Crossing the threshold

At some point in the 20th century, mankind passed a threshold. That threshold was the point at which technology could produce more than we need.

More food, more cars, more computers, more books, more buildings, more factories, more schools, more entertainment, more information, more software, basically more of everything.

We passed from a state of insufficiency into oversufficiency.


So what happened to all of this surplus? What happened to all of this productive power?

And why is all of this productive power being idled?

Everything should be abundant and plentiful. But all of this abundance leads to the devaluation of everything.

Profit has to be protected so the laws of supply and demand are manipulated to maintain profit margins. Excess supply has to be kept off the market to keep prices up. Excess production has to be stopped.

Look at housing, for example. There's nothing special about housing. So why are prices kept so high? And more importantly why can't people afford housing? We can build more houses than we need. Artificial scarcity and market collusion pushes prices up.

The unemployment rate is officially 5%. The unemployment statistic is far underestimating the real unemployment rate which some people believe is around 25%. That is an incredible amount of productive power to be kept deliberately idle.

Just think if all of the productive capacity was put on-line.