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Letter to the Editor of Mother Jones; April 13, 1994

Ron Miller

1994

Published in:

• unknown

Never before has the human race faced a situation that is anything like what it is now facing. We seem to be on the edge of unparalleled disaster at the peak of our achievements. On the one hand never have so many people lived so well, while at the same time the future indeed appears dark.

There is really little need for me to summarize, but to be clear it seems necessary. The expansion of human population across the planet cannot continue. Food supplies are threatened by a collapse of soil fertility, fresh water, environmental degradation and so forth. Crime is running rampant across the country. The signs of social decay are everywhere. Our economic system is faltering as your articles in the March/April Issue have pointed out. How have things gotten to this state and what can be done about it?

In the 1930's the study of economics took a serious turn for the worse. The horrible depression of the thirties had stimulated a great deal of thinking about just what makes an economic system work. Mathematical theories about the fickle financial finaglings of the fiscal system were being developed. In view of the fact that almost all the economists of the day had guessed wrong, anything that would improve the prognostication would be welcome. So improvement of the fiscal guesswork became a respectable profession.

Those who operated the price system at the time were very frightened that they were about to lose their system and the benefits thereby accrued. They lived in fear of any explanation that appeared at variance with the beloved price system. The facts be damned, just keep the money coming! The Commies were everywhere! The Commies of course consisted of anyone whose point of view did not coincide with the current lords of the manor.

Into this social environment Technocracy Inc. offered not simply a different explanation, but a completely different approach to the problems. Technocracy proposed the analysis of the operations of the social system by analyzing the physical operations that made the system run. In other words, rather than trying to figure out how an engine is running by the sound it makes, looking at the exhaust fumes, and watching the vibration it produces, why not try looking at the engine itself! What the organization proposed was to measure social operations with energy, the most fundamental unit of anything physical. The laws of thermodynamics apply to the social system just like anything that has substance.

The screams of outrage from the press both then and now, points to the fact that Technocracy was on to something and this system is out to crush it by any means necessary. When socialism was popular Technocracy was called Fascist. When fascism is popular Technocracy is called Communist. It is none of these. The fact that the price system press finds it necessary to lie about Technocracy just about every time it bothers to mention it testifies to just how frightened of it they are.

Technocracy's analysis points out that the price system is destroying itself and it really has no other choice. This will happen whether Technocracy is here or not. The single graph produced by the organization explains all that really needs explaining as far as this system is concerned. Probably the best example is the one that is most obvious - agriculture. In 1830 about seventy percent of the population lived on or derived their living from the land. Today only about three percent survive this way. Technology has replaced them. Today as the pace of technology quickens we see jobs disappearing by the thousands. The unskilled are doomed, but even professional people with good degrees are becoming homeless!

The little chart produced by Technocracy in the 1930's is moving relentlessly forward and it will crush this system.

Rather than see this situation as a hopeless catastrophe, Technocracy realized that this required a change of social system and that instead of being terrified we are being presented with the greatest opportunity the human race has ever had! It is we who have been given the possibility of moving the human race into a whole new plane of social existence!

Two major conclusions evolve from this chart. If you have the ability to produce enough for everyone, price disappears. Agriculture is a perfect example of this. When so much is produced that the price a farmer gets for his product falls below the cost of producing it, he will go out of business. That is the reason so few farmers are still in business. The other conclusion is that machines are excellent producers but they don't consume much. It is not necessary to directly replace a man with a machine. All that is really needed is to increase the productivity of the people now working and the result is that you need fewer people. The end result can only lead to one place, the destruction of the price system.

Technocracy realized that the people of North America would probably not be willing to voluntarily starve to death in the middle of the worlds greatest super market. If you can't operate a price system, the simplest thing is to find a way to do without it rather than continue to operate in an impossible situation. Technocracy proposed operating the social system using energy as a basis for governing operations. In such a system there could be no distinctions between individuals on the basis of consuming privileges because to do so is to reestablish a price system. This is what people really want, an income, not a job!

It doesn't take much reflection to realize that once a price system no longer exists very nearly all of the trappings that constitute the present governing system become pointless. A government of sorts is needed but would constitute a small fraction of what exists today. Quite obviously the most important requirement is to keep the technology that keeps us all alive running. So Technocracy proposed a structure for doing that. The only purpose of such a government is to provide the population with what they want where they want it. It would function similar to an automatic elevator.

The organization itself was formed to help make the transition as smooth as possible. The organization attempts to do this by informing as many people as possible about the course of events as well as warning about what will occur if we permit our technology to be destroyed. The organization itself has no assumption of power theory. That is, the organization has no plans to take over or form any government. Once a high energy form of government is established, the organization disbands. We will have done our job.

Respectfully;
Ronald J. Miller
5230 N. Princeton St.
Portland, Or. 97203