=1 "Freedom from economics"

Freedom from economics

by Author::Benedictus Montecrossa

Most of the difficulties in the developing nations, as well as in the so-called developed countries, mean that our technology is far in advance of our economics. There are still millions of peasants working in the tropical sun on tiny fields, labouring in order to produce at length hardly more than their meagre subsistence. In a fairy tale some benevolent king might tell them:

“Come, my dear children, stop your heavy labour. Take a rest in the shadow of the trees and smoke your pipes in peace. I will work the earth with huge automatic machines according to modern methods of agriculture. Not only will I get harvests 200 to 2,000 times the size of yours, but after feeding and clothing you I shall be able to export half of what is produced.”

What prevents our kings from saying this? It is not our technology but our economics which is still in the neolithic age, and the reason is our lack of imagination, and the gigantic stupidity of men who cannot conceive of another kind of life or of finance than that of their ancestors. When we were hunters we knew nothing of market economy, so when we became peasants it took thousands of years for us to learn to exchange the produce of our fields with that of other people. Will it take us thousands now to unlearn that economy?

Only a primitive technology increases tension, turns existence into a soulless routine, pollutes air and water. An evolved technology teaches children, produces leisure, distributes knowledge, keeps things clean, liberates man from drudgery and equalizes rich and poor.

We needed a genius like Henry Ford to make the automobile available to the poor. But the Ford revolution is not complete. We need a Ford for everything from houses to colour TV, from organization of holidays to university education.

A greater equality in the distribution of income or of social and economic opportunity does not imply an equalization on the lowest denominator, or a taking away from those who have, but simply giving to those who have not by creating new sources of wealth.

Until a few years ago a society was limited by its resources, but modern technology is able to build its own resources and put them at the disposal of its citizens. No society needs to remain poor; the moment there is a sociological will, the technological means are there, but this technology of abundance can be effective only when combined with an economy of abundance. Even now students no longer pay their teachers; the state has taken over the payment. There are also states in which patients no longer pay their doctors. We find it natural, when we use the lift, not to pay for the trip, but we still find it natural when we take the train to pay for that, though in most countries railways belong to the state and are run by civil servants, while the lift belongs to a private enterprise. It might actually be cheaper to run the railways without tickets, the selling and control of which represent a considerable part of their cost, just as it would be cheaper to run magazines and newspapers without subscriptions, whose only value to the publisher is the money their numbers bring in in advertisements. The Soviet Union seems to be looking forward to a system in which the state builds automobiles and places them along the streets for general use. Then when anybody needs one he takes it, uses it, and leaves it when he is through with it. It is certain that fewer automobiles with less difficulty of circulation could satisfy a larger population, as there would be no problem of parking space or traffic bottlenecks. When underground factory complexes, entirely automated, build our refrigerators, radios and television sets, we shall be able to acquire these things at a nominal price.

Then war for survival is suddenly no longer necessary: there are enough world resources for everyone, and enough space. If air and water and sun are free, why should we pay for food? After all, it is the tractor robots who do the work, and the systems managers have already been rewarded by the joy of their creation.

When that time comes, the only busy people will be the poets and dancers, the musicians, the artists, the creators of new things.