Friday 6 March 2009

Scarcity and abundance

I've been thinking about scarcity and abundance since reading Accelerando in which a main character invented things and patented things which he then deliberately gave away or made public access in order to move onto a economics of abundance in which everyone could assume their basic needs would be met so there would be no need for struggle or competition. I hadn't really thought of our current economy in terms of being an economy of scarcity, but of course it is. And it is because of that that we all scurry to be ahead of everyone else in earning our wage - because if we don't do so, someone else may get 'our share'.
With not having a wage for us all to live on at the moment, my mind has been rather concentrated on the theory of cash acquisition and what it means to us, in practical and philosophical terms. But I haven't come to any startling realisations or made any revelations - if only I could. I can see how ridiculous the whole thing is and yet still not see how to free ourselves from it. I'm sure I must be on the brink of some kind of mental breakthrough (or perhaps just breakdown?), so I'll carry on musing. There must be another way to live than this constant striving to get cash to pay for the roof over our head and the food we eat. Mustn't there?

2 comments:

bethnoir said...

I hope that you come up with a good solution! I think there must be some better way of doing things, but appealing ideas seem to get terribly warped when put into practice, for example Communism.

I often get irritated by people who get all evangelical about a kind of pre- Industrial medievalism, I appreciate not having to subsistence farm, put the children to work weaving clothes and being able to buy things to a certain extent.

Let us know what conclusions you come to!

dottyspots said...

It's a difficult one isn't it. As with bethnoir, I rather appreciate not having to live at a 'subsitence level', however, I do, to a certain extent object to the current set up.

However, freecycle and LETS do address this at a local level (if you have them available in your local area).

I still find it frustrating though. Money is a bit of an *issue* here too atm, due to dh being in the building trade (which is definetely not the trade to be in in an economic downturn *sigh*)

It looks like I'm getting back into childminding (I'd been taking a bit of a sabbatical to consider the EYFS and also because I needed a break due to difficulties with my eldest son and two bereavements in a short space of time). Difficulty is, when unemployment figures start to rise, the call for childcare is less...