MyWorldAtlas

EVERETT813 at aol.com EVERETT813 at aol.com
Sat Jun 25 09:46:34 PDT 2005


In a message dated 6/24/05 7:10:44 AM, Wcbn009 at aol.com writes:


> I have long believed an open networking world needs a whole new atlas to 
> take economics above zero-sum extraction -
> 
Dear Chris: 

If you base your conclusions on what is needed on the above false premise, 
you cannot get right outcomes or action.   The economy of the world has moved 
far beyond zero-sum extraction, if it was ever there---which is disputable.   
Most of the Cassandra's of the world make that assumption, that wealth is a zero 
sum game and therefore the issue is right distribution.   They have been 
proven completely wrong, especially in the past two centuries or so.   (Think 
Malthus, Erlich, Batra, Luddites, Fabian Socialism, et. al.).

For instance, the history of the US labor markets since 1830 or so has been a 
continuous upward trajectory in terms of its skills and productivity.   I don’
t know, and I can’t know, where that goes from here.   But nobody worked at 
Microsoft, Cisco, et. al., in 1970, and probably nobody now works at their 
equivalent in 2035.   The burgeoning work in such places as India, Russia, indeed, 
most countries that have freed up their economies, is mental, and that 
resouce is unlimited provided education is freely available and relevant to one's 
future needs---meaning Originality, Flexibility, Adaptability and Fluency of 
thought.

Nothing of human orgin was not first a thought in a person's mind.   Hence, 
the culture that encourages the broadest range of thinking will be the one that 
creates the true newness of the world.   That is why, if you put pins in the 
map of where a person was doing their work for which they have won the Nobel 
prize in Physic, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine, etc., the hard sciences, you 
will find they now cluster in the US and western edge of Western Europe, 
principally England.   And it is NOT that they were necessarily born there, but up 
to this point in time, those cultures were the most open to the thoughts of 
these great men and women, and hence they came to pursue their dreams.   

As an aside, the US is now in great danger of losing its preeminence in this 
arena (as Germany did because of WW I, and WW II) because of the rise of the 
radical religious right and the effects on immigration that 9/11 has caused.  
Just one example: look for stem cell advances to emerge from South Korea in the 
near future; several leading scientists have already emigrated from the US to 
that country to do their work.   We are stupid in the extreme.   A good read 
on what is happening in the world is Thomas Friedman's new book "The World Is 
Flat".   He is the foreign correspondent for the NY Times and a marvelous 
thinker.

Thus, I believe you must re-examine the basic premise.   

btw, your piece was quite hard to read in the sense of 'understand' and I 
felt there were many connections, clear in your mind, but left out in mine when I 
had finished.   If I were to guess, your work is in the theoretical, or, as 
you mentioned, that of a mathematician.   We mere mortals need some simpler 
interpretations, m'cyberfriend.   :)

Sincerely,

Paul Everett

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20050625/236b7fe9/attachment-0016.htm>


More information about the OSList mailing list