Dear Mr. Bass:
I feel the need to respond to your compliant
about fixed views and because the writing of "point of view" takes a
little time, please bear with me.
First as to the focus of FW, and let me qualify
that I have only subscribed to this list for slightly over 6 months and
therefore do not have tenure. When you start to examine futurework, i.e.
what we as individuals and as classes of occupations will be doing in the
future, you will soon leave the narrow extensions of current experience
extrapolated and enter into the realm of causes. What are the forces or
influences that are going to affect futurework? How is the concept of
redistribution of income going to proceed effectively enough so that the
majority of the a given population will receive enough in wages to fuel the
demand for goods and services? How is technology going to increase or
decrease the number of employable people? What about the current situation
in regards to corporate monopolies, corporate influence on global treaties like
MIA or existing institutions such as the IMF or the World Bank? What is
the real effect on programs financed through payroll deductions on work
creation? What is the role of nationalism against the concept of global
trade? How do the various political points of view, liberalism,
neo-conservatism, socialism and dare I mention Marxism or anarchism going to
affect the policies of a local or national or international arena. Is the
current "merger mania" positive or negative for workers?
Then we can enter into other questions.
What is the current state of natural resources given the future projected demand
of the needs of a growing population? How will the effect of monoculture
agriculture be in feeding the working population? Are there some basics
such as petroleum and nuclear energy that will act as retardants on future
developments and restrict employment? How will the agreements of the
Koyota Summit affect the GDP of major industrial nations? How is money
created, by whom and under what criteria? How do major economic
earthquakes such as the "Asian Flu" come out of nowhere to become full
blown crisis's? Will the American discipline of Saddam spark a war or
interfere with the distribution of middle east oil? Will the conflict
between Israel and Palestine be the spark plug for a war? What effect will
the Masstrict Treaty and the Eurodollar have in Europe and other parts of the
world? What about the uproar in France over the 35 hour week and how will
that play out in redefining the concept of workers time as a variable - which it
has become in fact - notice the number of part-timers in the North American
workforce.
I could probably spend another few paragraphs on
questions that deserve discussion. The point I am making is that when we
talk of FW work, we are talking about everything because historically we have
evolved from a barter system, to a guild system, to a monarchical situation, to
a colonial system, to slave system, to a democratic system, to a market system,
to a global system and in each transfer, certain truth's from the past have been
carried forward so that our current understanding becomes confusing, as you have
noted re our recent discussion on an original posting of mine. Now, we
appear to be in a possible paradigm shift in at least three or four of our major
systems, communication, trade, international agreements, technology, it becomes
increasingly difficult to limit the discussion of FW to a detail such as payroll
taxes or money for higher education or some other specific focus.
This list has attracted a small number of people
such as Charles Mueller on monopolies, Jay Hanson on petroleum, Sally Lerner on
a Basic Income, Arthur Cordell on alternative ways of thinking about an economy,
Barry Brooks on durability, Ed Weick on the status quo, Tom Walker on payroll
taxes and labour history and others who join in and contribute a particular
expertise developed from looking at the problem from a fixed viewpoint. It
has also enlisted the help of individuals like Michael Gurstien who bring us
posting from a variety of sources and Vivian Hutchinson who through the New
Zealand Jobs Letter, brings us in-depth information from a country that has went
from an idyllic island paradise to a neo-con hell. (my opinion). Tor Forde
provides a similar but more focused set of essays through his viewpoint of
Norway and by extrapolation the other independent but relatively successful
countries of Northern Europe.
For this list to have attracted this variety and
quality of viewpoints and their advocates reflects the complexity of the
problem. Individuals such as myself and Brad McCormick try and provide
some synthesis to this variety while at the same time delight ( and I can only
speak for myself here) in being provocative in our questions and our
criticisms. That we have not all went our separate ways at the obtuseness
of others who hold strong viewpoints is what gives this list a vitality that I
enjoy and that you and some others don't is acceptable but regrettable in the
sense that it is not a contribution but a rejection.
A now I must take some offense at some postings
by Arthur Cordell and Sally Lerner in regards to the viewpoint of Charles
Mueller and his expertise and interest in monopolies. Personally, I found
the information that Charles brought forth very expansionary to my
understanding. I always found him respectful, knowledgeable and willing to
enter into in-depth defenses of his ideas. I regret that the List owners
have felt that he was out of line, that is not my experience. I would like
to say that I think this decision should be reconsidered and that we should
collectively apologize to Charles and invite him back to post on this list,
whatever he chooses. As I have tried to make clear in this lengthy post,
futurework is going to be affected by many things and the ability of
transnational and global companies that monopolize whole sectors of the goods
and services market are decisive players in employment, capital distribution,
factory location, pay scales, environmental standards and human rights and also
in the quality, durability of products and the use or misuse of energy and
natural resources. These "monopolies" affect government
legislation on labour, stock market and capital markets, political parties and
their agendas and the more we know about them, the more we can factor in their
effects in our exploration of futurework - or lack of it.
So I end this post and defense of the current
list as it is. I apologize in advance if I have offended anyone by my
characterizations of their viewpoint or contribution, this is a personal
statement based on my unique experience - not a general or world
truth.
Respectfully,
Thomas Lunde
