Arthur,
"Technology is eliminating steps on the social mobility ladder." If
that is what Andrew McAfee is saying then I won't waste my time
watching his videos. The historical fact is that as innovations and
new specializations arise then more new strata are inserted into the
social ladder and, as always, one or more of them jockey for top
position. At the very least, new and old social layers shuffle
around to new positions in the hierarchy.
Of course, innovations are not always beneficial -- far from it. Even
flawed ones can produce new top dogs. The flawed innovation that we
happen to be suffering from at present originated when governments
decided to permanently manufacture money at a rate that exceeds
normal economic productivity. They did this by going into debt,
instructing their central banks to print more money, and then
recouping the money as their electorates entered higher tax bands as
well as a multitude of stealth taxes. Easy-peasy. But then, by about
the 1970s, banks started getting into the same sort of act by issuing
credit far beyond normal economic productivity in all sorts of
wonderful new ways -- personal credit cards (cleverly marketed to
those of questionable financial discipline). off-balance sheet
'vehicles', teaser mortgages, collateralized debt obligations (very
sloppily collateralized at that), credit default swaps (far beyond,
and far removed from the original basis of the credit).
But now the whole house of cards built by governments and banks is
falling down and we are entering what will probably be a very long
depression. (6-10 years in the view of the OECD and many other
forecasters; 20 years in my view) The value of real money -- stuff
like gold, copper, fossil fuels, phosphate fertilizer -- is now
reasserting itself. Government treasury officials, politicians and
bankers are already shuffling downwards in the social scheme of
things -- that is, losing their political power and credibility.
And what entities are taking their place? Firms like Apple, of
course. Ever since we left hunting-gathering behind us 11,000 years
ago, value-adding industry of various sorts has been the very
foundation on which subsequent despots, governments, and more
latterly banks, have depended. Highly specialized industries, often
transnational in scope, are still doing very nicely with large cash
balances despite the technically bankrupt governments and banks of
the Western world which can only cover up their real nakedness with
yet more billions and trillions of paper or digital tokens and
conning their creduluous public. (At least, they are credulous up to
a point. We are already glimpsing the first intimations of vast
social unrest and revolutions to come in the next 20 years or so.)
And within specialized industry, the scientific class is quietly
diffusing to the top. Indeed as never before, a higher proportion of
our largest industries has been founded not on the basis of inherited
wealth or the at-school-together act or clever accounting tricks but
of a specific new scientific innovation. And there have never been so
much scientific research and potential innovations as now. I can't
see much scope for anything uniquely new in the consumer goods field
apart from modest improvements, but in producer goods (and services
such as health and education), there are vast opportunities for
improving efficiency even in a 'no-growth economy' as defined in
money aggregate terms.
Keith
At 21:17 28/11/2011, you wrote:
From: TVO [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 1:58 PM
To:
Subject: Beware the Machines and the Future of Social Mobility
<http://support.tvo.org/site/R?i=g_-UwuUgmuZ35iJ2U6DO2g>
The Agenda with Steve Paikin
Beware the Machines and the Future of Social Mobility
1X1: Andrew McAfee: The Machines Are Coming
Strides in technological innovation are causing more and more jobs
to disappear. Machines are increasingly able to perform tasks in
which humans were once unquestioned masters.
Debate: Reworking the World of Work
Technology is eliminating steps on the social mobility ladder. Will
liberal capitalism survive without a better system of social mobility?
All episodes of The Agenda with Steve Paikin are available on-demand
in streaming video and audio and video podcasts at:
<http://support.tvo.org/site/R?i=DX6FcT0FhXWlAiKi9VMjbA>theagenda.tvo.org/podcasts.
dot divider
<http://support.tvo.org/site/R?i=rbpTSYcwzNhy9jqwkSmiug>The Agenda
with Steve Paikin airs weeknights at 8:00 and 11:00 PM ET on TVO.
Program information is subject to change.
You received this email because you signed up to receive email
alerts from The Agenda with Steve Paikin.
<http://support.tvo.org/site/CO?i=NpKw_jS9f0QVzO9XTIv5uuGTFjR_tKFQ&cid=1021>Unsubscribe
<http://support.tvo.org/site/R?i=g1jX-ImFmAkgtzFJdh-oiA>
powered by CONVIO
<http://support.tvo.org/site/R?i=EP8OGLQVOe-WMXDhu515oA>nonprofit software
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/11/
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
