Category: Economics

World Poverty Econosystemics (Part I)

With the industrial revolution, beginning around 1775, large flows of energy and resources began to bypass the majority of humans under control of the higher sociopolitical layers. As represented by the dark arrows, fossil fuel and mineral resource flows fed a rapidly developing “high-technium”, implemented by engineers, architects, and managerial talent, and controlled by “capitalists” or political leaders. The lower social majority had to find a way to serve the Technium as “labor”, or continue basic subsistence largely outside the transformational processes of the Technium.

Image of Jeopardy set with two human contestants flanking "Watson"

Poverty Puzzles for $1600

An IBM supercomputer named Watson easily defeated the two most successful past winners of the popular game show Jeopardy. Meanwhile, there are three billion brains out there trying to survive on $2.50 per day. What if we could tap into it? Could we figure out a way for the poor to earn income through brainwork rather than begging or back-breaking labor?

The Value Loop Economy

World population growth and rapid economic development in the less developed countries has put inexorable pressure on the value-chain economy. Over the past 40 years we have recognized that we are exhausting our fossil fuels, mines, soils, forests, and fisheries. The value chain economy is dyin

Towards a High Satisfaction Economy

GDP is killing us. What we call Gross Domestic Product is an attempt to sum all the value added, in every step of production, of every monetary good or service within our national economy. But GDP doesn’t measure the standard of living of anybody. And that’s where it fails us and leads us into ruin.