While Stipple’s comment breaks my heart, it’s clear that our species passes through stages of productivity that seem fairly predictable.
First comes hunting and gathering. This was in place as the dominant economic activity since thecspecies evolved from earlier hominids, perhaps 200-300 thousand years ago.
Then comes agriculture. Animal husbandry and plant cultivation is something like 7-9 thousand years old. This spurred the development of towns, villages, and ultimately cities. Hand made goods and many forms of services developed to serve the evolving needs of the ag-related economy.
Then came the development of the empirical method and the explosion of science and technology that multiplies the effectiveness and reach of the species. This phase really gained momentum in the mid 1800’s. The application of these methods influenced ag methods to some degree, but revolutionized manufacturing. As manufacturing and its related upstream and downstream activities accelerated, capital began to coalesce into large fortunes. This trend fed on itself as the application of capital to human activity multiplied the impact of those activities, generating both the need for more capital, and even greater fortunes.
As manufacturing was fed capital, human labor as such became less important, and could be performed by fewer people with lower skills. Those individuals in manufacturing found themselves much more replaceable. Labor rate arbitrage pushed manufacturing to wherever it became most profitable. Those left behind had to adapt or sink to a lower standard of living.
Next in human economic evolution came the rise of services. As manufacturing became more capital intensive, and less labor intensive, humans begin to perform both menial services and very complex services to each other. The menial services require little training. Progressively, however, the services are of a higher and higher lever, requiring specialized knowledge that many simply do not have. High level services today are well compensated, but difficult to do unless you have the requisite intellectual and social skills required to do them. Unfortunately, many people do not have these skills, and have fallen further and further behind.
Now, we have entered into the next phase of economic development—the information age where the essence of economic value lies in the nature of the information content in products or services. As our internal information processing is quite weak, we have developed cognitive enhancing tools to extend and empower our weak brains. This is really what all of our microprocessor driven devices are all about.
Meanwhile, our politicians have little awareness of these economy realities. Many on the right seem to believe that very one can simply “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and succeed. This is quite true for some. One personal example is evident in my sons who have Ivy League educations with advanced degrees. That’s not a guarantee of anything, of course, but they are doing quite well, and, unless they have really bad luck (certainly possible) or making really bad decisions (also possible), they and their children should do just fine.
Increasingly, however, we need to be thinking of those left behind by the inexorable march of our economic system. It is not only a matter of what’s right and wrong, it is also a matter of social stability and future progress of the species. We must begin widespread early education. We have to support children and parents who are struggling. We need to become more compassionate and empathetic. Obviously we need to raise taxes to support those who are falling behind. These tax increases could range from gas taxes to support infrastructure all the way to extra income taxes on those with large incomes. The inheritance taxes should also be changed . Nobody has to leave more than a few million dollars to any on their progeny. Finally, since I’m waving my magic wand, we should obviously spend less on the military (a lot less).
One more quixotic thought. Our current winner take all economic system is a bad model for the species moving forward. The most apt metaphor is cancer, the biological definition of which is endless growth. Our economic system, with its never ending insistence on “MORE, MORE” is ill suited to the realities of the species over the longer term. It has served fairly well as a motivating paradigm to date, but is becoming obsolete. A better paradigm might express the objective of getting “BETTER, BETTER” rather than “BIGGER, BIGGER.”
While Stipple’s comment breaks my heart, it’s clear that our species passes through stages of productivity that seem fairly predictable.
First comes hunting and gathering. This was in place as the dominant economic activity since thecspecies evolved from earlier hominids, perhaps 200-300 thousand years ago.
Then comes agriculture. Animal husbandry and plant cultivation is something like 7-9 thousand years old. This spurred the development of towns, villages, and ultimately cities. Hand made goods and many forms of services developed to serve the evolving needs of the ag-related economy.
Then came the development of the empirical method and the explosion of science and technology that multiplies the effectiveness and reach of the species. This phase really gained momentum in the mid 1800’s. The application of these methods influenced ag methods to some degree, but revolutionized manufacturing. As manufacturing and its related upstream and downstream activities accelerated, capital began to coalesce into large fortunes. This trend fed on itself as the application of capital to human activity multiplied the impact of those activities, generating both the need for more capital, and even greater fortunes.
As manufacturing was fed capital, human labor as such became less important, and could be performed by fewer people with lower skills. Those individuals in manufacturing found themselves much more replaceable. Labor rate arbitrage pushed manufacturing to wherever it became most profitable. Those left behind had to adapt or sink to a lower standard of living.
Next in human economic evolution came the rise of services. As manufacturing became more capital intensive, and less labor intensive, humans begin to perform both menial services and very complex services to each other. The menial services require little training. Progressively, however, the services are of a higher and higher lever, requiring specialized knowledge that many simply do not have. High level services today are well compensated, but difficult to do unless you have the requisite intellectual and social skills required to do them. Unfortunately, many people do not have these skills, and have fallen further and further behind.
Now, we have entered into the next phase of economic development—the information age where the essence of economic value lies in the nature of the information content in products or services. As our internal information processing is quite weak, we have developed cognitive enhancing tools to extend and empower our weak brains. This is really what all of our microprocessor driven devices are all about.
Meanwhile, our politicians have little awareness of these economy realities. Many on the right seem to believe that very one can simply “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and succeed. This is quite true for some. One personal example is evident in my sons who have Ivy League educations with advanced degrees. That’s not a guarantee of anything, of course, but they are doing quite well, and, unless they have really bad luck (certainly possible) or making really bad decisions (also possible), they and their children should do just fine.
Increasingly, however, we need to be thinking of those left behind by the inexorable march of our economic system. It is not only a matter of what’s right and wrong, it is also a matter of social stability and future progress of the species. We must begin widespread early education. We have to support children and parents who are struggling. We need to become more compassionate and empathetic. Obviously we need to raise taxes to support those who are falling behind. These tax increases could range from gas taxes to support infrastructure all the way to extra income taxes on those with large incomes. The inheritance taxes should also be changed . Nobody has to leave more than a few million dollars to any on their progeny. Finally, since I’m waving my magic wand, we should obviously spend less on the military (a lot less).
One more quixotic thought. Our current winner take all economic system is a bad model for the species moving forward. The most apt metaphor is cancer, the biological definition of which is endless growth. Our economic system, with its never ending insistence on “MORE, MORE” is ill suited to the realities of the species over the longer term. It has served fairly well as a motivating paradigm to date, but is becoming obsolete. A better paradigm might express the objective of getting “BETTER, BETTER” rather than “BIGGER, BIGGER.”
I’m a dreamer, I guess.