Re: [ox-en] verzola on abundance

Hi list!

I remembered this post from Graham fitting well into the discussion on
scarcity, limitedness, etc.

20 months (603 days) ago graham wrote:
> Roberto Verzola has a new paper about managing abundance on:
> 
> http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1160044
> 
> (although it looks like only an abstract, you can download the whole
> thing from that page.)
> 
> Haven't read it all yet, but generally Verzola's writings are quite
> relevant to oekonux

I read the important parts and can only agree. Really a nice paper. I
also added him as a possible speaker on the 5th Oekonux Conference.

Here are some quotes on the scarcity topic:

  Looking more closely at the logic of business firms, it is obvious
  that the immediate effect of restricting abundance is to reduce
  supply and increase overall demand. These in turn raise prices or
  keep their levels high. If the costs of production change little or
  not at all and prices go up, then profits go up. This is the logic
  behind corporate efforts to develop technologies and influence State
  policies that give them closer control over the abundance and
  scarcity of goods: to create the best conditions for maximizing
  profits.

  [...]

  Shouldn't this selfish end give way to higher societal goals? The
  economist's answer is that society's higher goals are indeed served
  when everyone pursues their own selfinterest in free competition
  with others. In fact, economists argue, the competitive pursuit of
  individual gain accomplishes overall social goals *better*, even if
  this "was no part of his intention," than when individuals
  consciously try to advance society's higher goals. This idea that
  individual pursuit of selfinterest not only leads to but is actually
  the *best* path towards overall social good became the moral basis for
  capitalist society. This was the programmed into business firms as
  an "urge" to maximize gain, and they do so by controlling abundance
  and scarcity in their favor. This is the driving force behind
  antiabundance.

  -- p.16 - emphasis in original

I couldn't have said it better :-) .

He also gives some advice. I'm quoting only the headlines here:

  The ultimate goal of any management regime should be to ensure
  against any failure of abundance. The following specific goals are
  suggested:

  1. Make the resource accessible to a greater number of people -
     ideally, to all.

  2. Make sure the resource will last for generations, preferably
     indefinitely.

  3. Build a cascade of abundance.

  4. Develop an ethic that nurtures abundance.

  5. Attain dynamic balance.

  -- p.18ff.

Advice 3 is BTW the way Free Software came into being. It all started
with an editor (Emacs) and an compiler (Gcc).

He also gives some threats:

  1. The current reliance on a nonrenewable energy base.

  2. The linear production processes of the industrial sector.

  3. The unchecked growth of human population.

  4. The unlimited corporate drive for profit.

  -- p.20f.

Of course I think threat 4 is the most important and threat 2 and
threat 1 are closely related to threat 4.


						Grüße

						Stefan

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