Hi art
thanks for the response- it raises other questions but also points out
that we need to rise beyond the Rifkin Rhetoric quickly or be caught
skirmishing on the fringe issues.
Cordell, Arthur: DPP wrote:
>
> My view is a function of things that I believe-- note I can't 'prove
> them' just believe them:
>
> 1. That western capitalist society has solved the production
> problem.
I don't think this is true from a systems perspective- one example is
the environmental ineffeicienes. This means that the amount of
entropy/unit of useful goods is still not within balance. I think we
have not seen the start of production options from bio and nono tech and
this is not future dreams but near term
>
> 2. That we have not solved the distribution problem.
I agree here and think that this is a key in all segments from products
to services
>
> 3. That good jobs for the broad middle class are less to be
> found these days than in the past and will be less so in the
> future.(because of IT and globalisation)
you seem to see a bifurcation in the job/income distribution- more of
those with less and a smaller hump of a few with a lot both chewing up
the middle hump- conversion of a Dromedary into an asymetrical Bactrian
camel?
>
> 4. That effective demand has to be maintained if we are to
> avoid an economic meltdown.
this has been the argument of business to increasing the consumption. If
someone snaps their fingers and says that absolute consumption has to be
diminished and what is left redistributed we are afraid that our worlds
will collapse- we don't yet buy a non-material consuming economy
regardless of all the hype of the information age and the service
economy- rhetoric and reality seem to lack congruence?
>
> 5. That money will be found (from a bit tax, a tobin tax,
> some other form of turnover indirect tax) to provide a basic income, or
> to provide spending for some other type of workfare activivities in the
> third sector.
when I ran futures scenarios with students from freshman to senior
citizens, the only answer they could find to create a perfect world was
a Deus Ex Machina- God would appear, pick us up clean up the sandbox and
put us back in to play- Some benevolent dictator in pragmatic terms.
Solomon would appear and all would be made right
And the downside?
>
> 6. That governments will argue about debt this and deficit
> that but when the crunch comes, new money will be found.
yes, we have found that in VISA which constantly mints money with their
debit cards- it is a question of who has the power and whose money are
we using. VISA is beyond the control of the US mint and no one knows how
much dollar deomoninated debt has been created globally without the say
of the US treasury- It seems to be a fact that there are more 100dollar
bills circulating around the globe than there are in the US- maybe more
paper currency in large demoninations?
thoughts?
tom
>
