Thursday 8 July 2010

Coming to terms with cuts

http://www.kable.co.uk/vega-round-table-efficiency-staff-5jul10

Well into this article, with classic understatement, the writer says:

"It will always be difficult to provide an incentive to employees to suggest measures that might result in the loss of their jobs, or those of colleagues."

Quite. More inefficiency means putting in more work to achieve the same level of output. More work = more jobs. So is inefficiency good or bad?

The ideas of The Zeitgeist Movement and The  Venus Project address this fundamental flaw of our economic system by decoupling work from access to life's necessities. Everyone gets access to life's necessities - you, me, and the 1 billion starving people. Using the best technology, we obtain the earth's resources sustainably for our survival. Only work that directly improves our lot as a species (is socially relevant in Peter Joseph's terminology) gets done, and that gets done as efficiently as possible - ie by maximising automation and minimising human labour.

Technological unemployment? Yes please!

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