X-Message-Number: 5108
Date: Sun, 05 Nov 95 11:12:41
From: John de Rivaz <>
Subject: Re: Put Democracy Into R&D

In article: <>, forwarded to cryonet, 
 writes:
>      Imagine a future in which funds for vital civilian research
> are depleted 35% over the next five years, canceled out by
> heedless spending on B-2 bombers and Star Wars boondoggles. 
> Energy conservation, renewable energy development, and
> environmental research suffer the most severe damage, while the
> EPA is prohibited from enforcing environmental laws.  In an
> increasingly hostile climate, the Office of Technology Assessment
> (OTA) burns up, and attempts to make science and technology
> policy responsive to the public are driven underground.
> 
>      The information superhighway opens express lanes for
> advertizing and exporting jobs to low-wage countries, but no on-
> ramps for the poor.  Workplace hazards go uninvestigated;
> corporations are licensed to sell defective products; student
> loans are undermined; the unemployed are discouraged from
> learning new skills.

The reduction of bureaucratic wastage on business would result in more 
physical goods being manufactured. There would be so much stuff around that 
the marketplace would cause the price of these goods to fall and people 
simply wouldn't buy the aforementioned defective goods, and their makers 
would go out of business. The currency in your pocket is the most 
democratic instrument that you have.

The lack of regulation would make taxes impossible to collect, and the 
bomber programs cited above would be closed through lack of funds. All the 
additional wealth created through the lack of government would trickle down 
to all classes of scoiety. Whereas there would still be people who suffer, 
the total amount of suffering would actually be less because of the 
increased wealth around. (Just consider the lot of the poorest classes 
today with the lost of such classes a hundred years ago, in a given 
country.)

Renewable energy and environmental development would continue by people who 
want to do it rather than slave labourers. (At present funds for some of it 
are obtained by people working for no pay, the fruits of their labour being 
paid to the government, ie taxes). There would economic incentives because 
money invested in energy conservation pays an "income" (in the form of 
reduced energy charges) that is not taxable. 

-- 
Sincerely,     ****************************************       
               * Publisher of        Longevity Report *
John de Rivaz  *                     Fractal Report   *
               *          details on request          *
               ****************************************
**** What is the point of life if it ends in death? ****


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