Bits of Books - Books by Title
Fully Automated Luxury Communism
Aaron Bastani
More books on Politics
Crisis of the state giving way to the market, and an increasingly globalised economy undermining the ability of nations to act decisively. Democratic institutions emptied of authority, and citizens come to see them as just conduits for the interests of a corrupt elite.
Capitalism has survived, evolved and prospered through the Industrial Revn, the Great Depression, protectionism, two World Wars, the end of gold standard. It has always found ways of extracting profit, and eventually improving living standards.
Reasons for optimism longterm - solar energy will soon be nearly free, space mining of asteroids such as 16 Psyche, 200 km in diameter and basically solid iron and nickel + copper, gold and platinum.
Henderson (or Experience) Curve predicts costs go down by about 20% evety time double capacity. This is partic relevant with all aspects of renewable energy and electric powered vehicles. Global solar capacity is doubling every 2 years, encouraging demand, which lowers prices .... a virtuous circle.
Every so often through history, new methods of production collide with owners of traditional production. This starts a social revn as changes in economic system leads to transformation of whole. Pre-Ind Rev, the labourer/craftsman was the engine of production. But the machines and, even more importantly, the processes of the Ind Rev, pushed the human labourer to one side. The business of organizing capital, materials and labour took over.
Misconception that US losing manufacturing to cheap labour overseas, but instead were simply automated away. By 2007 American manufacturers were using six times as much equipment as they had 20 years earlier, while doubling the amount of capital used per hour of employee work.
Today we feed more people more food than ever before, with even fewer people doing the work. To us that is normal, but even a century ago, it would have been unthinkable. The same transformation is taking place in industry.
Just as we reached 'peak horse' a century ado, we are close to reaching 'peak human'.
Books by Title
Books by Author
Books by Topic
Bits of Books To Impress
|