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[Out of Topic/ Video] Food for Thought - Three Questions
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Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xGyKuyGhaE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaP2GJvZlWY
The Three Questions:
1) Given the market economy requires consumption in order to maintain demand for human employment and further economic growth as needed, is there a structural incentive to reduce resource use, biodiversity loss, the global pollution footprint and hence assist the ever-increasing need for improved ecological sustainability in the world today?
2) In an economic system where companies seek to limit their production costs (“cost efficiency”) in order to maximize profits and remain competitive against other producers, what structural incentive exists to keep human beings employed, in the wake of an emerging technological condition where the majority of jobs can now be done more cheaply and effectively by machine automation?
3) In an economic system which inherently generates class stratification and overall inequity, how can the effects of “Structural Violence” - a phenomenon noted by public health researchers to kill well over 18 million a year, generating a vast range of systemic detriments such as behavioral, emotional and physical disorders – be minimized or even removed as an effect?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xGyKuyGhaE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaP2GJvZlWY
The Three Questions:
1) Given the market economy requires consumption in order to maintain demand for human employment and further economic growth as needed, is there a structural incentive to reduce resource use, biodiversity loss, the global pollution footprint and hence assist the ever-increasing need for improved ecological sustainability in the world today?
2) In an economic system where companies seek to limit their production costs (“cost efficiency”) in order to maximize profits and remain competitive against other producers, what structural incentive exists to keep human beings employed, in the wake of an emerging technological condition where the majority of jobs can now be done more cheaply and effectively by machine automation?
3) In an economic system which inherently generates class stratification and overall inequity, how can the effects of “Structural Violence” - a phenomenon noted by public health researchers to kill well over 18 million a year, generating a vast range of systemic detriments such as behavioral, emotional and physical disorders – be minimized or even removed as an effect?
Very interesting questions…
“Employment” is not the only institution recognizing a monetary value to work; there is also the “grade”. In the case of employment, a job is paid for the interest it generates to stakeholders. In many countries, army, governmental officials, physicians, academics… are paid for their qualification according to a grade. Having a job protected by a privilege (protected market, certificate, profession…) is also a way to pay for a qualification.
They are two main issues with employment as defined above
1) Monetary value can be given to harmful jobs such as for example programming obsolescence, massive deforestation… It also takes much more time for governments to make new laws to regulate harmful activities than for stakeholders to create new ones. Such employment causes a problem of freedom if the absence of other alternatives (no own garden, no own house, no own production means…) forces us to accept any job even we know it is destructive.
2) The number of jobs may become inferior to the needed activity. It is the typical economic crisis. Needed activities generating no interest will have no economic recognition. Destructive activities generating interest need to be created to keep economic relations.
For the grade, it is possible to integrate more useful activities in the economy (giving an income to mothers raising their kids, students, nurses, firemen…). By giving a grade for example to a physician or an agronomist, you expect he will have more freedom to work according to the state of the art. Of course the grade will need a higher level of social organization and regulation as well as a moral consensus about what is considered as “useful” “useless” and “harmful”.
If I take a country like France (An example I know better than Malaysia), for 2000 milliards of Euro (M€) of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 150 M€ correspond to the grade and 650 M€ to the employment. However France, as many European countries, has a public pay-as you go pension scheme (pension money is not invested but redistributed each year without generating interest) of 550 M€. This can be seen as the equivalent of paying retired people for the qualification of “being retired” or the grade “retired” (socially, retired people are “useful”, they take care about their houses, gardens, families, children’s education, voluntarism…). With such perception of an already existing fact, the payment for a qualification represents 700 M€ (550 M€ + 150 M€) surpassing the employment. This example demonstrates that functioning alternatives to employment already exist and that there are dominant in some countries. A pay-as you go pension system is always more cost effective since there will be no goods and services that need to be provided by future generations for the money generated by interests. On another hand, a pension scheme based on an investment of a private capital will promote “employement” against “grade”. Invested Pension funds worldwide hold over US$20 trillion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pension_fund) encouraging employment (against grade) and appropriation of lands by private sectors in developing countries.
“Employment” is not the only institution recognizing a monetary value to work; there is also the “grade”. In the case of employment, a job is paid for the interest it generates to stakeholders. In many countries, army, governmental officials, physicians, academics… are paid for their qualification according to a grade. Having a job protected by a privilege (protected market, certificate, profession…) is also a way to pay for a qualification.
They are two main issues with employment as defined above
1) Monetary value can be given to harmful jobs such as for example programming obsolescence, massive deforestation… It also takes much more time for governments to make new laws to regulate harmful activities than for stakeholders to create new ones. Such employment causes a problem of freedom if the absence of other alternatives (no own garden, no own house, no own production means…) forces us to accept any job even we know it is destructive.
2) The number of jobs may become inferior to the needed activity. It is the typical economic crisis. Needed activities generating no interest will have no economic recognition. Destructive activities generating interest need to be created to keep economic relations.
For the grade, it is possible to integrate more useful activities in the economy (giving an income to mothers raising their kids, students, nurses, firemen…). By giving a grade for example to a physician or an agronomist, you expect he will have more freedom to work according to the state of the art. Of course the grade will need a higher level of social organization and regulation as well as a moral consensus about what is considered as “useful” “useless” and “harmful”.
If I take a country like France (An example I know better than Malaysia), for 2000 milliards of Euro (M€) of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 150 M€ correspond to the grade and 650 M€ to the employment. However France, as many European countries, has a public pay-as you go pension scheme (pension money is not invested but redistributed each year without generating interest) of 550 M€. This can be seen as the equivalent of paying retired people for the qualification of “being retired” or the grade “retired” (socially, retired people are “useful”, they take care about their houses, gardens, families, children’s education, voluntarism…). With such perception of an already existing fact, the payment for a qualification represents 700 M€ (550 M€ + 150 M€) surpassing the employment. This example demonstrates that functioning alternatives to employment already exist and that there are dominant in some countries. A pay-as you go pension system is always more cost effective since there will be no goods and services that need to be provided by future generations for the money generated by interests. On another hand, a pension scheme based on an investment of a private capital will promote “employement” against “grade”. Invested Pension funds worldwide hold over US$20 trillion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pension_fund) encouraging employment (against grade) and appropriation of lands by private sectors in developing countries.
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