Economists didn’t learn from crash
Sir — It is almost 10 years since the economic crash and we appear to have learned nothing.
We are reaching the crest of another boom which, when it collapses, will have far greater consequences than that of 2008.
Economists have fed us a menu of rubbish regarding what caused the catastrophe a decade ago and how we should react to avoid such a situation in the future. They fail to appreciate that economic conditions have been utterly transformed and the ideology of growth and work sufficiency is no longer adequate to manage the new situation.
Economics are basically about production and distribution of the goods and services required and desired by the human race.
Economic history is fraught with the inability to ever produce enough or transport it to where it was most needed or even to know where the need was. Slightly more than 200 years of industrial revolution enhanced economic conditions greatly as indicated by an eight-fold increase in human population and great improvements to life expectancy and living conditions.
Present economic ideology evolved to manage constantly improving, expanding, economic activity which because of its dependence on labour and lines of marketing and distribution, sustained adequate employment which facilitates prosperous community living and contentment.
The introduction of computerisation to what had been a mechanical and electrical industrial revolution caused a surge of achievement which has rendered economic ideology inadequate to manage the most successful economic period ever.
Modern technology can, unless restrained, grossly overproduce causing enormous problems of market oversupply and obscene waste. The ability to produce like never before is achieved by digital automation which eliminates the need for human labour on an unprecedented scale.
Economists have little knowledge or understanding of that technology when they glibly proclaim that technology produces as many or even more jobs than it eliminates.
The scramble for jobs is just beginning. Over the next decade, economies will try to sustain home employment regardless of what impact that has elsewhere.
We must adapt to technological success. Business confidence must be restored by restraint of production, growth economics must give way to sufficiency and adequate employment must be ensured by generating more jobs from less work.