[p2p-research] cutting cultural budgets

Tue Jun 22 06:02:46 CEST 2010

On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 7:12 PM, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ryan,
>
> Overall a useful if rather jingoistic summary of issues...
>
> As an answer to your 5 questions concerning the relative desirability of
> nation states below I (and I would guess most neutral i.e. non-US
> respondents) would answer in the following rough order
>     Canada
>     New Zealand
>     Australia
>     with the US a severely trailing 4th or lower depending on one
> one's perceptins concerning the "protection" of civil liberties in the US,
> the financial viability of the US and so on.
>
> BTW, according Google Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in
> the world.  The failure of the US to manage its illegal immigration is
> probably more the result of an intention to create a severely weakened
> labour underclass than any oversight or any other explanation.
>
> Mike Gurstein
>

Mike, I think it is likely not accurate that many US-based readers of
this thread with respond with pro-US viewpoints. At least for those of
us in the US who are regular readers and respondents to p2presearch
listl anyway.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: p2presearch-bounces at listcultures.org
> [mailto:p2presearch-bounces at listcultures.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Lanham
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 12:00 PM
> To: p2p research network
> Cc: fcforum at list.fcforum.net
> Subject: Re: [p2p-research] cutting cultural budgets
>
> Hi Michel:
>
> A couple of points.
>
> 1. No one knows or even has a good clue about what is coming in terms of
> national finances.  Markets do not predict anything now but increasing
> Chinese dominance.  The markets would know best...more money is spent there
> predicting than anywhere else.
>
> 2. The best predictive information is almost certainly demographic.  We have
> discussed this before.  Europe and Japan are aging.  The US,
> China, Brazil and India are staying the same or getting younger.  The
> outcomes from this seem more obvious than other predictors.
>
> 3. Military spending is often just consumption of stocks--like oil and
> steel.  These are both good and bad for economies.  School costs are
> overwhelmingly wages.  Wages from a government are probably not ideal
> economic outputs in almost anyone's book.  There is also a policing value to
> military spending (i.e. prevention of bad things).  One may disagree with
> the politics, but it is clear most countries of the world use the US
> military to freeride--it has funded European growth for several decades at a
> pittance cost to the Europeans--especially the Germans and low countries who
> have benefited hugely with minimal costs.
>
> In exchange for the freeride (in my opinion) the dollar stays a carrying
> currency in crises.  This is a fair trade as it allows the US Government to
> manipulate the world's primary currency to its own short-term advantages
> mostly by printing money and inflating the world economy to minimize US
> transfers of corporate and consumer debt to the government--a trick the rest
> of the world recently learned.  The Euro was meant to compete and to allow
> Germany to force other nations to be reliable consumers of quality goods.
> It won't compete in the long run because it is inherently unstable.  Neither
> will the Yuan.  Ask yourself, will you trust the Chinese to run the world
> economy no matter how much one despises Americans and their way of life?
> The US has held the world's hand for 50 years quite effectively for the most
> part.  Any practical person knows this and will hope it continues.  For all
> its flaws, no nation has been as selfless and as giving as the US.  It isn't
> close.  But there has been compensation for that "selflessness" so maybe it
> is as much selfish as selfless.
>
> 4. Local governments in the US and elsewhere almost exclusively focus on
> education along with keeping peace (police, fire and ambulance).  The
> largest employer in any small county in the US is the school system, but
> that doesn't mean the economy of those places thrives.  Quite the opposite.
> In fact, there is no way to correlate school spending with economic
> gain--i've tried.  What you can say is that educational achievement
> correlates very well with most good things.  Whether that is causal is far
> from obvious.
>
> 5. It is true that those who live through gifts from the state or
> philanthropists will not have an easy go in the future.  All the more reason
> why P2P can and should thrive.  That said, world philanthropy remains at all
> time highs and Bill Gates has just started a programme to ask all US
> billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth while alive or at
> death.  Apparently the response is strong.  Foundations are large and
> wealthy right now...community foundations in particular.
>
> 6. Government deficits will fall and must do.  How fast this can and will
> happen is anyone's guess.  I agree that 40% cuts in anything less than a
> decade would be draconian.  I predict 3-5% annual cuts in spending.  Low
> interest rates will continue OR inflation will explode.  It is a binary
> system with no intermediate equilibrium.  If interest rates rise, inflation
> will follow or vice versa depending on your views on macro economics.
>
> 7. If I were young and smart, I'd go to the US because you can have any skin
> tone and any attitude and still succeed.  If I were Chinese, I'd stay in
> China and if Indian, in India.  Brazil is another excellent option for those
> with an odd passport because B. is growing at 9% and more open minded about
> extranationals than most places.
>
> If forced to live in a world of nation states, I'd ask the following
> questions:
>
> 1. Who do you trust to a) protect liberties, b) stay solvent while still
> offering safety nets c) not go into world ending war d) protect people of
> varied backgrounds and views f) offer economic and social opportunities g)
> stay demographically sound?
>
> 2. Who do you trust to avoid the problems of racial and nationalistic
> tensions most?
>
> 3. Who will accept people for talent's sake and not for reasons of blood,
> family, culture or religion?
>
> 4. Who uses a language that is common, technically useful and economically
> meaningful?
>
> 5. Who offers people a chance to start over?
>
> There are many small options that meet these criteria...Barbados for
> instance.  In Europe, there are few options....probably Germany, France
> Sweden, Holland, Iceland or Norway are most realistic or, possibly
> Switzerland or the UK--especially for the rich.  But we all know these visas
> are hard and problematic.  The best way to get them is to have an
> engineering degree and to be young.
>
> Overall, the US, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina are good
> options...as are Singapore, parts of Africa and limited parts of Asia.  NZ
> and Australia are also fairly open and fair...especially NZ.  No one takes
> more migrants and immigrants legal and illegal than the US--by a wide
> margin.
> Ryan
> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 1:22 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> from john thackara:
>> http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2010/03/culture_cuts.php
>>
>>
>> I found a chart in Aviation Week, which is almost a trade magazine of the
>> military industrial complex, that included these numbers for per capita
>> military spending:
>> U.S.: $545.3 billion, that's roughly $45,500 per head of the population.
>> U.K.: $63.2 billion, or $34,800 per head.
>> France: $60.3 billion, or $32,100 per head.
>> Germany: $41.8 billion, or $33,800 per head.
>>
>> Then I found a study that concludes that the United States spent $1,780
>> per head on education in 2001 (France, The Netherlands and Canada each spent
>> more than $1,200 per capita). Hmmm.
>>
>> Turning to culture and the arts, the best I could find is a perplexing web
>> database that appears to show that cultural expenditure per capita in Spain
>> is euro 135, compared to Germany which, in 2007, spent 99 euros per capita.
>>
>> In round numbers, then, Germany appears to spend 25,000 euros per person
>> on defence, versus about 100 euros per head on culture. I have to assume
>> that the gap in the US and UK, were the numbers to be available, would be a
>> good deal wider.
>>
>> As I said: insane numbers.
>>
>> I distract you (and myself) with these numbers mainly because, in the
>> years ahead, spending on the things that we do care about - education,
>> culture, sustainability - looks certain to plummet.
>>
>> In the UK, for example, commentators are talking gravely about public
>> spending cuts of 10, 15, or 20 percent. Insiders tell me that cuts will be
>> 40 percent or more, in real terms, over the coming few years.
>> Large cultural and educational institutions will suck in what little
>> public funding is available. Government funding for small, grassroots
>> activities will dry up almost completely.
>>
>> --
>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>
>> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
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>>
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>>
>> Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Ryan Lanham
> rlanham1963 at gmail.com
> Facebook: Ryan_Lanham
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