The end of private ownership in the means of production
- Thread starter Matt Houston
- Start date
I think this is relevant:
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/08/10/1096031/3d-printing-rise-of-the-machines/
"Low-cost production techniques could soon become so advanced and so low cost â thanks to developments like 3D printing â that even the tiniest salaries in Africa will not make it worthwhile to employ human beings at all."
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/08/10/1096031/3d-printing-rise-of-the-machines/
"Low-cost production techniques could soon become so advanced and so low cost â thanks to developments like 3D printing â that even the tiniest salaries in Africa will not make it worthwhile to employ human beings at all."
Fair enough
There are lots of people like me that want to retain cheques. They are very useful in some transactions.
Capitaism has it's virtues i.e. making work etc. but imho it has a very dark side i.e. the money grubbing sort of people that are trashing the rainforests, the oceans etc in their selfish pursuit of money. All the zreos in the world on Bill Gates' bank account won't restore the planet's health.
We are headed into worse scenarios of over population, starvation ( except for the rich ), pollution of seas and land. Are the greedy pigs going to apologise in advance for trashing the planet ? I don't think they would even care enough to do that.
So what economic system would be an improvement? China and USSR are/were hardly known for their environmental policies if you think state socialism is the way fwd.
Come to think of it their record on starvation wasn't too hot either
"We are headed into worse scenarios of over population, starvation"
repeating the same statement doesn't make it true.
as usual for ET the poster pumps his chest but offers no proof.
" I don't think they would even care enough to do that. "
what do you do for the poor who live on less than $1.00/day?
A very big start would be for every nation to give 10% of it's military budget per year to the UN to try make some headway into these problems.
I am not sugesting socialism or capitalism but just some common sense. Do you trash your dwelling and garden ? Probably not. The illegal loggers are cutting down huge areas of the Amazon and Congo rainforests. Protesters have been murdered by hired thugs already. Time to call in the Brazillian air force and strafe them from the air.
"Money is just an abstraction which reflects a person's value to society." --
This is true by definition, but trivial, if applied to a hypothetical world where the word "value" has no intangible component and is defined in terms of money. In the economies of the real world, however, there is not complete agreement on "value" and there are many distortions. "Reducing everything to money" is undoubtedly to be avoided in real economies where value has intangible components and distortions can be large and unfavorable. In these economies the goal should be rather more aimed at minimizing distortions so that money can more closely reflect real societal value, including intangibles. Sadly, because of our nature, we will never achieve perfection in this, but we are best served by trying.
This is true by definition, but trivial, if applied to a hypothetical world where the word "value" has no intangible component and is defined in terms of money. In the economies of the real world, however, there is not complete agreement on "value" and there are many distortions. "Reducing everything to money" is undoubtedly to be avoided in real economies where value has intangible components and distortions can be large and unfavorable. In these economies the goal should be rather more aimed at minimizing distortions so that money can more closely reflect real societal value, including intangibles. Sadly, because of our nature, we will never achieve perfection in this, but we are best served by trying.