From: Dan Clemmensen (dgc@shirenet.com)
Date: Mon Sep 30 1996 - 18:09:20 MDT
Robin Hanson wrote:
>
> Dan Clemmensen writes:
> >> Given all this, some folks seem to want to infer that at some point
> >> most living humans will fit the scenario of living off their own small
> >> plot of land, using basically free designs.
> >
> >Actually, given all this, anyone who wishes to do so may drop out
> >of the economy. I don't know what percentage will do so.
>
> People can drop out of the economy now, and have had this ability for
> a very long time. Surely you had a stronger claim in mind.
>
Yes I did. I'm a fairly lazy and disorganized person, and I tend to
believe
(probably incorrectly) that much of humanity falls into the same
category.
If I dropped out of the economy, I would not be able to enjoy a
comfortable
lifestyle today without effort. I assert that with MNT, I would be able
to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle without effort. The "without effort" is
the
difference. This means that I can spend my time doing what I want to do
to
satisfy myself, rather than doing what has the highest economic return.
Note
that today a person selects a job by making a tradeoff between
non-monetary
personal satisfaction and monetary gain. I assert that MNT will cause
this
tradeoff to shift entirely away from monetary gain for many people,
causing
them to effectively leave the economy.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:35:46 MST