Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:22 pm
@Surio:
I think we are already half-way there in Brave New World. I mean, these are our ideals, consumption and distraction. I also believe that most jobs are already obsolete and it's only about distributing the wealth to fend off an uprising of the lower classes. Of course only to an extent, with the background theme still being the redistribution of wealth to a small percentage of people.
That traders don't add much to the wealth of nations is pretty obvious, I think. The market starts with x$ and ends with x$ only differently distributed, rinse and repeat. Computers are even better at being an emotionless homo oeconomicus than the psychopaths which are usually employed in these fields so I think that this development is a good thing.
Sure, other jobs like actors and sports celebrities are also questionable in terms of payment, but that inconsistency in perception doesn't put the lack of productivity of the financial sector into question.
I believe that the "He who doesn't work shall not eat." credo is obsolete in a post-industrial world, if only because it's not even applied in any meaningful sense anymore. It's just that we are running an economic system based on artificial scarcity of money. I don't think there's any meaningful change possible unless that system is replaced by something sustainable.
Most "work" these days is just giving some people access to the products created by a vast machinerie (- and slaves like Foxconn-interns, who don't get any access to the wealth they create at all).
I think we are already half-way there in Brave New World. I mean, these are our ideals, consumption and distraction. I also believe that most jobs are already obsolete and it's only about distributing the wealth to fend off an uprising of the lower classes. Of course only to an extent, with the background theme still being the redistribution of wealth to a small percentage of people.
That traders don't add much to the wealth of nations is pretty obvious, I think. The market starts with x$ and ends with x$ only differently distributed, rinse and repeat. Computers are even better at being an emotionless homo oeconomicus than the psychopaths which are usually employed in these fields so I think that this development is a good thing.
Sure, other jobs like actors and sports celebrities are also questionable in terms of payment, but that inconsistency in perception doesn't put the lack of productivity of the financial sector into question.
I believe that the "He who doesn't work shall not eat." credo is obsolete in a post-industrial world, if only because it's not even applied in any meaningful sense anymore. It's just that we are running an economic system based on artificial scarcity of money. I don't think there's any meaningful change possible unless that system is replaced by something sustainable.
Most "work" these days is just giving some people access to the products created by a vast machinerie (- and slaves like Foxconn-interns, who don't get any access to the wealth they create at all).