[p2p-research] My letter to Obama

[Michel Bauwens]

I' refracted it through Ning as well, with a dissenting comment <g>

Michel

On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 2:24 AM, Kevin Carson <
free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:

> My response to the solicitation of ideas at change.gov:
>
> INDUSTRIAL POLICY
>
> As always, my recommendations center on a theme of pursuing green ends
> with libertarian means.
>
> If we want to replace the present centralized economy of waste
> production and planned obsolescence, it's an inescapable fact that a
> great deal of excess manufacturing capacity cannot be saved.  In my
> opinion it's a mistake to try to prop it up through expedients like
> the Detroit bailout.
>
> The goal should be a shift from the present system of overaccumulated,
> centralized, oligopoly industry, and its business model of planned
> obsolescence and "push" distribution, to a decentralized economy of
> small-scale manufacturing for local markets.  This means, among other
> things, a switch from capital-intensive production methods based on
> product-specific machinery, to production with small-scale, general
> purpose machinery.  It means, in place of the old Sloanist production
> model, something like the present-day economy of Italy's
> Emilia-Romagna region:  networked small manufacturers producing in
> large part for the local market, with a high degree of cooperative
> ownership.  Such an economy, based on a "pull" distribution model with
> production geared to demand on a just-in-time basis, will be insulated
> from the boom-bust cycles of the old national "push" economies.  And
> we need a new model of user-friendly, modular product design aimed at
> cheap and easy repairability and recycling.
>
> Your main focus, in my opinion, should be to ease the transition by
> eliminating present policies (market-distorting subsidies, privileges,
> and cartelizing regulations) that impede it and protect the old
> economy from the new one.
>
> This means, for one thing, eliminating differential tax exemptions
> that favor firms engaged in centralized, large-scale,
> capital-intensive production:  e.g., the depreciation allowance, the
> R&D credit, the deductability of interest on corporate debt, and the
> exemption of stock transactions involved in mergers and acquisitions
> from capital gains tax).  Then lower the corporate income tax enough
> to be revenue-neutral.
>
> It means, especially, eliminating the biggest subsidy to economic
> centralization, and to artificially large market area and firm size:
> i.e., subsidies to long-distance transportation.  The Interstate
> should be funded entirely by weight-based user fees on trucking, which
> causes virtually all of the roadbed damage.  All subsidies to new
> airports or to expanding old ones should be eliminated, including all
> federal guarantees of local bond issues.
>
> Perhaps most important of all, it requires radically scaling back the
> present strong "intellectual property" regime.  IP (through patent
> pooling and exchange, monopolies on current production technologies,
> etc.) is probably the single most powerful cartelizing force, which
> enables each industry to be concentrated in the hands of a few
> players.  It impedes the transfer of skills and new technology from
> the old manufacturing dinosaurs to the kinds of small, local producers
> we need.  It also serves as a powerful bulwark to planned
> obsolescence, imposing legal restrictions on the manufacture of cheap
> generic replacement parts.
>
> Scaling back IP law (a good start would be repealing the DMCA, the
> WIPO Copyright Treaty, and the Uruguay Round's TRIPS accord) would
> eliminate the barriers to the diffusion of skill and technology that
> currently prop up the old corporate dinosaurs of the software and
> entertainment industries, and facilitate their replacement by
> networked production on an open source model.  Please cut loose the
> MPAA, RIAA, and Bill Gates, and do so yesterday!
>
> Finally, we need to eliminate all subsidies to large-scale
> agribusiness.  The result will be a flourishing sector of
> community-supported agriculture, replacing the old agribusiness
> dinosaurs as fast as new ground can be cultivated.
>
> --
> Kevin Carson
> Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com
> Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
> http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
> Anarchist Organization Theory Project
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html
>
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>



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