Since the subject of economics has come I recommend this lecture by Guy Standing.
The Precariat: The new dangerous class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jJt-5i_dls Labour economist Professor Guy Standing identifies one of the alarming impacts of globalisation on the labour market; the rise of a new class of insecure workers - the precariat. He calls for governments world-wide to address the inequalities this new class suffer from, as we can't sustain what is happening without major threats along the way. He is an economist and has studied the effect of trade liberalisation on labour over the last 30 years and advocates a basic income for everyone. He uses the marxian concepts of a class for itself and a class in the making, and identifies the precariat as a class in the making. He answers five questions that structure his book: 1) What is the precariat? 2) Why care about it? 3) Why is it growing? 4) Who is in the precariat? 5) and where is it taking us as society? He breaks society down into 5 classes. at the top are the super rich 1. elite (super rich). 2. salariat 3. working class 4. precariat 5. underclass Harry On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 6:03 PM, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> wrote: > Guenter Wildgruber wrote: > > Decent, humble scientifically oriented minds consider that, and are not > distracted by possible billions. > > > That is an absurd thing to say. People should be "distracted" by the > likelihood that cold fusion is worth billions of dollars. I consider it > grossly irresponsible to pretend it is not worth huge sums of money. I also > dislike this Mandarin attitude toward money as being "filthy lucre" that > should now sway a pure-minded academic scientist. > > I have heard this attitude from time to time, that there is something > unseemly or morally wrong with making money. I strongly disagree, for the > following reasons: > > 1. Money and wealth earned by legitimate means, without causing much harm or > pollution, are socially beneficial. > > 2. Money promotes science, technology and exploration. One of the NASA > people at W&M had a slide with a great quote about this: "If God had wanted > people to go to space, she would have given them more money" -- Mark Albert. > > 3. Money is a measure of social benefit, albeit a crude one. An invention > that makes millions of dollars and causes no harm is good for humanity. An > invention that makes billions of dollars and also causes no harm is even > better for humanity. Cold fusion will earn trillions and save countless > trillions more that would have been spent on fossil fuel. > > 4. Money is a measure of freedom. It allows people to live however they > please. Someday in the future (and perhaps not in the distant future) robots > will do all physical work. If we are smart enough to make an economy worthy > of our technological genius, then every person on earth will be fabulously > wealthy by present day standards. Every person will be free to do anything > he or she pleases, every day of her life, the way a multimillionaire is > today, or the way Thomas Jefferson was. This should be the birthright of any > person born on the Earth or anywhere else in the solar system. Every baby > should be welcomed with all food, water, education, Internet access and > transportation he or she wants, for a lifetime, just for showing up. Go > anywhere, live anywhere, do whatever you please. In such a society, some > people may feel ennui or dissatisfaction, but that is the best and most > fulfilling future we can hope for. On balance I am confident that most > people will contribute more to human happiness and creativity in those > circumstances than they would in today's world where you have to work to > make a living. To achieve that we must have much more technology and more > money. Fewer material resources perhaps, but lots more computing power. > Every person will need something like a hundred Watson-class supercomputers > at his disposal. Every person deserves that. > > - Jed >
