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What is better than Capitalism?
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Dog 3000
Dog 3000
4611 posts

Re: Technology!
Sep 09, 2003, 21:55
A funny joke, true. Does a good job pointing out the problems with "aquisition for aquisition's sake" but I think that is more of a cultural than economic issue.

It kind of misses the point because obviously we can't all live the easy life of the Mexican fisherman in the story. Think of a city like London or New York -- 10 million people in a crowded area are all supposed to get their own boats and catch a few fish every day? Not feasible in any way.

In order to support the population we have, people need to specialize. One guy builds a whole lot of boats, another guy catches a whole lot of fish, etc. Farmers out in Sussex (is that a rural area?) or Nebraska ship in grain (cuz the fish supply around London/NY is limited and you don't want to over-fish) and so forth.

Of course you can say "we should all go back to nature and lead simple lives" but again I don't see how that can be accomplished without the death of millions. Think of someplace as densely populated as China -- it was only through "modernisation" of their economy that they've finally been able to feed everyone in the first place! (There was still mass starvation even under Mao.)

Basically . . . you can't go back without reducing the earth's population a LOT. There is no way but forward.
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