Saturday, 2 November 2013

Scarcity Explained

Michael Fortenberry (above video) wanted someone to explain our way of life (3:50). He thinks our sociology, economics, or motivations are not scientific or based on any type of logic he can understand. Well the explanation is simple, technology is not yet sufficiently advanced thus people are heavily influenced by scarcity. Our current system of greed and exploitation is a very logical reaction to scarcity, it's a logical reaction to limited technology.

There is no conspiracy we can overcome, the problems of the world are merely the problems of scarcity. Yes we could make the world significantly better in theory, but many problems simply cannot be over yet due to limited technology.  

In practice our current (2013) level of socioeconomic progress is essentially correct based upon the interrelationship between technological proficiency and fear of scarcity. The ideal of making the world better is logically thwarted by scarcity, scarcity causes the majority of people to understandably put profits before progress.

Eventually nobody will need to work because everything will be free, but we need better technology before this happens. Progress towards the abolition of work won't stop when we reach a stage where you only need to work a few hours a week. The erosion of prices, the erosion of the need to work, it will culminate with everything being free, the end of all jobs is coming.

It is naive to think our current level 2013 level of technology is sufficient to almost or completely erode scarcity. Technology could be better implemented but scarcity prevents the ideal implementation of current technology. We need more proficient technology, we need greater technological efficiency, but the requisite technology hasn't been invented yet. I wonder what the NYC Zeitgeist Chapter will think of this explanation?

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