Radical Surgery – What Would We Cut to Survive?
The idea of cutting out parts of the economy is heresy to those who worship “growth at all costs.” But in medicine, when gangrene sets in, you don’t negotiate with it — you amputate. If humanity wants to avoid total collapse, it must confront this truth: some sectors are beyond saving.
Too Big to Fail? Cut Them First
Massive financial institutions, monopolies, and corporate welfare recipients are draining global resources while offering minimal value in return.
- Mega-banks trade in toxic derivatives.
- Defense contractors profit from endless war.
- Tech monopolies exploit data, suppress competition, and control information flow.
These are not pillars of a healthy system — they are tumors feeding on it.
Deadweight Sectors: Finance Overproduction
The financial sector should exist to support business, not replace it. Today, finance makes money from money. It diverts talent, skews incentives, and inflates bubbles.
We must:
- Heavily tax speculation.
- Break up systemically dangerous institutions.
- Outlaw high-risk financial products that produce no real-world value.
Cut the Fossil Fuel Umbilical Cord
The transition away from oil isn’t just ecological — it’s economic. Fossil fuel subsidies prop up dead industries while renewable innovation remains underfunded.
Amputation here means:
- Ending subsidies.
- Investing in grid independence and storage.
- Localizing energy for resilience.
De-Weaponize the State
War is big business. But it produces nothing of value — only destruction, debt, and political distraction.
Cutting military excess could:
- Fund universal healthcare.
- Build resilient infrastructure.
- Stabilize fractured democracies.
It’s not pacifism. It’s triage.
Shrink Globalization, Grow Local Economies
Globalization has enriched the few and enslaved the many. Supply chains stretch across fragile lines. Nations depend on distant powers for food, medicine, and tech.
Radical surgery here involves:
- Rebuilding local agriculture.
- Training in practical trades.
- Supporting local manufacturing.
It’s not isolationism. It’s immunity.
If AI Had Been Used Then: AI could have modeled outcomes of cutting specific industries and shown which amputations would have preserved long-term systemic health. It could have proposed precision interventions instead of austerity. But no one asked for the hard truth. They chose painkillers over surgery — and let the cancer grow.