From: Eugene Leitl (Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Mon Jun 23 1997 - 00:20:08 MDT
This has been posted to the technocracy list, as a reply to my request
regarding the goals of technocracy. Could somebody please comment on
these guys' approach validity? I know that the loss of jobs due to
automation problem is real, probably forcing us to do some (discriminate!)
wealth redistribution over long. However, I somehow fail to see how below
approach should solve any problems at all...
|karpal|
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 15:41:22 -0700
From: Jacqueline Q. Scott <jqs@pond.net>
To: Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Subject: TECHNOCRACY
Hello Karpal -- or Eugene Leitl -- or whoever. Do you know zero about
Technocracy??? I know you can access their website at
http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/technocracy if you haven't read any of this
for all their official statements, but putting it my own words, what
Technocracy would be about is THE ANSWER to North America's [and
eventually our planet's] financial fiscal crises -- which have grown
worse with fifty years on Red Ink-o-nomics of WW II.
Technocracy's goal is to aid in the GREAT SWITCHOVER from fiscal
accounting of GNP to energy accounting system of ECO*nomics --
calculating everything in actual quantity produced by the amount of
energy [KWTS, ergs, BTU's instead of IOU's] on a total and a per capita
so that everyone in a geographic area would be supplied plenty of the
Earth's natural resources as well as those manufactured.
The BIG DIFFERENCE in today's manufacture, as well as agriculture, from
a century ago is the use of sophisticated technology instead of muscle
power -- especially with the 20th century's advent of KWTS -- and yet
we're still trying to price people when they perform only 2% of the
labor of today's world of push buttons and automation.
To sum it up -- The Summit of Eight are meeting in Denver to try a
fiscal fix when our real problem is perpetuating the PRICE/PROFIT SYSTEM
which perpetuates pollution and poverty -- while Wall Street and
Washington are going crazy on IOU's, the rest of are trying to survive
alive on the WAGE GUAGE which actually rations food/ housing/ medical
care / education instead of equitably calculating HOW MUCH STUFF VS HOW
MUCH POPULATION.
I know I'm putting this in simple terms, but Technocracy's goal is to
help implement this DESIGN which was developed by 300 top researchers
who took INVENTORY of North America's resources and minerals to see if
we could support our INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION which tends to gobble up
resources much faster than the 19th century hand-tool pace.
THE PROBLEM IS -- in Six Decades of publications, lectures and meetings,
not many Americans seem to understand what Technocracy is all about.
Just last week President Clinton in San Diego was talking about equality
of races -- whereas the DESIGN of a Technate of The Americas would
assure more equality than any money system ever has or could -- for
everyone would be assured their share [by choice not price] of whatever
our GNP would be in consumables and housing would no longer be by
mortgage -- so everyone would enjoy the best quality and most
sustainable.
You refer to Hayek and I've, for many years, received THE FREEMAN
economics journal [which is not about economics but financial] and Hayek
is discussing ways to make the dollarsign system work -- when the actual
fact is that KWTS changed forever the way people and machines WORK --
yet we're still attempting to price everything as if we're all still on
the farms and making stuff by hand -- which we aren't.
Did you just recently come into the Technocrat/Technocracy loop?
In simple terms, Technocracy proposes MEASUREMENT by quantity instead of
PRICE -- I just spoke with a man this morning about how many KWTS his
household consumes and he couldn't tell me except in dollarsigns. It's
awfully hard to get folks to think in terms of quantity instead of
price.
Entirely different from politics [which takes money and lots of it] the
physical lines of production crossed in 1913 [Chart on Brief No. 28]
going upward while the number of hours to produce unit of product went
downward from 14 hours a day to what we promote now -- and had zero to
do with who was President or banking -- these are physical facts.
There are INFLECTION POINTS in pig iron or automobiles where things take
an S-curve -- CEO Andrew Grove of INTEL Corp. told Commonwealth Club
several years ago that when INTEL hit the Inflection Point he had to lay
off not the usual 10% but a third of their workers and close down a
third of their plant. [and IBM was hoping Intel would take over some of
their closed factories...no way.]
His message to the Commonwealth Club and to AMERICA, was that AMEERICA
has now reached its inflection point.
I'd like to see the Citizens rise up peacefully with a CITIZENS' BALLOT
for a new accounting system based on Technocracy's Energy Accounting
which has all been researched before we were born -- based on a DESIGN
which would prove ecologically sustainable -- for we all recognize that
our present M.O.N.E.Y. SYSTEM of Man-ipulating Of Nation's Economic
Yield as if there is not enough to go around, is not equitable and
doesn't consider some people as human beings deserving of even a roof
over their heads or appropriate food let alone education unless you can
afford $25,000 and cerdtainly health care becomes prohibitive for 40
millions.
What do YOU see as a better way to IMPLEMENT the best of what has
already been designed for North Americans to live well, but not as
wastefully?
Where do you fit into all this? JQS
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