Ample resources exist for creating employment for all
Modern technology draws billions of perfect life enhancing and economic circles for us each day, yet we fail to recognize or appreciate such ability.
In fact we doubt if Technological advance has changed economic activity very much at all. Why otherwise would we persist with outdated ideology which promotes very imperfect and flawed economic thinking and reaction to the greatest success ever achieved by the human race? The concept that we cannot prosper without “growth”, which basically is continual increase of output, despite the fact that technology has taken us long passed the point of producing more than we can consume, is never questioned or debated. Gross oversupply causes havoc in commodity markets, decimates supply chains and makes local commerce practically impossible. Yet we simply refuse to even consider adopting a safe “sufficiency” code of economics, which, with sensible sufficiency of supplies, could breathe life back into markets, supply chains and local communities.
Similarly, we adopt an “eyes wide shut” attitude to astounding automation, robotics and communication which eliminate enormous amounts of work. If serious about sustaining employment, we should already be immersed in devising new “more jobs from less work” protocols, with emphasis on secure availing to the masses rather than creation of wealth. Limpet-like, we cling to outdated economic belief that there will always be work to provide sufficient jobs. Not anymore; not since technology took its great leap forward. The obsession with finding work to create employment, in a situation where work is increasingly diminished, proves a great hindrance to spreading secure prosperity in an entirely new age of enormous abundance and decreasing dependence on work. Technological ability can produce far greater wealth than all the work in the world ever could; so ample resources exist to provide secure employment for all.
We need to wise up and realise that throwing unlimited amounts of money at an intractable economic problem will solve nothing; unless accompanied by ideological change. Vast injections of non-existent money just keeps a flawed and inadequate economic ideology on life support ensuring local and global economics lurch from one gigantic crisis to bigger ones. We need new ways of doing economics; we need new philosophies of sufficiency with reduced dependence on human effort. We need perfect, or almost, circles of sufficiency, employment and consumption. Otherwise, our ability to draw countless perfect circles at will, is entirely wasted; and instead of leading to enormous enhancement of the human condition for all, will lead to intolerable inequality and economic collapse.
Yours faithfully,
Padraic Neary, Tubbercurry.