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Anyway - at a basic level it seems to me there are three factors in the production of "societal wealth" if we take an overview. Energy Raw materials Human labour
Energy Raw materials Human labour
The ability to creatively reorder the structure of our society as needed to produce what we need.
Even though they did not have 'money', as we understand or misunderstand it today, the ancient Sumerians, the First Dynasty Egyptians and others more than three millennia ago did have this essential capability. Today most believe that 'There Is No Alternative' to the way in which decisions are made and implemented on reordering the society and, I would argue, that the ways in which this reordering is now being conducted is net more destructive that creative. Denying our ability to choose the means and ends towards which we reorder our societies leaves the process in the hands of those who make those decisions solely on the basis of the profits their corporations will realize from those decisions and argue that they must do this in the interests of the shareholders, who they routinely shaft, along with the rest of the society.
Raising this point is likely to get one labeled a radical, socialist, communist or as a deluded individual. But until we get across that the basic order of society CAN be changed in any direction we choose and that the decisions on that are the essence of real politics. Unless and until this point is won we are fighting on our opponents well prepared field of battle. "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
It's sort of scary that we've replicated the waste of the communist system in a different form.
There people were often in jobs where they were engaged in useless activity - making things that no-one wanted.
Our eminent free market economists have created a system where that doesn't happen - instead the people just sit idle.
But it's the same failure...
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