Ernie: Thanks for the Bergmann material.
To be sure, as in many economic proposals, there are unrecognized problems. In Detroit it may make sense to plant roof gardens, but in Arizona? Not so much because water is a rationed commodity. and in the desert evaporation rates are what they are, instant evaporation of all exposed water. And, while I very much like the idea of sweat equity to build or maintain one's housing, what about the sometimes widely differing capabilities of the people involved. Some people can do a lot, other people are de facto spastics and cannot do much of anything. It isn't enough that they all do something because someone with the skill level of a ten year old cannot add value equal to someone who is a professional -a welder or house framer or electrician or plumber. That is, I like Bergmann's approach but, IMHO, he reminds me of the Quivira people, he leaves out some important stuff because of his values. Still, I get his point and think it could work for some people in some places. I'd say the same for my "Indian economics" idea, some people, some places. What I'd add is that the concept of low cost auto repairs at large scale ought to be a winner. Very easy to conceive of a "WalMart" style business where auto repair costs are cut to somewhere in the 3/4ths of current costs range and large numbers of people switch to "AutoMart" -and a new WalMart is born. Mind you, this refers to full service, not just body work or lube jobs, it can mean electronic systems maintenance and repair, air bag repair, window replacement, upholstery, tires, GPS, and God knows what else. For repairs that take a few days there could be loaner cars, and the business might sell insurance as well. Everything at a price that beats usual retail by 25% or thereabouts. I think this could become really big. What else might work well would be discount dentistry. Same day service, walk-ins welcome for some procedures.. Its just that it would not be as big as auto service and parts sales. Which leads to a question: Why has Wal Mart had few competitors in the deep discount merchandising business? This does not mean the same range of products Walmart sells, but what it has missed, like auto repair and dentistry. Actually there was one business that was a mini WalMart, Staples for office supplies. But with so much now going into computers that market is gradually drying up. You can say something similar for home products, Re: Lowes and so forth, although there the issue is the seasonal nature of the home products business and the "seasonal"nature of the economy such that when times are tough people defer home improvements. But they can't defer auto repairs and can only defer dental work for a limited time. Enough for now on this sort of subject. I am way too busy with other matters. Billy ________________________________ From: Dr. Ernie Prabhakar <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 8:06 PM To: Centroids Discussions Cc: Billy Rojas Subject: Frithjof Bergmann Re: [RC] Indian Economics Hi Billy, > On Oct 29, 2018, at 8:52 AM, Billy Rojas <[email protected]> > wrote: > > There is no plan to maximize profits, the opposite is the case, profits would > be > kept within limits. The whole idea is to re-think capitalism for community > benefit > -which means the people in that community, NOT absentee financial interests. > I think there is clearly a future for locality-based cooperative work. Have you read any Frithjof Bergmann? His New Work / New Culture is the clearest and most plausible vision of the future of work that I’ve seen. https://www.context.org/iclib/ic37/bergmann/ Even more impressive, he actually quit being a full-time philosopher and moved to downtown Detroit to help them start building out that vision… — Ernie P. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
