Dr House wrote:It seems we're not going to reach an agreement on climate related issues. In short, I'm optimistic that technological solutions will resolve any problems that arise when they arise -- and there's no need to sacrifice people's present standard of living.
I don't want to sacrifice our present standard of living more than absolutely necessary, for the record. I do think the rate of future growth will almost certainly have to slow some, if the externalities and unintended consequences caused by our prosperity are actually to be dealt with.
I'd also add that these "technological solutions" will also likely come with government-based R&D. Based on economies of scale and there being more long-term political will than short-term market will, they're simply more likely to marshal the necessary resources first and more quickly.
But suppression is exactly how the government "solves" problems, which means it's the solution put forward by socialism.
The solution put forward by socialism is worker control of the means of production, full-stop. If you have a vote proportional to work put in, in how the place you spend half your life in is run, that is socialism. So, it's a system based on meeting peoples' expressed needs.
This is a study of disparity in lifetime earnings. The primary driver of immediate inequality is work experience.
So, the primary driver of immediately-felt inequality is workplace position. That would seem to help a "weak unions and production shifts to the Third World" case.
The third world isn't quite as much of a drain as you might think. It's difficult to estimate exactly how many jobs have gone offshore -- some sources say millions of jobs have cone to China, but the reality is that only 1.3% of America's $4.1 trillion stock of foreign direct investment is actually in China. 75% is in rich countries (Europe, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong).
Hong Kong (as part of China) and Singapore are Third World for geopolitical purposes, in that they're neither First World (NATO/Atlanticist powers) nor the now-nonexistent Second (Warsaw Pact). Taiwan is only "First World" in the most tenuous possible sense, Chiang Kai-shek became a puppet leader only with trepidation and resented/feared his imperial masters. Even South Korea has a tenuous history here, considering the shaky relationship between Park Chung-hee and those same imperial masters.
But, from generally neoliberal sources, the latter being one of the two primary Wall Street mouthpieces:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/201 ... n-10-years and
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/artic ... ctory-jobs And this is just the specific country of China. More manufacturing goes to Southeast Asia today, with increased living standards and wage demands in China itself.
To this day America remains a highly competitive hub for industry. In fact, even in 2004, Chinese manufacturing cost 84% as much as American manufacturing, per unit. That's risen to 94% today.
I don't think anyone denies America remains tremendously competitive. I'm just saying, factually speaking, economic development in the Third World is a driving cause of wage stagnation in the United States. Along with ending Bretton Woods' stabilization, and dramatically defanged unions.
The repeated failures of state socialism rightly should tell you that an unfree society simply cannot achieve what a free society can.
As a relatively libertarian socialist, I want to agree. Really, I do. But removal of the short-term profit focus of capitalism enables marshaling the resources for qualitatively necessary long-term projects, as opposed to a quantitative system where needs and wants are not distinguished.
On vaccination itself: Cuba has developed a lung cancer vaccine that appears to prevent about 80% of cases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CimaVax-EGF They also oversaw a dramatic agricultural revolution in the wake of the Cold War, when the Soviet oil was cut off, and now have the most sustainable permaculture on the planet. Meanwhile the Soviet Union went into orbit quite a bit before the US, and stamped out alcoholism with the result of generally greater longevity than in the United States.
All you need to prevent said projects from diverting resources from even more immediate human needs is some sort of decentral feedback mechanism, like under the NEP.