From Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet. Tupy and Pooley. 2022. Kindle online sample. Section 2.
(Introduction by George Gilder continued)
As Tupy and Pooley show, globally between 1980 and 2018, despite all the monetary noise and the cultural headwinds, workers have been able to buy some 250 percent more goods and services with their hours and minutes.
During this same period, the world’s population increased 71.2 percent, yielding a 500 percent increase in global resource abundance.
DESPITE CLAIMS OF “EXTREME WEATHER,” AGRICULTURAL AND MARINE COMMODITIES—INCLUDING TEA AND COFFEE AND SHRIMP AND SALMON—HAVE BECOME RADICALLY CHEAPER IN TIME PRICES.
…
There’s no need to figure out the physical efficiencies and yields of every item in the basket.
Just compute the hours and minutes of work and divide them into any monetary measure of the relevant part of the economy.
That’s a breakthrough, but it’s still only the beginning of wisdom.
Time prices show economic progress continues far faster than economists estimate.
Far from plunging into negative realms, as if time could move backward, real interest rates remain at between 3 and 4 percent.
And China has been growing faster than even the Communist Party claims.
This means CHINA, WITH ITS FAR LOWER GOVERNMENT SPENDING THAN THE UNITED STATES AS A SHARE OF GDP, MAY HAVE IN FACT PROVIDED A FREER ENVIRONMENT FOR BUSINESS.
…
THE LEADING THREAT TO CAPITALISM TODAY COMES NOT IN RED COMMUNISM BUT GREEN SOCIALISM.
The extreme environmentalists say capitalism
-is using up the natural resources the materialists mistake for wealth
-is destroying the very climate on which life depends
Today’s green socialism enjoys greater popular acceptance than the red variety ever achieved.
Amid unprecedented plenty and human well-being, the cries of doom are deafening.
…
Capitalist theory, at least from Adam Smith on, has rested on the same materialist superstition that sustains socialism; the one inevitably leads to the other.
The materialist superstition is this: wealth consists of things rather than thoughts, of accumulated capital rather than accumulated knowledge— THE FALSE BELIEF PEOPLE ARE CHIEFLY CONSUMERS RATHER THAN CREATORS, MOUTHS RATHER THAN MINDS.
…
The materialist error has been eloquently identified.
More than 40 years ago, the economist Thomas Sowell, expounding the argument wealth is essentially knowledge, not material resources, wrote, “The cavemen had the same natural resources at their disposal as we have today, and the difference between cavemen’s standard of living and ours is a difference between the knowledge they could bring to bear on those resources and the knowledge used today.”
What we lack to go with our information economy is an information economics.
CAPITALIST THEORY REMAINS BOUND IN A LANGUAGE THAT CANNOT ESCAPE MATERIALIST PREMISES.
…
If, however, wealth is knowledge, growth is learning, and innovation explains the gap between the Stone Age and the information age, then the choice of a deterministic model is fatal to economic theory.
IF THE FUNDAMENTS OF WEALTH ARE UNPREDICTABLE, IF INNOVATION ALWAYS COMES AS A SURPRISE, NO DETERMINISTIC THEORY CAN EXPLAIN WEALTH.
…
As long as economics is justified by its ability to predict outcomes in detail—as long as it remains mechanical and deterministic—it will be intellectually unpersuasive and morally indefensible.
Profit will remain a mystery and a scandal.
For this new battle we need a new economics.
Above all WE NEED AN NEW ECONOMICS THAT CAN NOT ONLY EXPLAIN ECONOMIC GROWTH BUT VINDICATE IT.
…
We need an economics of mind, an economics of information grounded in THE TRUTH THE GROWTH OF RECENT CENTURIES HAS BEEN ACHIEVED NOT BY RAVISHING NATURAL RESOURCES BUT BY REGENERATING THEM
-not by accumulating matter but by replacing it with mind
-not by wasting energy but by using it more ingeniously
Information theory shows we accumulate wealth not by stealing from the earth but by adding to our store of knowledge. We need an economics of information.
Superabundance is the pioneering text on this new frontier of economic truth.
(end of section 2)
… …
(own comments)
Section 1:
“Free markets and uncontrolled prices typically achieve economic prosperity, combinations of government and business frustrate it.”
Bigger government = more lobbying = more combinations of government and business.
Republicans want smaller government, Democrats want bigger government.
…
“More people produce more ideas, which lead to more inventions.”
“On average, every additional human being created more value than he or she consumed.”
More people produce more profits, increased profits = increased wealth and economic growth.
Positive Republican = need more people, negative Democrat = need fewer people.
WHAT to do?
1-Increase not decrease populations, increase not decrease free markets, in truly capitalist societies people produce more than they consume, these are profits that generate ever-more production and ever-higher living standards.
Socialists desire a smaller population which be poorer and easier to control, zat anti-happy pro-misery goal fundamentally be the real reason for
dems’ anti-dance pro-abortion stance
2-Substantially lower taxes, this will increase budget deficits in the short run but in the short run and long run will result in a boom economy and in the long run generate huge budget surpluses, these to be mostly paid out as Citizens’ Shareholder Dividends, leaving us all rich and free to be full-time artists and philosophers if want, can beats can’t.
3-Unilaterally open the U.S. to unrestricted imports, increased imports result is the same result as from technological advances.
As U.S. living standards increase energized pro-happy Citizens Of All States Together will soon force their governments to do the All the same and We’ll All go together and COAST to the coast.
….
Section 2:
“The leading threat to capitalism today comes not in red communism but green socialism.”
(always some edits…)
The current period of natural, cyclical rising temperatures back to geological historical mean norm, per Figure 1, is timely, magic and a dream and an ideal 無 mu tool for dem negative misery-desiring socialists.
We and They see and know the negative anti-economy grow, penury-equality-aspiring misery-wuvver (we’re united victims and victimizers) 蛇 hebi blue socialists here and everywhere…
-have been disappointed by the past repeated failures of masochistic sadistic satanistic odd dead old world socialism dictatorship
-to defeat God’s living New World capitalism HATter ship
-then take hold and wrest freedom, prosperity, and happy from We in the U.S.
-and finally drive All everywhere down to total Old misery
To dem demi-commies wut socialism’s success allure has been is it always brings more misery.
Socialism’s failure has been it has not yet been able to blanket, carpet, cement and spread zeir dead negative anti-God certain-other-wuvver’s Zat rot.
We need it, HAT, All over now.
Zei say no, rather Zat 蛇 blue oll over be better.
…
Omen now recalling… Dems are good guys with bad terms.
Oll dem people be not evil just odd, Old and negative.
The battle be our good terms versus zeir bad terms, net zei be more helpful than hurtful when We control.
Dems’ role and duty be fire-inspiring us forward toward goal, dems must doff and scoff at HAT.
HAT be largely built on positive reaction to negative action, fired-up not mired-down.
Positive Republicans need to change and know wHAT to do, for Dems everything’s more of the same.
…
(Dylan/Byrds songs It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, Thoughts and Words)
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