From A Jingle In The Pocket To A Renaissance Of Mind

Don Malcolm

1998

Could the solution to all of North America's fiscal, employment, environmental and social problems be waiting in the wings for an informed population to cue its entrance to center stage? Is the present deficit imaginary? Is the monetary system, as we know it make-believe? To all these questions Technocrats would answer, ``Yes.''

Technocracy had its inception in 1919 in New York City, when a group of educators and other professionals, led by Howard Scott, a consulting and industrial engineer, formed an organization known as the Technical Alliance of North America.

The group discussed the many ramifications of the "Price System," any system that distributes its goods and services on a basis of commodity valuation, and employs any form of "debt tokens" or money. Included in that definition was every major system in the world from capitalism through fascism to communism. Whatever their form, the Technocrats concluded, all were geared to conditions of natural scarcity and hence were unsuitable for the distribution of abundance.

The primary aim of the Technical Alliance was to explore the application of scientific achievements to social and industrial affairs. They made a survey of the natural resources of this continent as a geographical unit and the industrial evolution that has taken place therein. They showed graphically the operating characteristics of the present industrial system with all its waste of finite resources and worked out a tentative design for a completely coordinated system of production and distribution.

From the harnessing of steam power, the greatest impact of developing technology was in the broadening of the array of goods and services available to the public coupled with a lessening of the human work-load. There was, generally, enough to eat and, from time to time, even a choice of foods. Freed from the drudgery of 72 hour-work weeks, ordinary people began to plan for their future. New jobs created by the expanding technology masked, for a while, the inevitable loss of employment to the machines being built.

Early in the twentieth century, refinement of the mechanical assembly line initiated changes greater than any witnessed by humans since they captured fire and made it portable. Almost overnight, North America went from a position of scarcity, to one of abundance. For the first time in history, a population had the capability of producing more than it could consume.

But the dreamless, mindless machines that replaced people in the workplace were immune to want or need. They could not be induced to buy and consume. People thrown out of work could not purchase what the machines produced. By 1927, goods began to pile up on warehouse shelves. The market system was nearing the end of its natural life. In 1929, the stock market crashed. North America awoke from its dream of prosperity to the nightmare of The Great Depression. Into this environment, Technocracy was introduced to North America.

After nearly fourteen years of research, when the Technical Alliance's work, as such, was nearing completion, an enterprising reporter heard that something of more than casual interest was taking place at Columbia University. He spilled the story, somewhat prematurely, incorrect and misleading, to his New York daily newspaper. Banner-line front-page coverage spread rapidly across the continent.

It became apparent to the Technical Alliance that publicity measures they had planned for their findings would have to be implemented immediately to counter the misinformation. The Technical Alliance was disbanded; a new organization, Technocracy Incorporated, was formed. On March 3, 1933, the organization was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York as a non-sectarian, education research membership organization. Training of public speakers and the formation of study classes on a continental scale quickly followed.

In the social upheaval of the Great Depression Technocracy quickly became a popular idea. People applied for membership; their dues, financed a continent-wide educational campaign. A network of volunteers spread out across the length and breadth of North America. In outdoor gatherings, private houses, community, halls and auditoriums, growing numbers of citizens came to hear Technocracy's speakers. News stories, editorials, and political cartoons featured in the leading newspapers of that era, attest to the organization's impact.

What would account for Technocracy's popularity? The explanation is probably quite simple. The people in the depression era were living intimately with an example of a profit-driven technology gone sadly askew. Disemployment by laborsaving technology had destroyed the new-found sense of security that had been building throughout North America. Many families, deprived of paychecks, were turned out of their homes by banks and other financial institutions holding mortgages. In cities, many, perhaps most, were reduced to eating one meal a day. Thousands of men hit the continent's roads in a futile search for work and ended up living transient lives in hobo jungles or government relief camps, where they worked for room and board, such as it was. The radical restructuring proposed by Technocracy made sense to a lot of people.

Technocracy's proposed plan is a scientific/social design to produce and distribute a virtual abundance equally to ALL North Americans with the least possible wastage of nonrenewable resources, a minimum of human effort, and a maximum of efficiency. The industrial mechanism would operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Efficiency could achieve required production with less infrastructure. Goods would be better built to last longer, eliminating built- in obsolescence and lessening the production equipment necessary. Products, wherever possible, would be designed with total recycling capability thereby decreasing the on non-renewable resources.

A viable method indicated by Technocracy's calendar would show the population, from age 25 to retirement at 45, working four days on-three days off for 287 days (165 which are work days) plus 78 days vacation per year. Technological improvements since 1933 have shortened work time considerably. Citizens up to age 25 would receive education and training. In their greatly increased leisure time, people would have an opportunity to engage in a variety of familial, introspective, artistic, scientific or sporting pursuits or extensive travel.

Money, as we know it, would be replaced with a non-fluctuating medium of distribution. Instead of having an "elastic value" (supply and demand) as at present, goods would possess a measurable energy input and would be distributed on that basis. The total "cost" of all goods and services produced would be the total amount of all energy used in their production. Personal consuming power would be issued to all citizens throughout their lives, in a form of non-negotiable accounting. It would be used only by the person to whom it was issued as a medium of distribution. In modern usage it would likely resemble (physically) the credit card but there the similarity would end. In conjunction with a modem computer system it would be in a continual accounting system (detailing expenditure of energy and natural resources), a continuous inventory, an identification and record of the holder and a guarantee of security. Unlike the credit card, it would NOT be: a medium of exchange, subject to fluctuation of "value", subject to theft or loss, subject to hoarding or gambling, a symbol of wealth or prestige, a means of creating debt. It would be useless to everyone except the person to whom it was issued. There would be no personal "saving": the unused remainder of individual's energy account would be canceled out at two-year intervals and replaced with a new account. Banks would cease to exist.

THE HOPE OF FINDING SUSTAINABILITY WITHIN THE CONFINES OF THE PROFIT-DRIVEN MARKET SYSTEM CAN ONLY BE COMPARED TO HOPING TO DINE ON RAINBOWS.

In a Technocracy, private property would become obsolete. All "property", technological development and production including automobiles and housing would be owned equally and in common by the, population of North America. Personal choices in housing would be allocated according to need; car usage would be accessed by the Energy Certificate in much the same way "U-Drives" are now obtained. Public transportation would be developed to the limits of technology and imagination. Automobile production would drop to about 10% of present numbers. Mortgages, car payments, maintenance and insurance, debt and all taxes would be nonexistent.

"Leaders" in a Technocracy would be selected by the vertical alignment method in much the same way that industry now selects its supervisory staff. Promotion would involve recommendation from below and appointment from above, competence being the predominant factor in the choice. In reality, persons of special ability would be promoted to positions of responsibility by peer encouragement. Gone would be political parties, obscene perks and pensions to government members, political/corporate liaisons and graft. Gone, in fact, would be the corporations, trade and commerce.

Technocracy today, is a faint shadow of the organization that existed in the depression years. What happened?

In a desperate move to bring America out of depression, President F. D. Roosevelt caved in to corporate pressure. Together they cooked up one of the most ill-conceived legislations of all time. It would become known as The New Deal, a program promoting, among other measures, legislated waste on a massive scale. Bulging warehouses were emptied, their contents hauled to special dumps, where they were run over by bulldozers and buried. Goods that manufacturers could not sell during the lean depression years were systematically destroyed to create an artificial scarcity, corporations being compensated in part for their "loss" by cash payments and tax concessions. Hiring offices opened their doors a tiny crack and workers lined up for the few jobs offered. North America put the market system on artificial life support and took its first tentative step toward unsustainability.

From 1939 to 1945 most of the world went to war. North America put its factories on full production and opened wide the hiring office doors. Those who didn't go to war went to work.

After the war, the veterans returned to a vastly changed continent. The factories didn't suddenly gear down at the cessation of hostilities. Europe was in ruins. There was opportunity for foreign markets. Billions of dollars worth of armaments were manufactured and sold to countries that couldn't even provide food for their citizens.

Here at home the domestic market increased. Banks created money by providing easy loans so people could access the abundance of goods being produced. Governments turned a blind eye to planned obsolescence. And the population, hedonistic and with quickened pace, went willingly down the road that must, if continued, lead to the exhaustion of ALL finite resources. And yet, the hunger for foreign Markets continues.

In 1998 sustainability is the word on almost every lip. Governments are caught in the middle between environmentalists demanding and corporations promising sustainability. And the hope of finding sustainability within the confines of the profit-driven market can only be compared to hoping to dine on rainbows.

The future of our grandchildren is being mortgaged to the profits of the privileged, and the world's richest continent may not be able to fulfill its obligation to all the people of the planet to set up an example of sustainability.

But the Technocrats are still here waiting with their plan. Technocracy Inc. is listed in the directories of cities across Canada and America. Their 59-page publication entitled Technocracy: Technological Social Design, detailing every aspect of their proposal and organization, bears intense examination. The Technocrats would welcome that.