Today we're reading Chapter 10, "Fundamental Principles: The Break with Neoliberalism," and we're getting down to the actual groundwork.

The central message here is that while the ultimate goal is Fully Automated Luxury Communism (FALC), we can’t wait decades to start.

The immediate, critical task is to stop the current system—neoliberalism—which is built on privatization, precarious labor, and falling wages.

This chapter uses vivid examples, like the chaos caused by the collapse of the outsourcing giant Carillion and the absolute absurdity of the East Coast Main Line railway repeatedly being nationalized and then re-privatized simply because it failed to make a profit for its private owners, to show how broken things are.

Even more darkly, events like the Grenfell Tower fire exposed the deadly consequences of the neoliberal priority of "self-regulation" and cost-cutting over public safety and housing the poor.

The good news is that the break with this old orthodoxy can start right now, from the ground up! The chapter outlines three key principles to launch this shift away from the "rigged system".

First, it pushes for re-localizing economies through progressive procurement, championed by the "Preston Model," where local public bodies ("anchor institutions") deliberately favor local, worker-owned businesses [208–210].

Second, this requires socializing finance by creating a network of regional and local banks specifically designed to lend to these new worker-owned cooperatives, which currently struggle to access long-term credit.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the movement calls for the introduction of Universal Basic Services (UBS), making essential resources like housing, transport, education, healthcare, and information free public goods, accessible to everyone, fundamentally shifting them away from being commodities for profit.

By starting this break with neoliberalism now, we lay the necessary foundation for achieving the long-term goals of FALC, ensuring technology serves the common good and supports the urgent need for decarbonization.