Ray,
While a steady-state economy could exist on the
consumer goods side (with marginal improvements
and fashion changes) an expansionary economy
could still continue on the producer goods side.
In this there would be continuing improvements in
efficiency and innovations. In fact, the profit
margins would be necessary in order to afford the
maintenance of the arts* and also equipment for
scientific experimentation. Also, if at some
future date, some radical change were to be made
away from today's large, densely populated cities
to something else, large investments would be
required for infrastructure changes.
(*A few nights ago on BBC Proms we had a
magificent performance of Verdi's Requiem. The
choir was a triple choir of 390 voices and the
orchestra was, it seemed to me, to be about twice
as large as a normal symphony orchestra [with
some instruments I'd never even seen before --
including an 8ft diameter bass drum!]. It was
thrilling to see and hear such a live
performance, and it would have been even more
thrilling if one was actually in the audience.
The point is, though, that even in the
expansionary consumer economy of the last few
decades, such orchestral concerts have been
getting rarer and rarer for economic reasons.
Does this mean that in future years we'll never
hear such performances again, except on CD or
video? It's looking like it, unless the present
sort of Western-type consumer goods-dominated
economy changes radically. There seems to be no
reason why this shouldn't happen.)
KSH
At 19:28 29/08/2011, you wrote:
Interesting. I think that a steady-state and
an expansive economy cannot exist side by side.
REH
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 1:44 PM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, , EDUCATION; Arthur Cordell
Subject: Re: [Futurework] President Obama will
nominate Alan Krueger chairman Council of Economic Advisers.
And what needs to be said also. There is no
reason in principle why a steady-state economy
should not be a happy and fulfilling one.
Keith
At 17:22 29/08/2011, you wrote:
Agree. But only to add that a steady state
economy is likely as we move from an economy of
tangibles to an economy of intangibles.
arthur
From: [email protected] [
mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 11:39 AM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework] President Obama will
nominate Alan Krueger chairman Council of Economic Advisers.
And Alan Krueger, employment specialist though
he might be, will no more be able to create jobs
for America than Austan Goolsbee did.
Most economists, politicians and senior civil
servants cannot conceive of the possibility that
most of the Western advanced world is now locked
into a particular urban way of life in which
there is no space, energy or daily use of time
for significant new consumer products -- even if
they could be imagined. As it is, there is
nothing new on the horizon that can be remotely
compared with the significance that the radio,
car and television had. These are just three of
the long line of unique consumer goods -- the
buying power -- that motivated the industrial
revolution of the last 300 years. During that
period there was always a tangible item that
individuals at every social level aspired to
possess. Today, there isn't such a list. As far
as products in daily use are concerned (repeat:
in daily use) even the poorest in an advanced
country can enjoy much the same as the richest.
We've almost certainly reached a steady-state
economy. It hasn't been planned but it's been
initiated by the breakdown of the credit system.
Of course, President Obama will never dare say
so, nor will any other president for at least
another generation. By this time, if governments
are going to exist at all in the form that we
know them today, politicians will be seriously
thinking not how to create jobs but how to
educate children and young people in order to
share the highly specialized jobs that remain
once our manufacturing, transport and retailing
systems have become largely automated.
Keith
At 15:14 29/08/2011, you wrote:
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0007_01CC6634.7A651840"
Content-Language: en-us
Obama to name Krueger for key economic post
by msnbc.com news services Aug. 29, 2011
<http://www.readability.com/articles/okbolvvf?legacy_bookmarklet=1>Read
Later
Jon Roemer / Princeton
President Barack Obama will nominate Princeton
Universitys Alan Krueger to be chairman of the
White House Council of Economic Advisers.
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama will
nominate Princeton Universitys Alan Krueger to
be chairman of the White House Council of
Economic Advisers, a White House official said Monday.
If his nomination is confirmed by the Senate,
Krueger will succeed Austan Goolsbee in the
White House economic post. Goolsbee left the
position earlier this month to return to his
teaching post at the University of Chicago. The
departure was a blow for the White House as
Goolsbee had been a high-profile spokesman on the economy.
A labor economist, Krueger is likely to provide
a voice inside the administration for greater
action to bring down unemployment and deal with
the problem of long-term joblessness, according
to The
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44311574/ns/business/>WallStreet
<http://www.readability.com/articles/okbolvvf?legacy_bookmarklet=1#rdb-footnote-1>1
Journal.
Krueger served as assistant Treasury secretary
for economic policy during the first two years
of the Obama administration, meaning he has
recently cleared the sometimes treacherous
Senate confirmation process, the Journal noted.
The Krueger decision comes as Obama prepares to
unveil a jobs package in a speech planned for
shortly after the September 5 Labor Day holiday.
With U.S. unemployment at a stubbornly high 9.1
percent and amid fears the economy could slide
back into recession, Obama is under pressure to
show he is doing all he can to bolster growth.
----------
References
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<http://www.readability.com/articles/okbolvvf?legacy_bookmarklet=1#rdb-footnote-link-1>^<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44311574/ns/business/>
WallStreet (<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/>
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/>www.msnbc.msn.com) (
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44311574/ns/business/ )
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
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