Lila S. Wagner 1997 Published in: Technocracy Digest, 1st quarter 1997, No. 323
When we tell people that Technocracy’s Technological Social Design would solve the problems of unemployment, poverty, waste, and ecological destruction that we are experiencing today, they ask,
“What is this Design? Where is it? Can I see it? Can you explain it to me?
For all those questioners, one of our writers, Lila Wagner, has written this coherent explanation of the Technocracy Design for a new social system.
The Scientific, Technological Design For The Economy Of North America
Provides For:
Complete economic security for every man, woman, and child from birth to death;
Complete health care;
Modern, energy-efficient housing for all;
Education to the full extent of each individual’s ability;
Viable mass transit;
Employment for all who are able to work and care for those who cannot; and Careful stewardship of the Continent’s natural resources and environment.
BACKGROUND
As early as the winter of 1918-19, it became obvious to a group of outstanding scientists, engineers, and economists that technology was displacing man-hours of labor, leading to increased unemployment and lack of purchasing power. The group included Howard Scott, chief engineer; Frederick Ackerman, architect; Carl L. Alsberg, chemist;
Allen Carpenter, M.D.; Stuart Chase, C.P.A.; L.K. Comstock, electrical engineer; Alice Barrows Fernandez, educator; Bassett Jones, electrical engineer; Benton Mackaye, forester; Leland Olds, statistician; Charles P. Steinmetz, electrical engineer; Richard C. Tolman, physicist; John Carol Vaughn, M.D.; Thorstein Veblen, educator; Charles H.Whitaker, housing expert; and Sullivan W. Jones, secretary.
Calling themselves the Technical Alliance, they embarked upon a survey of the energy and physical resources of the North American Continent. After fourteen years of intensive study, they were able to determine that North America had the resources, both physical and energy, and the know-how, to produce an abundance for all of its citizens. What it lacked was a viable method to distribute the abundance. This inability to distribute abundance had led to a depression in 1921, the unwise introduction of installment buying in the 1920s, the stock market crash of 1929, and the Great Depression.
