Why Is There Poverty in the Land of Plenty?

Ron Miller

1984

Published in:

Section 3 Newsletter, Nov. 1984, No. 15

We live in a country that can produce goods and services in such large quantities that the most common problem faced by our industries is how to find new markets. Only in the rarest cases do shortages appear. Everything a person could want materially is available. If it is true that we can produce more than enough for everyone, then why doesn't everyone have more than enough?

The complex answer to this seemingly simple question lies in the very nature of our system of economic organization, the Price System, and in the direction of social motion it is forced into by the advance of technology. The Price System was devised about 7000 years ago as a means for distributing a scarcity. The invention was both simple and brilliant. If you don't have enough money, you can't buy it. However, the system continues to operate this way even if no scarcity exists.

One need look no further than U.S. agriculture to find an outstanding example of the desperate lengths to which the system will go to maintain the price and just how futile those attempts are. Despite a never ending variety of government subsidy programs, farm population continues to decline and the price of farm produce is so low that many farmers must work on a second job in the city to support their farms. It is the social system itself that demands an inadequate supply of everything. Within these confines the distribution of goods and services is a matter for the society in question. Most of the wealth can be concentrated in a few hands or it can be distributed more equitably among the society's members. The fact is the Price System dictates that a certain fraction of the population resigns itself to poverty.

What kinds of people are poor and what kinds of situations seem to contribute to poverty? In 1969, 10% of the population of the U.S. were poor, 22% of families with seven or more members were poor, 28% of black families were poor, and 32% of female-headed families were poor. If more than one characteristic at a time is considered, 53% of black female-headed families with seven or more members were poor. In 1983 the poverty level climbed to 15.2% in the U.S., the highest level since 1965. The Census Bureau reported that the largest contributing factor was a rise in female-headed households.

The elderly persons who are long past retirement form one of the most rapidly increasing groups today. Since 1900 the average life expectancy has increased more than 50%, from 49 to almost 75 today. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal commented on the inevitable financial strains this increase will produce. Other recent articles point to a shrinking middle class due to rapid technological advance and shifting employment patterns.

Employment in a service economy appears headed for a two-tier structure consisting of relatively few highly paid, highly educated professionals and armies of low-paid, low-skilled workers. The availability of a job is no guarantee of freedom from poverty.

Both sides appear to be losing the war between the sexes as 40% of the adults in the U.S. are single. A large percentage of today's children are being raised in day-care centers. The sociological impact of this has as yet to be measured. The society now contains many whose low genetic endowment, low level of motivation and neurotic behavior leave them qualified for only the most menial of tasks.

No matter what analysis is done or how many statistics are collected, it is obvious that as automation in the industrial and service sectors proceeds, many more people will be forced into either low-paying jobs or unemployment. The Price System demands that people be gainfully employed in order to obtain a wage. The amount of that wage is determined by the number of people capable of doing a particular type of work and the demand for it. Those who are supported by public assistance without working receive their income by taxation of those who are employed. Floating debt in ever increasing amounts to maintain a sinking system is not a viable solution. The financial markets are reacting with growing horror to never ending debt growth.

How the books balance on the supply and demand of unnecessary misery is exclusively a function of how long the people of North America decide it should go on. The rate of social change is governed by the amount of misery the continued operation of the system causes. The continued operation of the system depends not only upon its level of unworkability but also upon the availability of a reasonable alternative.

Technocracy Inc. offers the only plan for this operation of a high-energy civilization. If the Price System is collapsing, we will have to do without it. Technocracy Inc. offers the Energy Certificate, a method of Continent-wide accounting of the energy consumed in the production of goods and services. This would permit continuous monitoring of the industrial processes and insure their smooth, efficient functioning. The only function of such a system would be to provide people with what they want. Material goods would cease to have any value other than what they could be used for by whoever wanted them. Poverty would disappear. Differences between people would no longer be measured in terms of lifeless possessions. The only way a person could distinguish himself from others would be by becoming genuinely outstanding in a particular skill useful to others.

Technocracy is not an attempt to design a utopia. There are no guarantees for happiness. Technocracy does not attempt to fill in all the blanks or answer all questions that might arise as situations and problems that may appear in the future can not be predicted. Technocracy has provided the framework to build the next stage of human civilization. But the transition will not occur automatically. A citizenry informed about what is happening is required. This is the function of Technocracy. Those persons who wish to be in the forefront of the greatest social change the human race has ever seen will find Technocracy's social design for the North American Continent irresistible.