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Economics The economy, taxes, Federal Reserve, Central Banks, inflation, interest rates, unemployment, stock markets, currency, GDP, NAFTA, IMF, WTO, GATT, etc. |
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"It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize." Theodore Roosevelt |
#12
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![]() ![]() Moving beyond the theological distractions, my point is that I am doubtful the utopia of a scarcity free world can be achieved. Not because we could not find a way to provide for everyone, but because there will always be someone who says "me and mine deserve more than you and yours."
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Lighten our darkness. Last edited by Non Sequitur; May 27th 2016 at 10:34 AM. |
#13
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Here's a leftist perspective on the potential for various futures: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2011/12/four-futures/
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"It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize." Theodore Roosevelt |
#14
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I don't see any rational reason that a 'post-scarcity' world would be inherently free, tolerant and egalitarian. It might be, but I don't see how one could logically predict that it would or should be. Quote:
1. Marx has asserted that 'man is a productive animal'. That is to say, humans have millions of years of evolution behind them, built on being 'productive' animals, producing our own food, clothes, shelter, etc. This forms a significant part of our own definitions of ourselves as humans. Take away the need for any of that and I suspect many people would react to that in inexplicable, unpredictable or possibly even destructive ways. 2.Hegel has asserted that 'consumption' is how we define ourselves as individuals - that the choices we make about consumption are not just affirmational statements of how we see ourselves, but the very act of consumption is what forms that identity. In a 'post-scarcity' world, with no way to derive status from consumption, what will become of personal identity and the human need to express it? 3. Even in a world of 3-d replicators that can produce food, unlimited fusion/solar energy to power those replicators, and robots/computers to take care of all the necessary stuff (building housing, toilets, sewage systems, doing the cleaning, laundry etc), there will still be some roles for humans to control, manage and/or create all that apparatus. Someone has to program the computers and robots to do all this stuff. And that means you will have an 'elite' class of technocrats who will be functionally separate from the rest of the 'non-productive' population. That does not bode well for a classless, free, egalitarian and tolerant society. Quote:
That is to say, our present world is characterized by increasing scarcity of energy and natural resources. The increasing scarcity of fossil fuel is very likely to continue to increase human inequality and is not conducive to either political liberty or a 'post-work' future world. I might also add that our present contemporary world is not transitioning to 'post-work' at all - work (ie. labor) is merely being exported/imported from the third world. Malaysian sweatshops are evidence of anything but a 'post-work' world. First world workers are suffering 'post-work', but the work didn't evaporate or disappear - it got moved away somewhere else. Quote:
That being said, in the near or medium term, exploitation of third world labor, automation and the increasing scarcity of energy resources can only reinforce the political-social dominance of capitalism - and inequality will be expected to rise under such conditions. Quote:
Imagine what a group of unsupervised bored and affluent teenagers can get themselves up to and that's what I think you would likely see in a 'post-scarcity' world. Some good, some bad, and some downright nasty. ![]()
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Remember what the dormouse said: Feed your head! |
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![]() Again, just to be nauseatingly repetitious:
Stagnation in the West despite such amazingly efficient advancements as computerized bar codes, and where population growth is not a major problem, is due to centralized Keynesian bureaucracies throwing resources into sacred cows rat holes like wars and "education," and impeding the creation of new resources.
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Voltairian individualist on the Lunatic Fringe of the Radical Center |
#16
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Keynesian theory REQUIRES a direct and specific qui pro quo between the spending and payback. If that ain't there, it ain't Keynesian theory. It really is that simple. One cannot rationally call generic government spending "Keynesian" just because one likes using that word. The word has a definition and this ain't it.
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Remember what the dormouse said: Feed your head! |
#17
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Voltairian individualist on the Lunatic Fringe of the Radical Center |
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