What do you think about resource-based economy

Post Reply New Topic

Today i watched Zeitgeist: The movie, they was talking about resource based-economy, i start researching on Internet and come across this
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui6g23ygov8[/youtube]

It was great episode of TNG, i started thinking about it and start wondering "whether people living in resource-based economy will not be too lazy, if all they need gets the golden plates"

There'll still be work that needs doing. We're at the point already where we could provide for everyones needs as well as have a massive abundance of resources, with everyone needing to do maybe less than a dozen hours of work each week.

I don't think we'll get to the point where people don't have to do anything to provide for themselves, even if it's only a few hours of work. As Saint Paul said, if they don't work they don't eat - if you don't bother doing anything useful, I'm not going to repair your food machine for you. I don't think we'll have a situation where people can just sit back in the house that someone else has provided for them, eating and drinking out of the replicator, which can also provide them with all the electronics, clothing etc they need...

A self-making bed is nice, but it really doesn't take much work to do it by hand.

I don't think we'll manage it if people keep trying to accumulate stuff, though, since that's what's stopping us at the moment...

All economies are resource based. Even bad economies.

You seem to have not actually read my post properly. I don't think people need to be coerced to help others, I just think they won't want to help someone who refuses to do any work themselves. Social ostracism is a very effective method to avoid freeloaders. If someone sits at home all day and just consumes the content that other people provide, not producing anything that people to deem to be of worth, they're quite likely to find that no-one is inclined to fix their 3D printer for them, or their computer, or their oven. Obviously, they could learn to fix it themselves, but that just means that they'll be doing work but it will merely be work that needs to be done for themselves - tending their kitchen garden, fixing their own home etc. But it won't be that they'll have no work to do.

Obviously, though, that will leave everyone with a massive load of free time. With massive amounts of cheap computing power available, high-definition cameras everywhere and everyone having lots and lots of free time, expect to see free movies which rival those coming from Hollywood today. Now that the bottleneck of finding a publisher has gone, we're already seeing a significant expansion in stories that are available. Sure, 90% of these will be crap, but with everyone able to make it, there'll be a lot of quality content out there, and the better the quality, the more wuffie it's creator gets.

If there's no need to make money, I don't see any point charging for it, though I don't expect money to disappear any time soon - people will still want to eat out, and I don't expect many waiters will want to wait on people for free. I do think money will become less important though, and probably won't be backed by anything (with everything being so cheap, what *can* you back it with?). Expect more community currencies being in existence; perhaps the Talossan currency will become one that is used quite often.

As for space programs, which is something that I feel we ought to use our abundance of resources for... well, there'll be a lot of skilled engineers with a lot of free time, plus a lot more enthusiastic amateurs with a lot of free time. A lot then would depend on how easy it is to get the raw materials and the machinery to make what's needed, but I don't think that will be a showstopper - look at what teams like Armadillo Aerospace or Copenhagen Suborbital are achieving on quite low budgets.

I don't think people will get lazy. It is human nature to be active and seeking out new things.

If we didn't have to work so hard to provide for ourselves then we would all be free to achieve self actualization. There would be people who make music for others, write stories for others, care for others etc. because of their love for doing it and not because they want something in return.

I have read about Jacque Fresco and the Venus Project and I think he is a genius but the powers that be will never let it happen.