http://www.kable.co.uk/vega-round-table-efficiency-staff-5jul10
Well into this article, with classic understatement, the writer says:
"It will always be difficult to provide an incentive to employees to suggest measures that might result in the loss of their jobs, or those of colleagues."
Quite. More inefficiency means putting in more work to achieve the same level of output. More work = more jobs. So is inefficiency good or bad?
The ideas of The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project address this fundamental flaw of our economic system by decoupling work from access to life's necessities. Everyone gets access to life's necessities - you, me, and the 1 billion starving people. Using the best technology, we obtain the earth's resources sustainably for our survival. Only work that directly improves our lot as a species (is socially relevant in Peter Joseph's terminology) gets done, and that gets done as efficiently as possible - ie by maximising automation and minimising human labour.
Technological unemployment? Yes please!
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Monday, 5 July 2010
Efficiency and employment are opposing each other
"In some parts of the country ... the public sector accounts for a third of the workforce. An urgent rebalancing was vital", wrote Damian Reece in The Daily Telegraph.
How much of the workforce should be in the public sector, then? We have to start from the premise that the public sector is a Bad Thing, which Reece only hints at by suggesting imbalance between the private and public sectors (presumably).
Here's the point. The only work that should be done is work that is directly relevant to social progress. Having a job to get money does not count as 'relevant to social progress', unless the work being done is in itself relevant to social progress. The work that needs to be done should be done in the most efficient way possible relative to the actual (ie not money) resources available. In many cases this means machines. Humans should only be doing socially relevant work that cannot be done by machines.
People in he public and private sectors all want/need to keep their jobs and there's a tendency to not be as efficient as possible in order that people may stay in work. The public sector gets criticised for that because it's tax funded and most people have no choice but to pay taxes, whereas in the private sector you allegedly have choice. This is a false dichotommy. The obvious essential service that the private sector predominates is food production and distribution. But food isn't produced and distributed as efficiently as possible, because people would lose their jobs - so it's the same thing as the public sector being inefficient to save jobs.
Until we decouple the need for access to the necessities of life from work and money, we are always going to have this problem. If we were so efficient that few if any people had jobs and therefore money to buy the efficiently produced goods/services, they would have to be given away. In our current system we create a cycle of consumption whereby jobs are made for people so that they can get money to buy the goods that are made for the large part to keep people in work.
How much of the workforce should be in the public sector, then? We have to start from the premise that the public sector is a Bad Thing, which Reece only hints at by suggesting imbalance between the private and public sectors (presumably).
Here's the point. The only work that should be done is work that is directly relevant to social progress. Having a job to get money does not count as 'relevant to social progress', unless the work being done is in itself relevant to social progress. The work that needs to be done should be done in the most efficient way possible relative to the actual (ie not money) resources available. In many cases this means machines. Humans should only be doing socially relevant work that cannot be done by machines.
People in he public and private sectors all want/need to keep their jobs and there's a tendency to not be as efficient as possible in order that people may stay in work. The public sector gets criticised for that because it's tax funded and most people have no choice but to pay taxes, whereas in the private sector you allegedly have choice. This is a false dichotommy. The obvious essential service that the private sector predominates is food production and distribution. But food isn't produced and distributed as efficiently as possible, because people would lose their jobs - so it's the same thing as the public sector being inefficient to save jobs.
Until we decouple the need for access to the necessities of life from work and money, we are always going to have this problem. If we were so efficient that few if any people had jobs and therefore money to buy the efficiently produced goods/services, they would have to be given away. In our current system we create a cycle of consumption whereby jobs are made for people so that they can get money to buy the goods that are made for the large part to keep people in work.
Eye spy a number plate scandal
http://www.ukauthority.com/?tabid=64&id=2837
"Spy cameras which can track car number plates are in the government's firing line, following a 'scandal' in Birmingham.
Home secretary, Theresa May, announced she had expanded a review into the huge expansion of CCTV to include the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.
The move follows uproar after the cameras were secretly installed in Birmingham neighbourhoods with large Muslim populations - using £3m of 'counterterrorism' cash.
A network of 150-odd ANPR cameras was planned, to track residents entering or leaving Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook, under a scheme dubbed Project Champion.
Some Birmingham city councillors complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, alleging the council was deliberately misled by West Midlands police.
The police were accused of pretending the project was for run-of-the-mill crime-fighting - when, in fact, the cash came a Terrorism and Allied Matters fund, intended to 'deter or prevent terrorism'."
Quite obviously, the way to know where a car (or any moveable asset) is at any time is to put a tracking device in it, and the obvious time to do that is when it is built. It would be a tremendous advantage to be able to know where all cars are all times. This ANPR technology is bridging the gap between the crude idea of a number plate and a proper technological solution to the management of mobile assets. This retrofit of ANPR is bound to be more expensive, because as crude as a number plate is, it is fairly hard for a computer to read the characters off it.
The controversy here, though, is not just the cost, its lso the tracking of residents, which is done by looking up the ANPR-ed number plates on the DVLA computer and associating the registered keeper details with the registration mark. This is exactly the same process as would be done if the car reported its registration via RFID or SMS or Wimax, or some technological process.
The morality or effectiveness of counter terrorism measures is outside my scope, but at least do it technically efficiently if you're going to do it.
In a sane world you would know where all vehicles are all the time so you could deploy them efficiently. If you want a cab, you want the nearest one to you that's free (assuming it's the right spec). Of course with our current free market system of competing cab firms you just have to contact all of them.
"Spy cameras which can track car number plates are in the government's firing line, following a 'scandal' in Birmingham.
Home secretary, Theresa May, announced she had expanded a review into the huge expansion of CCTV to include the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.
The move follows uproar after the cameras were secretly installed in Birmingham neighbourhoods with large Muslim populations - using £3m of 'counterterrorism' cash.
A network of 150-odd ANPR cameras was planned, to track residents entering or leaving Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook, under a scheme dubbed Project Champion.
Some Birmingham city councillors complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, alleging the council was deliberately misled by West Midlands police.
The police were accused of pretending the project was for run-of-the-mill crime-fighting - when, in fact, the cash came a Terrorism and Allied Matters fund, intended to 'deter or prevent terrorism'."
Quite obviously, the way to know where a car (or any moveable asset) is at any time is to put a tracking device in it, and the obvious time to do that is when it is built. It would be a tremendous advantage to be able to know where all cars are all times. This ANPR technology is bridging the gap between the crude idea of a number plate and a proper technological solution to the management of mobile assets. This retrofit of ANPR is bound to be more expensive, because as crude as a number plate is, it is fairly hard for a computer to read the characters off it.
The controversy here, though, is not just the cost, its lso the tracking of residents, which is done by looking up the ANPR-ed number plates on the DVLA computer and associating the registered keeper details with the registration mark. This is exactly the same process as would be done if the car reported its registration via RFID or SMS or Wimax, or some technological process.
The morality or effectiveness of counter terrorism measures is outside my scope, but at least do it technically efficiently if you're going to do it.
In a sane world you would know where all vehicles are all the time so you could deploy them efficiently. If you want a cab, you want the nearest one to you that's free (assuming it's the right spec). Of course with our current free market system of competing cab firms you just have to contact all of them.
A triumph of faith over experience
"It is homo sapiens's unique capacity for trading that pushes individuals to specialise and play to their own advantages. I am dexterous but weedy, you are strong but clumsy. I make the hooks and you catch the fish". This is a quote from The Rational Optimist, a book by Matt Ridley. He claims that trade is the vehicle that has enabled us to make progress in life expectancy, cleaner air / rivers, falling birth rate etc.
Nonsense. His example of the dexterous person making the hooks and the strong person catching the fish is an example of co-operation, not trade. And why is a falling birth rate progress? What other species, if it could count, would call this success. The rise in life expectancy is surely down to science, and who made the pollution that "trade" is now clearing up. Er, " trade". It's apparently to be congratulated for cleaning up its own mess.
George Monbiot called this "a triumph of faith over experience"
Nonsense. His example of the dexterous person making the hooks and the strong person catching the fish is an example of co-operation, not trade. And why is a falling birth rate progress? What other species, if it could count, would call this success. The rise in life expectancy is surely down to science, and who made the pollution that "trade" is now clearing up. Er, " trade". It's apparently to be congratulated for cleaning up its own mess.
George Monbiot called this "a triumph of faith over experience"
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Three reasons to scrap GDP
It's easy to hear the words "economic growth" and think it sounds good, but it's the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This article
http://www.condoroptions.com/index.php/more-to-life/three-reasons-to-scrap-gdp/
Has a nice three point critique.
This quote from Robert F Kennedy is used to crystallise the argument:
"The gross national product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. GNP (a slightly different but related measure) includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm, and missiles and nuclear warheads… it does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, or the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
Defenders of it say "that GDP was never intended to be a catch-all measurement for quality of life or the overall success of a country. But that’s precisely what it has become."
http://www.condoroptions.com/index.php/more-to-life/three-reasons-to-scrap-gdp/
Has a nice three point critique.
This quote from Robert F Kennedy is used to crystallise the argument:
"The gross national product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. GNP (a slightly different but related measure) includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm, and missiles and nuclear warheads… it does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, or the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
Defenders of it say "that GDP was never intended to be a catch-all measurement for quality of life or the overall success of a country. But that’s precisely what it has become."
Monday, 28 June 2010
New ideas sought by UK Prime Minister and his Deputy
David Cameron and Nick Clegg have asked Public Sector employees to contribute money saving ideas to help reduce the deficit / government debt.
This is an opportunity to put forward planet saving ideas like A Resource Based Economy and other ideas from The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project.
Eventually, they will ask the general public the same question.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/spend_index.htm
This is an opportunity to put forward planet saving ideas like A Resource Based Economy and other ideas from The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project.
Eventually, they will ask the general public the same question.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/spend_index.htm
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Zeitgeist Movement Newsletter
http://thezeitgeistmovement.com/July2010NL.pdf
Edition 1, 10 pages. It's laid out for reading off paper - so quite a bit of scrolling up and down the doc to read all the articles - and it looks like they could use a proof reader!
Those cavils aside - it is an excellent primer into The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project.
Edition 1, 10 pages. It's laid out for reading off paper - so quite a bit of scrolling up and down the doc to read all the articles - and it looks like they could use a proof reader!
Those cavils aside - it is an excellent primer into The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project.
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