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To: grusum who wrote (91228)	11/20/2011 12:43:37 AM
From: E. Charters	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 233785

The basic unit of wealth is what a man can make in a unit time. Productivity. That which maximizes his efficiency, i.e. social organization which builds and maintain the infrastructure increases this efficiency. You have to get things to market, and you have to build business, which is tied together by efficient communication. In the modern age this is best done in vertical cities, which made intercommunication best. Air travel increases the efficiency of this mode of business. In spite of the increased leverage of technology and mechanization, mass distribution and transportation of goods, etc. i.e. the speed of life and business increasing there is the overarching effect of "all else being equal" which conspires to make a natural limit to technology based wealth. You can only sell as much crap as people can afford to buy. You can make it cheaper, distribute it wider and faster, and advertise it better but there is only so much money to buy it. This is based on the wages paid to make the same stuff, so you can see wealth has a limit which is equal to the consumer's wealth. Prices therefore must rise to meet the money available to pay for things and profits must always chase this inflation. The basic wealth of a man born into a stone age family was the same as it is today. We must never confuse technological leverage with wealth. If Oog could hunt one day to earn one and a week in the cave, with some access to fire, birds eggs and wild boar and ground up corn or grass, he was not much worse off than Simon McOogle today, who must work all day to put the same week's pork strips toast and eggs, on a Melmac plate. McOogle's car or Oog's chariot are mere equivalents. The advancement of technologies does not mean much. And Oog's chariot and horse could pull McOogles car out the ditch, while vice versa is not so certain. Oog's world was smaller in some ways, and larger in others. If things went south for Oog, at least he was used to basic improvisation and might migrate to better hunting grounds. McOogle's world today is much more structured and brittle. He is far more dependent on the many and find's it harder to meet adversity of a profound kind. Provision of needs is the basic unit of wealth. Is it that much larger today than then? McOogle has more stuff, but in whqat way does it provide beyond the needs? Can McOogle hire ten men to cut his grass and keep house? Has be got ten year's provisions for time's of want? Not unless he is in politics and is hiring illegal immigrants. EC<:-}