Do You Know?

John Darvill

1992

Published in:

The Northwest Technocrat, 4th quarter 1992, No. 329, Vol. 54

... The U.S.A. is continually boasting of its achievements, holding itself up as an example for all to emulate, trying to convince other countries to follow the governing and business practices that it espouses. As an example of this much vaunted social system, let us look at New York city. In July of this year the number of welfare recipients rose to 1,005,210, a 22% rise from the 823,691 receiving welfare in January 1990. This means that about one in every seven New Yorkers is on welfare. In dollar figures welfare now costs the city of New York, $2.25 billion annually.

... Large corporations are down-sizing their work forces in what is a never-ending process. At present the only reason the unemployment figures are not a lot worse is because up to now the service industries have taken up some of the slack. This picture, however, is about to change; according to some estimates, improved productivity will eliminate as many as 17 million jobs. This will further exacerbate an already alarming unemployment figure and add more people to the welfare rolls. What answers do Bush or Clinton have for the part technology plays in the erosion of our social mechanism, and when will this problem be addressed? Technocracy has been concerned about it for sixty years, it should now be apparent that we were correct. How much further does our social structure have to decay before some recognition is given and action taken.

... If the above does not give you food for thought, dwell on this: IBM and Toshiba Corp., together with Siemens AG of Germany, recently announced an alliance to develop, by late in this decade, computer memory chips with enormous 256-megabit storage capacity, 16 times greater than the highest available today. Also Advanced Micro Devices will team up with Fujitsu Ltd. to build a $700 million plant to make a new kind of chip with "flash" memory, unlike ordinary chips, flash memories don't lose data when the power is shut off. How the high-tech world is changing! Think of how all of this will affect jobs, the way we operate our society and the time rate of doing work -- it will have more effect on the administration of the social mechanism than all of the prattling of politicians, businessmen and economists.

... Business failures, bankrupt airlines, huge corporate debts, banks in serious trouble, are many of the business woes we hear so much about. Do our business leaders suffer? Not according to a recent article in the Washington Post. Companies checked by a New York management consulting firm had an average drop of profits of 15% or more. However, the average top pay of chief executives of 363 large companies last year was $2.47 million, up 26% from the previous year. By contrast, in 1991, the average pay of blue and white collar workers was $18,442, up 2.6%.

... Consider the things this article has not touched upon: crime; education and health standards; pollution of our air, water and soil; water shortages; soil erosion; environmental breakdown; ozone depletion; CO₂ build-up; resource depletion; the population explosion -- and it goes on. Solutions? Not within the limitations of a Price System. Money is an interference and is a limiting factor; it is not capable of dealing with the problems of a technological society, problems aggravated and made more serious by the misuse of technology, failing to make technology work for the benefit of mankind rather than to our detriment as is the case at present. Abundance can now be produced, but it cannot be distributed because of the limiting factors of money. Man-hours of labor is still the motivating force of the economy but is in rapid decline, aggravating economic woes. The public decrys the sorry state of society, but at the same time diligently works to perpetuate the system that makes it all possible -- the PRICE SYSTEM. Only when we learn to eliminate this interference and install a social administration based on function, will be begin to apply the solutions to society's problems.