Who Would Oppose Abundance For All, Including Themselves?

Serena E. Powell

1998

Published in:

Technocracy Digest, 3rd quarter 1998, No. 329

The Great Seal of the United States, on the reverse side, depicts a truncated pyramid with an All-Seeing Eye on top and bears the Latin inscription, Annuit Coeptus Novus Ordo Seclorum. This inscription is translated as, "Time Makes Way for a New Order of the Ages." This is a motto of progress and of social change.

Back in the days of hand tools, human labor, and ever-present scarcity, it was very difficult to envision a new order of the ages; but, even then, there were a few visionaries. For example, toward the end of the 19th century, Edward Bellamy published his book, Equality. He was branded as an imaginative but impractical "visionary." No one "in his right mind' could accept such ideas as the Air Car, the Horseless Plow, or the Electroscope (television) of which he wrote. But by the middle of the 20th century, many of the inventions and innovations of which Bellamy wrote had become commonplace. Evidently, Mr. Bellamy had an intuitive awareness of the direction in which social change would move.

Evidently, the author of the inscription on the Great Seal, whoever he may have been, was also a visionary. Although he did not furnish a blueprint for a New Order, he, at least, presented the idea of its inevitable occurrence.

Today, the world is much in need of leadership with vision and wisdom; and it needs the guidance of men and women who understand technical matters. As it is, our Continent is jeopardized by the static values of the golf course, of financial institutions, and of political offices.

It is now quite apparent that history has reached the end of an era and that the world is in transition from an old to a New era. But visionless leaders, unable, or unwilling, to read the signs of the times, have been pursuing a road that has no positive ending; terminating only in the rubble of colossal destruction. There is no valid long-term reason for out-spending billions of dollars and risking innumerable human lives just so our businessmen can gain possession of oil and other resources on the other side of the earth.

America's basic problem is not on other Continents. It is here also -- on our own home territory -- and it directly concerns the welfare of our own millions of needy, bewildered people. The time is now due when America should enter into the New Order which science and technology have been preparing (wittingly or unwittingly) for us over the past century.

North America is richly supplied with abundant material resources and with the knowledge and machines for turning the materials into usable goods and services -- into an abundance for all North American citizens.

But an abundance, over 98 per cent of which is produced by machine energy and less than two per cent by human labor (as at present), cannot be effectively sold or distributed on the basis of wages and salaries; nor can it permit the continued use of money as a medium of exchange. Wages and exchange are concepts of a scarcity economy. They cannot effect distribution of more than a mere fraction of our potential technological capability to produce.

Because of the discrepancy between our present production and distribution, our government is piling up huge `surpluses,' which are paid for by the people through taxation, but which is denied to them. These `surpluses' are allowed to rot in storage, are destroyed, or are dumped in foreign lands while America's own needy, in the millions, suffer for lack of the things they sorely need but cannot buy. The United States, today, according to recent reports, has in excess of $1 million, per day, charged up to the taxpayers. In the meantime, at least one-third of our citizens -- some 60 million of them -- are ill-fed, ill-housed, and ill-clothed. It is a problem of distribution which the Price System has not, and cannot, solve.

What America sorely needs, today, is a medium of distribution rather than a medium of exchange (money). What we need is a simple and effective means whereby all citizens of North America may share in their common heritage. That heritage consists of an abundance of goods and services.

The signs of our times indicate that, from now on into the future, industry will require less and less human labor to produce more and more. As a consequence, no one will have to work for long hours at toilsome jobs. The essential work of the Continent will have to be spread thin so that all citizens will have the opportunity to do their share. Hence, the future citizens of North America will need to be employed, at reduced hours and days, for only a few years, in the younger part of their lives. Then, they shall be retired on full income for the rest of their lives. That is what the `signs' point to as a social necessity.

As it is, millions, both young and old, are being `retired' from employment without their consent and without pay. Many of them resort to crime to gain a livelihood. Others enter crime as a simpler way of getting ahead in the economic system. A recent report of the F.B.I. places the crime bill at $20 billion. Court records show that about 95 percent of all crime committed in the United States is for money or other economic gain. This bill must be chargeable to the Price System. Without money and exchange, but with a high income for all, there would be little incentive to steal or commit other crimes of an economic nature. Besides the cost to the nation of crime, in terms of dollars, there is a high cost in sorrow, suffering, and inconvenience of the citizens which crime produces. This is all so unnecessary in an era of abundance.

Are there any North Americans who would oppose the provision of abundance for all, including themselves? If there be such, then you know they are enemies of progress and supporters of poverty, crime, and strife.

Abundance would free North America of poverty, the distress of unemployment, internal strife, and charity drives. Shall Americans continue on their sorry way, with more than a third of their people in distress, or shall they enter upon the road to the New Order of the Ages, in which all citizens shall share abundantly in the production of a balanced-load economy?

When we are organized and equipped to supply our own material needs, then it is soon enough for us to extend our humanitarianism to foreign lands to help relieve human suffering occasioned by drouths, floods, and other disasters.

America is in the race for world leadership. Therefore, America should show the way. Let us take the lead, not in destruction, but in making the world a good place in which to live. Let the war banners be furled and war bombs be hurled no more. Let us seek to live in a peaceful world, free of strife and turmoil.

That is the practical `vision' which the New Order of the Ages presents to us. It is not up to `fate,' but up to us to translate this vision into reality. The way to do this is through Technocracy, for no other way has been charted.