Hi list!
I remembered this post from Graham fitting well into the discussion on
scarcity, limitedness, etc.
20 months (603 days) ago graham wrote:
Roberto Verzola has a new paper about managing abundance on:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1160044
(although it looks like only an abstract, you can download the whole
thing from that page.)
Haven't read it all yet, but generally Verzola's writings are quite
relevant to oekonux
I read the important parts and can only agree. Really a nice paper. I
also added him as a possible speaker on the 5th Oekonux Conference.
Here are some quotes on the scarcity topic:
Looking more closely at the logic of business firms, it is obvious
that the immediate effect of restricting abundance is to reduce
supply and increase overall demand. These in turn raise prices or
keep their levels high. If the costs of production change little or
not at all and prices go up, then profits go up. This is the logic
behind corporate efforts to develop technologies and influence State
policies that give them closer control over the abundance and
scarcity of goods: to create the best conditions for maximizing
profits.
[...]
Shouldn't this selfish end give way to higher societal goals? The
economist's answer is that society's higher goals are indeed served
when everyone pursues their own selfinterest in free competition
with others. In fact, economists argue, the competitive pursuit of
individual gain accomplishes overall social goals *better*, even if
this "was no part of his intention," than when individuals
consciously try to advance society's higher goals. This idea that
individual pursuit of selfinterest not only leads to but is actually
the *best* path towards overall social good became the moral basis for
capitalist society. This was the programmed into business firms as
an "urge" to maximize gain, and they do so by controlling abundance
and scarcity in their favor. This is the driving force behind
antiabundance.
-- p.16 - emphasis in original
I couldn't have said it better :-) .
He also gives some advice. I'm quoting only the headlines here:
The ultimate goal of any management regime should be to ensure
against any failure of abundance. The following specific goals are
suggested:
1. Make the resource accessible to a greater number of people -
ideally, to all.
2. Make sure the resource will last for generations, preferably
indefinitely.
3. Build a cascade of abundance.
4. Develop an ethic that nurtures abundance.
5. Attain dynamic balance.
-- p.18ff.
Advice 3 is BTW the way Free Software came into being. It all started
with an editor (Emacs) and an compiler (Gcc).
He also gives some threats:
1. The current reliance on a nonrenewable energy base.
2. The linear production processes of the industrial sector.
3. The unchecked growth of human population.
4. The unlimited corporate drive for profit.
-- p.20f.
Of course I think threat 4 is the most important and threat 2 and
threat 1 are closely related to threat 4.
Grüße
Stefan