L.W. Nicholson  Published in: 1997  The Northwest Technocrat, 2nd quarter 1997, No. 347

For centuries people have dreamed of an age of peace and plenty, an age without crime, debt, hunger — or war!  A great dream indeed, but how could such a dream actually be achieved in a real world in which these things are traditional and profitable?  If such an age became possible, what would be its operating characteristics, and where is the human intelligence required for its installation?  Who would be willing to make an effort to understand the physical requirements, or to accept the drastic changes necessary to turn this dream into reality?

The ideal, or desire, for peace and plenty is not enough, the physical requirements must be considered; an operating mechanism for the distribution of plenty must be designed.  And until it is, such an age will remain just that, an ideal, or desire, without substance in this real world of matter and energy.

The installation of such a mechanism would require the greatest social change in recorded human history.

 

If humans are ever to achieve such a great goal, they must first prepare for it, not only in the physical characteristics required, but also with the necessary mental concepts as well.  Could it be done with the present state of human intelligence?  Unfortunately, that is extremely doubtful.  About the only chance of overcoming society’s present mental blocks is the pressure resulting from a complete economic collapse and the greatest economic depression ever known by the human species.  And, in addition, it must occur before a point-of- no-return has been reached in the environmental degradation now in progress.

When that point has been reached an economy of plenty will be made impossible by the shortage of natural resources left on this finite earth.

 

The first requirement for an age of peace and plenty will be to find a method to produce plenty of everything required for everyone in the area.  This is in addition to the area concerned having the necessary quantity and quality of natural resources to supply the population.  It would require the intelligence to design, construct, and operate an automatic, computer controlled technology, and to achieve this conversion to a compatible social system.  The location for starting such an age must be determined by the area which has the resources to make it possible, the iron, aluminum, wood, etc.  Further the area must not be overpopulated.

WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT THIS NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT ALREADY HAS THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS?

When the above conditions are made possible, it would then be necessary, for the first time in history, to design an economic system which could affect the distribution of this plenty to all the people in the area.  Since human muscles are not powerful enough to produce so much, technology must do the job.  Methods must be found to allow more people to work less and still have access to the plenty produced by technology.  The most important jobs for humans will be to design and control, to maintain and direct, the computers that control the technology until computers can be trained to do this also.

 

It is a major mental problem to understand that abundance, like the air we breathe, can’t be distributed at a price.  Therefore an entirely new economic system, a non-price, non-profit system will be required.  How could one expect this requirement to be accepted by the owners of big corporations whose chief concern is profit?  It can’t be expected!  How could it be acceptable to politicians whose campaign expenses are paid by corporations, or their owners?

Did the producers of wagons and buggies cheer the early success of the automobile?  Without a major miracle, this greatest dream will not be easy to achieve.  Certainly it would require more intelligence than has, so far, been demonstrated by the human species.

In spite of all the difficulties, an entirely new social order is clamoring at the gate with a new method of social organization — that can provide an equitable method of distribution that will eliminate the poverty, and near poverty, now existing in the midst of plenty on this Continent — one which will eliminate politics, financial and business manipulations, debt, and all crime for profit.  This new method is already in process and is demanding to be completed and admitted onto the North American scene as a replacement for the present scarcity methods and concepts of the past.  Technology is forcing this issue and will make possible that age of peace and plenty that we humans have dreamed about for centuries.  The factors that are making all this possible are the same factors that are making it impossible to continue the ancient methods of the past; methods that do not allow the distribution of the plenty our technology can already produce.  If the citizens of this Continent are to make these changes it will be because there is no other alternative to avoid chaos and the probable extinction of the human species.

 

It is, unfortunately, highly improbable that we would ever make it into an intelligently operated society if there was any other choice.  Even so, it has been postponed for more than a half century.  People were taught to believe in this system of scarcity that it was the best, the only system possible, that our country and the system are one and the same thing and that we should be patriotic to it. So, it is likely that the pressure of events must drag many, kicking and screaming, into a future actually so much better that it is without comparison.  Furthermore, it is most unlikely that those people will be able to recognize the new society as being the one proposed by Technocracy Inc. for the past 60 years.

 

The greatest changes in social operations in recorded history have been in process for more than two centuries.  The technological development during this time has rendered all scarcity concepts of the past ineffective, antiquated and unworkable; the developing technological ability reached the point of being able to produce a plenty about 1920, but the inability of our ancient Price

System to distribute this plenty has condemned millions of this Continent’s citizens to a life of poverty and near poverty ever since.  It has caused the deliberate destruction of food at the same time people were hungry.  Its maintenance has required the greatest amplification of the debt structure of all time, far greater than in 1929.  How could these things be tolerated? — By a concerted program of maintaining ignorance!

 

Without a drastic change from the mental concepts that support the abominable scarcity methods of the past – new concepts developed which are compatible with and able to control a technological society in a far more efficient manner, poverty will continue to increase at an ever more rapid rate in spite of the increasing ability to produce.  The waste required to maintain a scarcity economy will continue to increase at the same time that it becomes ever more obvious that the continued waste of the earth’s natural resources will render this planet uninhabitable.  With 5.8 billion-plus people, the earth can no longer afford a waste of its resources in the production of inferior products to increase sales and profits.  Shipping abroad resources to assist in increasing the overpopulation already existing in many areas can no longer be tolerated, nor can an economic system which rewards such waste.

Technocracy Inc. has been trying to inform the citizens of this Continent concerning these trends for the past 60 years, including the environmental warning “The Ecology of Man”, published in 1948.  Technocracy has had little assistance and much opposition from the Price System leadership and its press.

Nevertheless, these trends continue as predicted and the only solution remains Technocracy’s Technological Social Design.  Further, these trends are developing to the danger point and any continued attempt to maintain public ignorance of these facts must be considered social treason.

 

Unfortunately, the political leadership is so confused and stupid that they believe they can balance the budget by decreasing the $130 billion in yearly public assistance for the poor without decreasing the $448 billion in welfare for the rich.  Many strange behavior patterns may be expected as this system of price continues its deterioration.  A technological society is entirely too complex to be administered by the political methods of any political party regardless of its position from right to left.  One shouldn’t be surprised to observe an increasing number of citizens who are less confident in the political leadership.  As society becomes more complex, political mistakes become more obvious and dangerous.

 

North Americans have been taught many things, for example, that they should have political equality.  They have NOT been taught that they should, or could, have economic equality, or that an economy of scarcity can never tolerate the distribution of plenty regardless of the ability to produce.  They haven’t been taught that abundance can’t be distributed at a price, or that North America has the technology, the resources and the trained technologists required to produce plenty for every citizen on this continent.  They haven’t been taught what the physical requirements are for an economy of plenty.  And, in fact, they haven’t been taught to understand the economic system in which they have lived all their lives.  What more can one expects from educational institutions that are politically controlled?  The citizens of this Continent need to know these things, their survival depends on it.

 

The whole financial “system” is a system of debt.  Debt is a promise to pay.  The total national debt is more than $20 trillion and increasing at a trillion per year.  The federal debt alone is $5.1 trillion (1996).  To who is this debt owed?

No one, it is an illusion!

 

Distribution is affected (more or less) by a system of trade, or commerce, based on COMMODITY VALUES that are determined by the relative scarcity and desirability of the commodity involved.  And, for the sake of convenience, money, a token of debt is used.  This is a system made entirely by man sometime in the distant past, and which can be changed anytime we have the intelligence to do so.

 

There is no physical law that requires one horse to be in debt to another horse.  And there is no physical law that requires one human to be in debt to another human.  This whole thing is an illusionary mess that grew haphazardly through the centuries from the old barter system devised by the most cunning before recorded history.  Such immeasurable methods are not efficient enough, and are far too restrictive to affect the distribution of the plenty modern technology can produce.  If the people of this Continent are ever to expect an intelligent distribution of the production, they must do far better than this.

The plenty everyone wants, the plenty our technology can already produce, must be distributed to this Continent’s citizens WITHOUT PRICE.  That is the only way it can be done.  Some may think they don’t like the idea of a non-price system.

Some didn’t like the automobile, the telephone, or the computer, but they are here just the same.  Progress has a way of continuing whether some like it or not.  An economy of plenty is the next major step in human progress, and any old antiquated method (such as politics) that interferes will be rejected when that interference is understood.  Political nonsense is just not good enough to survive, since it cannot control technology.  It wasn’t good enough to build the greatest technological mechanism on earth right here on this continent, and it is not good enough to balance production with consumption, or conserve the earth’s natural resources so that human survival can be made possible.  These things require a scientific solution, and a non-price system is it.

 

So, an entirely new type of social system is required, one that, for the first time in history, is intelligently designed.  One that will engineer out stupid nonsense such as poverty when plenty can be provided  A waste of the resources is not required to encourage people to cooperate rather than compete.  The march of technological events, population growth and environmental deterioration are demanding better methods of social and economic operations.  People are already beginning to demand that the problems of joblessness, homelessness, poverty and crime be solved, but they can’t be solved under the dictates of a system based on scarcity.  They can only be solved be demanding an entirely new social order.

Anything less is only an exercise in futility.

 

The only scientifically designed social mechanism is that designed by

Technocracy Inc. Technocracy’s Technological Social Design is the only one available or likely to become available.  No one is asking anyone to believe in it, we only ask that it be carefully investigated to determine its correctness, as any intelligent person would do before reaching a conclusion.