zuzu on 26 Oct 2007 22:13:18 -0000 |
On 10/26/07, Toby DiPasquale <toby@cbcg.net> wrote: > On Fri, Oct 26, 2007 at 05:22:36PM -0400, Matthew Rosewarne wrote: > > On Friday 26 October 2007, zuzu wrote: > > > selling "units" of a mass-produced item is a relic of a manufacturing > > > economy. in a knowledge economy, it's selling the _creativity_ of > > > _people_ that's the scarce/valuable commodity. instead of buying > > > "things" we need to focus on buying "people" in the form of creative > > > labor (vis-a-vis opportunity cost) to invent _new_ features and > > > functionality. last I checked, your brain is the only one of its > > > kind. > > > > Most of what we buy, particularly what we _need_ to buy, is the product of the > > manufacturing economy. Creative labour isn't really that important if you > > can't build whatever it is that you're dreaming up. A major problem for the > > US is that we have bought into the idea that we no longer need to make > > anything, and so we are actively dissolving our economic future. The reason > > the US rose to be an economic powerhouse in the late 19th century, other than > > its agricultural prowess, was its immense manufacturing base. Only in recent > > history did we essentially abandon manufacturing to become a consumer > > and "knowledge" economy, which is an entirely unsustainable model. It's not > > that we don't need creativity or knowledge, but unless we can actually > > manufacture things, our chances of continued success are quite slim. > > I would caution you, Matt, to perhaps read up on this subject a bit more. > Your statements indicate a clear lack of understanding of basic economics > and the US and world economies. wow, that was way more diplomatic than I was going to reply with. :) but yeah, lookup how global trade and comparative advantage work, for starters. today agriculture and manufacturing is SO EASY (as such a maturely developed human action) that only relatively poor regions can do it for a relative profit. the real question isn't "how do we make lots of stuff?" but rather "what the hell should we even make?" real wealth growth in a healthy capitalist world economy derives from research and development (R&D, aka creativity / innovation). ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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