves to keep the streak going.

I think they will. www.elysian.press/p/a-report-c...

Today: Europe is one of the best places to live.

Tomorrow: Europe risks falling relatively behind in tech, growth, and global influence.

But the US faces similar risks because of our political instability and isolationism, and we have much farther to go to prosper at the level of Europe.

Analysts aren’t worried about today’s prosperity, but tomorrow's problems:

◘ Aging/shrinking populations → fewer workers, more retirees, pension strain.

◘ Lagging productivity/innovation vs US & China → dependant consumers, not creators

◘ Energy insecurity → reliance on imports

Ranking every country in the world A report card on how the world is doing right now.

Why does everyone say Europe is failing economically, when:

◘ It has the highest incomes in the world
◘ It has the lowest inequality rates
◘ Inflation rates are among the lowest & unemployment is at near record lows

Europe is the most prosperous region on Earth!
www.elysian.press/p/a-report-c...

Invest in The Elysian: We Should Own The Economy: Get Ownership in a Book About Creating More Owners We Should Own The Economy: Get Ownership in a Book About Creating More Owners

Publishing doesn’t have to be extractive. Neither does the economy.

Readers should benefit from a book’s success (not just publishers), just as all of us should benefit from the economy (not just investors).

This is what the future of books (and business) can look like. wefunder.com/elysian.press/

I'm doing it this way for a reason:

We need to change who owns capital.

Private ownership of capital created wealth & prosperity, but now we need more owners of it. Not just the founders and executives and already rich, but everyone.

That's the subject of my book: We Should Own The Economy

I retain ownership & creative control.

My readers become stakeholders, not a publishing house.

And they are incentivized to help it succeed—they'll earn a share of the profits when it sells.

Invest in The Elysian: We Should Own The Economy: Get Ownership in a Book About Creating More Owners We Should Own The Economy: Get Ownership in a Book About Creating More Owners

I earned a $70,000 advance for my next book.

Not from a publishing house, but from my readers.

What if government worked like Wikipedia? Wikiocracy as the next phase of democracy.

I especially love Singapore's regular think tanks that inspire youth to reimagine governance. I once wrote about one of the ideas that resulted: A "wikiocracy." www.elysian.press/p/what-if-go...

YES! And that doesn't surprise me that they use QV. There is a lot to love about the Singapore model. If Yarvin wants to use Singapore as the poster-child for autocracy I'll happily use it as the poster-child for innovating democracy. Let's take what works!

One thing I love about this piece by @ellegriffin.bsky.social is that she gets that even the best cases of dictatorships are really just ways of implementing smarter democracy...shortcuts there, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, but ultimately democracy is the good outcome.

Many don't realize just how much democratic input Singapore's autocracy is actually taking into consideration. And as you point out, Taiwan takes that to the next level. The more of that we can do, the better!

Thank you for reading and engaging with my work E. Glen!!!! I'm a huge fan of yours!

So, America wants a dictator Are we doomed to repeat history—or can we build something better first?

The tech we invent now—AI, automation, satellites—can be used for great good or great harm.

Dictatorship puts those tools in one man’s hands.
Democracy puts them in ours.

Read the full post 👇🏻

www.elysian.press/p/so-america...

The solution isn't to abolish democracy, it's to innovate it. @glenweyl.bsky.social thinks democracy could become incredibly organized and efficient if we catch it up to the times with:

Quadratic voting
Quadratic budgeting
Participatory democracy

And yes, automation!

Democracy has a better track record.

Stronger economies
Safer streets
Less corruption
Longer, healthier lives

But it's messy and inefficient. China and Singapore are fully automating and building hundreds of miles of train track while America can't even build a track between LA and San Francisco.

The difference between these futures? Benevolence.

Plato imagined a philosopher-king.
Voltaire admired “enlightened despots.”
@menciusmoldbug.bsky.social argues for a CEO-dictator.

But dictatorship is a gamble: sometimes you get Singapore. More often, you get Russia, Syria, or North Korea.

If he’s benevolent:

Free, universal internet access
Autonomous taxis reduce accidents
Robots care for elderly & disabled
Brain interfaces restore sight & hearing
AI-enabled direct democracy
UBI funded by automation

A techno-utopia.

If he’s evil:

Satellites cut internet for dissenters
Autonomous cars reroute citizens to detention centers
Humanoid robots record households
Thoughts filtered by computer-brain interfaces
“Loyalists” get bandwidth, dissidents get silence

A techno-dystopia.

So, America wants a dictator Are we doomed to repeat history—or can we build something better first?

Imagine it’s the near future, and America elects its first dictator. 👇
www.elysian.press/p/so-america...

Invest in The Elysian: We Should Own The Economy: Get Ownership in a Book About Creating More Owners We Should Own The Economy: Get Ownership in a Book About Creating More Owners

The real risk is taken by employees—those who take pay cuts and work long hours hoping for a $200,000 payout that rarely comes.

We should own the economy --> wefunder.com/elysianpress