Into the future

[Tetro Kornbluth]

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Those Jetpacks and Robots from the 1950s are well overdue. And where is my Moon Vacation?

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Apart from that part of the market which is too poor to afford the drug and is unable to get any from a competitor because the US wants to enforce its worldwide patenting laws.

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There are plently non-market reasons for this, perhaps researchers wants to research into common diseases is because they are the diseases which do the most common? (And if its capital, research and a "common disease" that is only needed, why has no cure to the common cold been found yet?)

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So imagine this: Both India and China having millions and millions of subsitence peasents who migrate to the cities to toil factories all day and lead unrewarding lives just so westerners can get consumer products cheaper and then read some self-justifying bullsh*t from the likes of Forbes..... Oh no wait, That's Reality!

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If history has taught us anything, it's that Betterment of makind does not equal "making more money for me".

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Sadly this is very true, Perhaps they would feel better if this guy from Forbes came up to them and said "You know you may too poor to have a serious opportunity at life, but don't worry thanks to the miracles of unfallable Free Market (TM) people you don't know in the future from countries which may not be yours which perhaps be able to achieve. But only if there Economy grows right."

Or then again perhaps not.

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Hasn't this guy heard of Scarcity? Are we looking at an "unlimited returns" situation ala the Internet circa 1998.

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Partially caused by the very forces described in this article

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Now we're into White Man's Burden terriority. If only the poors were like us..

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Osama Bin Laden Disagrees.

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Only if you believe in modern Economical Alchemy that is "OMG TEH FREE MARKET!1111".*

And it didn't even mention Global Warming. *sigh*



* - Interestingly enough the era of highest worldwide growth was the period 1945-1973; the golden age of Keynesian economics (Cue Bono talking about causation). Apart from that some well noted examples quite alot of the world (such as Subsaharan Africa) have actually gone backwards from that point.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

How can we expect a booming global economy to continue if we're going to reach 9 billion people in the near future? That by definition is going to put enormous strains on resources. The US alone already consumes more than the rest of the world. That China or India are developing and could have a larger economy than us just makes the future of the world bleaker in the short term.

Because if we run out of a natural resource the free market will respond to incentives to create more of that resources though its magical and mystical ways.

So don't worry about all that Peak Oil stuff. The Free Market will find a way - it always does *.



* Except when it hasn't. Isn't that what learning about Externalities in Economics 101 is all about?