Re: Real Work

Jim Quinton (jquinton@csc.noaa.gov)
Fri, 04 Sep 1998 09:46:23 -0400

It seems to me there is a simpler thread in all of these observations:
Workers have become more and more specialized. Agricultural enterprises
have also become more and more specialized. Regulators have become more and
more specialized. None of us sees all of the elements of our economic
system anymore because we're all so focused on such narrow little facets of
the whole system. As specialization proceeds, we all chase after economies
of scale. Labor unions get more powerful as their membership achieves
domination in the labor market (scale economies apply); mega-livestock
farms achieve feeding efficiencies and monopolize wholesale channels (scale
economies apply); regulatory bureaucracy grows until nothing can be
approved on its merits, but faulty products and programs are fostered which
conform to the political agenda of the day (scale economies apply to
legalism, too).

Inequality is a problem. If sustainable economics would distribute wealth
and income more happily, how might it supplant the system we've got? If it
has to be dynamic in order to replace the current economic system, how
could it become static afterward in order to be sustainable?

At 08:07 AM 9/4/98 -0400, Frederick R. Magdoff wrote:
>Bill,
> I enjoyed your comments about capitalism and think your summary is
interesting........ But another important aspect is that the system
produces striking inequality among people............. the inequality
reaches unconscionable levels. A sustainable economic system would strive
to decrease the inequaltites of wealth and income
>***************************************************************************
***

On Fri, 4 Sep 1998, BILL DUESING wrote:
>> Living on the Earth. September 4, 1998: Real Work
>>
>> For most of our history, humans have had to work in order to live. For
the vast majority of that time, the work was varied.......... In this
century, work has become increasingly abstract........This economic system
won't lead us to a sustainable future because it has gone so far beyond
supplying our basic needs. Now, its basic need is for ever-more growth,
and finding consumers for increasingly enormous quantities of low-cost,
subsidized goods that pour off the production lines all over the world.

Jim Quinton
Agricultural Conservation Innovation Center (ACIC)
2234 S. Hobson Ave.
Charleston, SC 29405-2413

phone: (843) 740-1327
fax: (843) 740-1331

e-mail: Jim.Quinton@agconserv.com

http://www.agconserv.com/

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