On 12/10/2013, at 4:31 AM, "Jordan Hayes" <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
> http://www.salon.com/2013/10/09/tea_partys_shutdown_lunacy_avenging_the_surrender_of_the_south/
Where I found a link to this:
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/11/rather_than_savage_cuts_switzerland_considers_star_trek_economics/
Not quite "start Trek economics", though arguably a step in that direction. Here's how the catchy headline was justified:
"People sometimes refer to this as a kind of “Star Trek” economy — you just said, “Replicator, make me a ham sandwich.” There wasn’t any social conflict around production and consumption. And that, I think, is that kind of ideal in which this kind of a thing could play out. We are probably there in terms of the economics. We are very, very wealthy — we could afford to do this. But we are not there in terms of the politics."
Now it might have been useful to point out that the economics of the fictional Star Trek universe was decidedly socialistic. I think the Star Trek writers applied the logic that the economy of a society with such replicator technology couldn't be otherwise. If all the material needs of society could be produced simply by asking a replicator to make you what you want, then the cost of production of everything was practically zero. So a market economy was simply impossible.
(Fascinating - that the writers of Star Trek must have grasped the essence of historical materialism far better than many who claim to be Marxists. Or so I imagine Mr Spock would comment.)
This is relevant to the recent discussions we were having here about paying for information, since we effectively already have the material basis for “Star Trek” economy in the distribution of information (including music, games, software etc.) However, the actual social system hasn't adapted to this yet. In fact is desperately trying to avoid making the changes that are necessary and inevitable.
Nevertheless, the logic is inescapable. Digital technology and the internet has combined to make the logic of Replicator technology applicable to a wide range of industries. And it seems likely that the development of 3D printer technology will take us even further along the road to a "Replicator economy."
As the writers of Star Trek predicted, and of course as Marx predicted a little earlier, there is no way a market economy can be applicable to the distribution of goods and services which can be produced for free. So the very material basis of capitalism is being undermined by the successes of the capitalist system.
It is already striking how much our society is limited by artificially manufactured shortages, shortages deliberately created simply to make it possible for our antiquated market economy to keep turning. There has to be a breaking point when people demand that our economic system be redesigned to serve human needs. That an economy that demands human needs be sacrificed to keep it working ought to be put out to pasture?
Few of these far-reaching implications seem to have been grasped by either interviewer or interviewee in the Salon article however. Perhaps they are limited by the backward society they both come from. ;-)
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas