Socialism has always failed because it merely replaces private sector rent-seeking with public sector rent-seeking.
You have to disintermediate the public sector bureaucracy with a citizen's dividend. On Tue, Oct 9, 2012 at 3:14 PM, Jarold McWilliams <oldja...@hotmail.com>wrote: > > This economic system has already been developed. It is called socialism, > or what some people would call communism. When there is no more need for > human labor, it is obvious that governments are going to have to allocate > resources. Capitalism obviously won't work. > ------------------------------ > Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2012 17:36:21 -0400 > From: jedrothw...@gmail.com > To: vortex-l@eskimo.com > Subject: [Vo]:A new economic system will be needed in the next 20 to 100 > years > > > OrionWorks - Steven V Johnson <svj.orionwo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > It's my suspicion that with ensuing advancements of technology, > automation and robotics, traditional capitalism as it is currently > practiced will have to evolve... > > > Capitalism, communism, Feudalism, mercantalism and every other economic > system ever invented can be defined as: > > A system to allocate human labor, goods and services. > > Some of these systems have been efficient; others were inefficient. Some > were just; others were unjust, and still others tyrannical. > > No economic system could exist until people achieved some level of > agriculture and the ability to gather in villages and later towns and > cities. > > Human labor is now losing value. Robots and intelligent computers are > replacing human workers in many fields, including ones that people > previously thought could never be done by machines. Within 20 to 100 years, > human labor will be worthless. > > In the distant future, machines will supply all of the food we want. They > will capable of supplying 10 times the food we want, or a thousand times. > They will be capable of manufacturing a car for every driver, or 100,000 > cars for every driver, or enough cars to cover the whole surface of Mars > with automobiles in piles 100 cars high. Material scarcity and human labor > allocation will become distant memories, the way waterborne infectious > disease has in first world countries. The concept of "economic justice" > will become meaningless. The distinction between capitalism and communism > will be meaningless, like the difference between Protestants and Catholics > is to an atheist. > > As this transition occurs, all economic systems will gradually collapse. > This is already happening. When labor is worth nothing, you cannot > predicate your economic system on it. With the Internet we have seen the > cost of transferring information drop so close to zero it no longer > matters. No one bothers to account for it. As that happened, people who > made a living selling information that was difficult to access went out of > business. It become like selling water by the river, as the Zen proverb has > it. > > Some new economic system must emerge. It will not be capitalism or > communism. No human institution lasts forever; when we have no need for > these things, they will vanish as surely as Feudalism did, or slavery did > in the first world. > > I am confident that something new will emerge. If we can devise these > wonderful machines capable of fulfilling all of our material needs and > desires, surely we can also devise some practical means to allocate the > output of the machines so that everyone can have whatever they need, if not > everything they desire. As Romney put it, even today, people feel they are > "entitled to health care, to food, to housing." Naturally, they feel that > way! Since we can have these things in abundance in the first world, people > have every right to feel that way. > > In the future, everyone living in every part of the solar system will take > it for granted that they have a birthright to healthcare, food, housing, > education, energy, internet access and much else. These things will cost > nothing. Virtually nothing; the per capita cost to supply food, health care > and so on will be roughly what it costs us today to supply a house with > clean, potable water in a first-world household. That's $335 per year > average in the U.S. Keeping track of such trivial expenses would be a waste > of time. Collecting taxes to pay for them would be a waste of time. In any > case, you can't collect taxes when most people do not bother to work, or > have not need to work. > > Cold fusion will play a large roll in making this transition possible. > > - Jed > >
