[p2p-research] Tick, tock, tick, tock… BING

[Michel Bauwens]

burn the tractors assumes they are there in the first place; it's rather a
choice of where to direct the investment ... social peace has certainly
something to do with it; and so is cheap labour ... but definitely a
different social contract than in the West, and according to some a form of
social capitalism more like Europe than like the US ...

On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 11:37 PM, Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:

>   On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 2:32 PM, J. Andrew Rogers <
> reality.miner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 10:59 AM, Michel Bauwens
>> <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > another interesting take is that of giovanni arrighi in his book adam
>> smith
>> > in beijing; where he shows how east asia chooses industrious development
>> > over industrial development; i:e: automation is not always an automatic
>> > decision of capital in these regions of the world ...
>>
>>
>> There is a large "burn the tractors" policy element at work in many
>> parts of Asia. It creates relative impoverishment in a very real sense
>> but it keeps the peasants from rioting.  The governments figured out a
>> long time ago that if you widely distribute subsistence make-work it
>> is sufficient to keep the people from questioning corruption too
>> aggressively -- it gives the people something to lose.
>>
>>
> The same policies have been tried many times in the history of labor.  Many
> times.  They always fail at some significant level.
>
> You've got systems now in France which protect certain modes of producing
> wine or cheese, etc.  It has excellent product outcomes, but in economic
> terms, the systems need protection...walls, fences.   These generally lead
> to systematic poverty when other nations blow by through investment.  So,
> you've got to decide as a society what you want...openness, liberty,
> technology or the social system you've had for years.
>
> The simple undeniable issue that is apparently Warren Buffett's number 1
> social peeve, is that we simply have too many people.  With fertility rates
> in Europe often around 1.3 - 1.5, you can see that the wealthy willingly
> stop growing.  In Asia, Africa and South America, the fertility rates are
> often well over 2...sometimes over 3 or even 4.  In such societies, we
> either have to absorb huge numbers of such people into the modern world, put
> a fence around them, or kill them.  We've chosen the fence for the most
> part.  Now we are choosing absorb since fences no longer work.  That isn't
> feasible with carbon.  So now what?  A new way or kill.  Fences no longer
> work.  The Internet and cell phones destroyed them.  Killing isn't really
> feasible given numbers without massive plagues or nuclear war.  Even with
> all the killing in the Congo, populations are up.  Millions died there in
> war.  Still not enough to absorb the people.  So the question is one of
> labor futures.  Burning the tractors is like smashing thermometers on global
> warming. Might feel good...doesn't answer the questions.
>
>


-- 
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