[p2p-research] Building Alliances (basic income and entrepreneurship)

[Ryan Lanham]

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 7:07 PM, J. Andrew Rogers <reality.miner at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 1:53 PM, Paul D. Fernhout
> <pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com> wrote:
> > So, do we need to structure our *entire* global economy a certain way
> > because Princetonians and others strongly control 0.06% of the money
> flow?
>
>
> No one has suggested this that I am aware of. I merely stated that
> this is highly productive capital compared to many other uses, but
> there is a saturation point.
>
> It is almost always the case that there is far more venture capital
> than there are innovative startups to invest it in. The real problem
> is that innovators (not people that think they are innovators, but the
> tiny minority that produce real results) are in short supply. Also it
> requires discipline and motivation as well to accomplish anything
> useful, which is also frequently in short supply.
>

Now you are on the key point.  There are few economic investments to be
made.  Here's the rub: Why is that?

What has been insightful on this list and others is that people realize that
we've hit an end state...not a hiatus...but an end state where the marginal
utility of ideas is pretty low.  It's the same with cars.  What makes a car
better to a consumer?  Longer life...safety...maybe a few cheap gizmos...not
things that justify 50K USD every two or three years unless one has money to
piss away.  Think of everything being that way...few opportunities for real
productive output because impacts are limited.  That isn't answered by
"innovation."  There is nothing on which to meaningfully innovate.  At some
point you have to change the game.  That's where guys like Bauwens and
Doctorow are going.  It isn't that technology is slowing...indeed, it is
accelerating.  It is that the marginal utility of those accelerations is
decline very fast.
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