Matt

Designer / Developer. Too into politics, infrastructure & how things actually work.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

England could be short five billion litres of water a day by 2055. About 2.87 billion already leak out daily before reaching a tap. I spent months finding out why, and what would actually fix it. https://t.co/WnrJDaM1pb

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@JBickertonUK Having been to Alabama, you can't seriously expect people to think it's all like this. We have pockets of uber wealthy estates in the UK too.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

Yeah, but that’s only half the story. Capitalism can be brilliant at scaling things, but it isn’t the only thing that drives people to create or contribute. Fleming wasn’t chasing a market opportunity when he found penicillin, and Turing wasn’t motivated by getting rich.

And we keep saying “well, if they’re passionate enough they’ll figure it out”, which seems completely insane to me. Most people still have to work, pay rent and live their lives.

If we want more invention, stronger communities and more people contributing, we should actually build systems that give passionate, slightly obsessive people the time, tools and space to do it.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@Samcarrollhull @thenerdyn3rd @LBC Yeah, I think we’re actually fighting for the same thing. I just think we should build systems that give people more ways to contribute back to society and take an active role in their communities, rather than treating paid employment as the only contribution that counts.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@DeepakNambisan @DizzyLizzi80631 @Barbara13146567 @redrumlisa @LBC Thank you, Deepak!

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@chezmathieson @Hairetikos77 @TiggyMallinson @redrumlisa @LBC People keep trying to burst it, but I do genuinely think we can build a better Britain. I don't think it's a hot take to say the goal should be to make things better?

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@EnvAgency Thank you for cleaning it up, I would like to see more from you.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@elonmusk Could it not be more of a reflection of AI being an optimised version of the best of us.

That deep down we all just want the best for each other we just disagree about the ways that should be?

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@mehdirhasan @shannonrwatts The irony is Mehdi, we'd welcome you back with open arms. We could use a bit of your fire back here to help us solve issues like our water and electric.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@Asmongold @mehdirhasan @shannonrwatts Swindon is so nice dude.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

I hope you’re there to work with him too, Kemi.

I started to see a little glimpse of what politics could look like when politicians actually met across the aisle and worked on shared problems.

That gave me more hope in our politics than years of mud-slinging and party politics ever have.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

I think it requires compromise on both sides. We’re at a point technologically where we can be incredibly productive and still expect people who can contribute to do so.

But we also need to ask a bigger question: why does contribution only count when it produces taxable income?

Caring for people, restoring communities, mentoring, conservation, volunteering, creating things people value, all of that is contribution too.

The deal can’t just be “give people everything and expect nothing”, but it also doesn’t have to be “take whatever job is available or you’re useless”.

That middle ground is the bit I think we’ve barely explored and I think it could bring us all closer together.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@ProfBootyWizard @LBC Haha thank you! Have a great Saturday!

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

I think you’re missing the point she’s actually making.

She isn’t saying “fund me until I find my dream job”. She’s describing a lack of meaningful ways to contribute and belong.

For an MP, that should be interesting. We’ve hollowed out a lot of the institutions that connect people to their communities, then reduced contribution to “get any job and pay tax”.

Is that the limit of our ambitions, is that the best our respresentives can give us?

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

That’s the question though. Why does the private labour market have to be the only mechanism we have for deciding whether someone is contributing?

I’m not saying everyone gets to wait around for their dream job. I’m asking why “take whatever job Tesco is offering” is treated as the end of the conversation when there’s loads of socially useful work our communities desperately need.

If someone can contribute, I’m happy to expect something from them. I just think we can be more ambitious about what that contribution looks like.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

@ProfBootyWizard @LBC I'm about the venture out into the rain to go and join them - they're genuinely incredibly inspiring folks.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

Even where employers offer volunteering leave, I’ve generally seen it amount to about two days across an entire working year.

And asking people to bolt community participation onto full-time work, commuting, families and everything else is tough.

But my bigger point is that we haven’t really built the structures that make contributing easy.

Clear routes in, organised projects, people bringing you into them, time to participate, and some sense of what your effort actually achieved.

‘You can volunteer if you want’ I don't think thats the same thing as building a society designed for participation.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

I disagree, and parkrun is almost the perfect counterexample.

Every weekend thousands of wonderful weirdos get up early on a Saturday morning to marshal, time, organise, encourage strangers and pack everything away.

They aren’t paid. But they have a clear role in something they feel part of and a structure to support it.

The willingness to contribute hasn’t disappeared. But I think its perfectly reasonable to say we've got worse at creating places for people to use it.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

Other people in this thread have shown me that not only does she work, but she seems particularly active with women's health and Palastine.

But even then I'm more interested in what she's actually saying - and it's a completely valid complaint that I think is worth listening to.

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

“Making it worth more” doesn’t just mean higher wages.

Better conditions. Better training. Better productivity. More pride in the work.

If society desperately needs people doing difficult jobs, “keep the job bad so the project stays cheap” doesn't feel like serious long-term strategy.

So us two knuckleheads should be able to figure out something better, right?

[Matt @HampseyMatt]

I don’t understand why this always gets reduced to money.

A lot of my passion for this comes from looking around and feeling like we’ve lost something.

I hate litter. I’m constantly picking it up when I’m out. Nobody pays me to do that, I just care about where I live and I want it to be better.

But I don’t think the answer is shaming and expecting a handful of people to care harder.

We’ve built communities where too many people feel disconnected from the place around them, from each other, and from any sense that their contribution would actually matter.

And I think we can change that.