Post
Topic
Board Economics
Re: A Resource Based Economy
by
Rassah
on 05/07/2011, 16:16:10 UTC
Regarding your programmed obsolescence, two examples against that come to mind. First is Japanese cars

You could not have chosen a worst example.

We have had electric cars that can run for hundreds of km in one charge for years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solectria_Sunrise
http://www.physorg.com/news194158832.html
http://goo.gl/jcNX

Still, no sign of those in the market, only inefficient crap of very expensive luxurious cars.

The only example on that list that existed for years is the Solectria. I'd like to know how much it cost (my guess is A LOT), how long it took to recharge (my guess is at least overnight/8hours), and how durable was it (considering the batteries it used, I'm guessing it lasted maybe a year before you needed to replace the batteries). My point is that, in the market, "durable" is a sales word. VAST majority of our stuff becoming obsolete is not because it's not durable, but because new technology makes old things obsolete (my SEGA Genesis and my IBM 5Mhz PC still work just fine). This, by the way, will be exactly the same in an RBE, with mountains of crap being thrown away because new technology will constantly outdo the old.


Finally, if what you propose is free, sustainable, can have people simply volunteering their time, and is a better alternative than what we have, then why doesn't it exist yet?
Cartels, monopolies, paralyzing political structure, coercion, mafia, scientific illiteracy of the general public.
Quote
What are the barriers to getting it done?
The ones I mentioned above, which could be summarised as distorted values and bad culture.

So your answer is to change the culture of the ENTIRE world, otherwise this idea won't work? And this isn't a utopian impossible dream why?