>> Thomas:
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> The only human jobs for the semi- to unskilled will be as a
>> Courier driver delivering parcels or pizza delivry guy/girl
>> and even both of those "jobs" could be automated. It's time
>> to own up that we need a new way to distribute income other
>> than working - the production of goods and services are
>> still there and need consumers to exist so I suggest a
>> significant tax be added to each machine or group of
>> machines that eliminate work. Prices will stay the same
>> because automation is cheaper than labour but the government
>> will have signicantly more resources to distribute to those
>> who have been marginalized.
Bob McDaniel wrote:
>>
>>
> Not a bad idea. I expect that the tax is to be enforced by the UN!
Thomas:
National governments would do quite nicely.
Bob Said:
>
> Let's make a list of steps to take to effect a smooth transition to the
> cybernated economy:
> (not to worry about feasibility at this brainstorming stage!)
>
> 1. Reduce the length of the work-week (4 day)
Thomas:
The problem with this idea and believe me, I spent a year arguing for as is
and did, Tom Walker. Most eloquently. Business is not going to buy it,
government is not going to legislate it and those who are working and
enjoying their paycheques are not going to support it.
Bob:
> 2. Extend ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans)
Thomas:
To me this compunds the problem, not only are employees expected to give
their labour for an unsatisfactory wage, it would not be long before
business factored in the increase of the Stock as a reason to keep wages
low. Secondly, if you sold your stock - you sell your future. Third, as a
form of earnings - what happens if the stock declines. Fourth, how do you
solve the problem of a mobile labour force who may work for many companies
over the years. Some of which might have variations on ownership such as
stock has to be converted back to cash when you are terminated or leave.
This idea is a stockbrokers dream, more and more trading - more and more
funny money - no real increase in productivity or products - the old shell
game.
Bob:
> 3. Extra tax on corporations not participating in ESOPs (to be used by
> govt. to buy stocks on behalf of employees)
Thomas:
More of the same.
Bob:
> 4. Educational system cultivating a mind-set geared to self-employment
> and the "meaningful" use of leisure time
Thomas:
Let's just make available - lifetime learning and forget about trying to
make education related to the working world. If a person wants to study
bees, let them - education does not have to be linked to increased
employability.
Bob:
> 5. Corporate "profit centres" become employee owned
Thomas:
Sure, corporations are going to love giving up those parts of their business
that make them rich so they can retain those parts that are losing money and
making them poorer.
Bob:
> 6. Individual persona incorporated into expert systems and royalties
> paid for each use,
> e.g. actors' attributes may be incorporated into computerized
> images
Thomas:
Let's expand the dream of the investor who likes to make money by not
working and give that franchise to actors, writers and anyone else who can
patent or demand payment for a service once given and paid for and then
given again and again and again - electronically and still get paid for it.
In fact, we could extend this wonderful scheme to workers. Imagine a
unionized employee in GM, getting a .025 royalty everytime the door that he
hung on the car is opened.
Bob:
> 7. Infomediary professionals trained to facilitate the interface
> between people and their automated systems
Thomas
No comment on this one - I can't visualize what you mean.
Bob:
> 8. Give greater official encouragement to the establishment of
> role-playing societies
> (pioneer villages, period societies (e.g. 18th century society),
> etc.), "living museums"
Thomas:
This one I like.
Bob:
> 9. Establish system of micropayments (perhaps modeled after LETS
> (Local
> Employment Trading System)) in which people accumulate an income
> through
> numerous microtransactions
Thomas:
I need a more concrete example of how this would work.
Bob:
> 10. Right to privacy modified to include a right to payment for
> providing the personal
> data (including opinions) required to support the automated
> economy
Thomas:
A make income scheme, to be sure. Are you suggesting I might qualify for
payment re these opinions I am churning out?
Bob:
> 11. While business may still compete, nevertheless inculcate a more
> cooperative mode conducive to the sharing of information (perhaps primarily
but not solely via the Internet) by forming cross-institutional teams
characterized by information literacy
Thomas:
Sounds like a socializing of capitalism.
Bob:
> 12. Founding of voluntary neighbourhood productive associations
> ("consentives" - to use Robert Theobald's term) may be particularly applicable
to low income areas
Thomas:
Why not give the low income areas some income and let the volunteers stay
home and enjoy themselves.
Bob:
> 13. Encourage the expansion of DIY (do-it-yourself) activities taking
> advantage of
> sophisticated hi-tech instructional systems (which may also
> provide access to LETS
> so people can easily find those who can help, given that they
> have neither the time
> nor inclination to complete a task)
Thomas:
Shades of Ivan Illich - a point I can agree on.
Bob:
> 14. And then there's the Tobin Tax, a proposed tax on global
> corporations' electronic
> financial transactions
Thomas:
Though I believe the Tobin tax might have some useful benefits in the
current globalization of capital by slowing it down, it's a lot like the
Qwerty keyboard. It may be around long after the need for it is over -
notice how pervasive income tax is.
Bob:
> 15. The role of volunteers is critically important to many
> organizations dedicated to
> helping the disadvantaged. Some firms grant paid leave to
> employees who can
> provide skilled help to such organizations. The volunteer system
> may be a vehicle
> for transferring wealth indirectly
Thomas:
Let's just give the poor some money as JK Galbraith stated 30 years ago and
forget all this volunteer business. Take food banks, a temporary measure
that is now factored into the welfare rates so that instead of Universal
Taxation redistributing income we also use volunteer contributions. The
neo-cons, trying to save the taxpayer money are cutting back on welfare and
trusting in the goodness of citizens to make up the difference. The
volunteer system is crazy.
Bob:
> 16. "1984" with a new face: Pervasive global electronic surveillance
> systems ensure
> that _each one_ of the earth's billions of people can be
> acknowledged and their
> needs entered into a database - something like GPS (Geographical
> Positioning
> Systems) ensuring that no one need ever be lost again
Thomas:
Welcome Big Brother, George Orwell said, or as Leonard Cohen said, "there'll
be a meter by your bed" who needs sex more than once a week anyway.
Bob:
> 17. The practice of "twinning" cities, "adopting" highways may be
> extended globally
> to possibly establish a more grassroots approach to Third World
> development
> as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund.
> Information may replace
> money as the means to development. Outfits like CESO, CUSO and
> the US Peace
> Corps may be precursors
Thomas:
When Russia was going down the tubes last year and trying to borrow billions
from the West, I posted an idea that went like this. Make Russia give us a
list of all unpaid back wages and let the West pay those back wages so the
money given enters the system at the level of people instead of governments.
Those people who have worked without wages, sometimes for years, would be
most frugal with their Rubles and as they decided what to buy, they would
kickstart a modest consumer society. As it is, we gave it to the government
who promptly let their Mafia friends steal it and then they take the results
of the wages of the poor and use it to pay off their debts. Meanwhile
blaming the West for the large debt and interest payments, they actually
turn the citizens against the very people who have been trying to help them.
>
> ... etc.
> Bob:
> A note to those who almost inevitably will assume that I am a proponent
> of these thoughts - I'm _not_. These are probes only (to use Marshall
> McLuhan's words).
Thomas:
I appreciate your disclaimer and of course neither us will probably be able
to influence the world with our modest debates and viewpoint. Using
McLuhan, as a guide is probably more sane than most of the thinking out
there, the media - electronic is changing us, our society, our understanding
of history and our future.
Respectfully,
Thomas Lunde
>
> --
> http://publish.uwo.ca/~mcdaniel/
>
