Reich: The 'iEverything' and the Redistributional Imperative

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/03/17/ieverything-and-redistributional-imperative

It’s now possible to sell a new product to hundreds of millions of people without needing many, if any, workers to produce or distribute it. At its prime in 1988, Kodak, the iconic American photography company, had 145,000 employees. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. The same year Kodak went under, Instagram, the world’s newest photo company, had 13 employees serving 30 million customers.

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Where will this end?

Imagine a small box – let’s call it an “iEverything” – capable of producing everything you could possibly desire, a modern day Aladdin’s lamp. You simply tell it what you want, and – presto – the object of your desire arrives at your feet. The iEverything also does whatever you want. It gives you a massage, fetches you your slippers, does your laundry and folds and irons it.

The iEverything will be the best machine ever invented.

The only problem is no one will be able to buy it. That’s because no one will have any means of earning money, since the iEverything will do it all. This is obviously fanciful, but when more and more can be done by fewer and fewer people, the profits go to an ever-smaller circle of executives and owner-investors.

[djean111]

1. And this is why the Larry Summerses stupidly wonder why people are not buying stuff.

Pretty soon, the only way for the economy to lurch forward is to either have constant wars and/or have the 1% buy all the stuff and give it away or destroy it. Zero sum game, eventually.