The pie had a remarkable growth in this century,
and if all the waste of research and resources
for arm and car production for example
turned into socially useful activities,
such as environmental protection,
the scope is limitless.
If you see a limited pie, your only scope
is the annihilation of most of humanity.
We have to count on the population levelling out -
which can only be achieved with adequate
distribution of the pie,
To make the juiciest and biggest pie
you have to try to think outside
of the present economic framework.
Eva
>
> Please enter the following into your computations; these are not subject to
> dispute except for "rounding errors".
>
> Approximately 1/4 million humans are added to the population DAILY. That is the
> net amount that births exceed deaths. The "pie" that is divided, whether
> sustainable or not, is therefor, on average, yielding a smaller slice/human.
> Unless, of course, that one claims that the "pie" is increasing in size. Last I
> heard, the planet was not expanding.
>
> This is independent of the impact that the consumption of the pie has upon it's
> future size, on the natural production upon which life depends. All the tokens
> in the world cannot increase natural production.
>
> To argue over policies of distribution without being concerned with the size of
> the pie, it's renewability, and the # of sharers is to my mind nonsensical.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Kurtz
>
> > But does it improve the SoL for the less well off individuals in those less
> > well off countries?
> >
> > > Richer countries may have to "pay" for their lesser well off neighbours but
> > > our standard of living on average is much higher.
> > > Is part of the "problem" with globalization, that Western nations will have
> > > to take a pay cut! (( washes mouth out with soap and water )) ;-)
> >
> > Tony's claim touches the key issues:
> >
> > 1. Must globalization increase the overall pie?
> >
> > This is the gain that the mathematical models do predict unambiguously for
> > (idealized) free trade - that the total economic product is maximized.
> >
> > Some folks claim that the gain would be adequate to keep any piece from
> > shrinking.
> >
> > 2. (If so,) must increasing the overall pie increase particular pieces? For
> > example, the smaller ones?
> >
> > This is more problematic, even mathematically. The relevent theory is that of
> > 'Comparative Advantage', which argues for specialization. Unfortunately it
> > appears that the particular specializations must be able (even eager) to
> > easily change over time, something that seems rather difficult to pull off in
> > practice.
> >
> > 3. (How) does increasing the size of a piece affect the distribution of that
> > piece
>
