Once I read a UN report that calculated the % of resources and man-hours spent on non-productive activities. It was estimating up to 90%.
This non-productive work fell in three categories:
Money-related activities/resources: planning, printing, distributing, destroying, banking, guarding, handling, speculating, trading, exchanging, collecting, reporting, insuring, taxing, investigating, prosecuting, etc., etc., etc.
Fighting over distribution: Wars, revolutions, armies, armament industries, police, crowd control, courts, lawyers, monetary/financial/tax legislation, oversight, lobbyists, security industry/personnel, bailouts/grants/subsidies, prisons, prison guards and suppliers, etc., etc., etc.
Profit-related activities: producing in slave-economies and shipping long distance to rich economies, fossil fuel industries and related cleanup activities, man-made global warming and environmental cost, ill-health, hazardous waste disposal, hanging on to obsolete technologies, killing off innovation, etc., etc., etc.
All this waste is due to our inability to do simple arithmetic.
We waste 90% of our resources in order to control our consumption with the monetary system, without which we could spend these resources multiplying our production capacity ten-fold, producing plenty for all conceivable needs (except for the pathological kind). Without this waste no control (and money) would be required. The expression: "Penny-wise and pound-foolish" comes to mind.
On human stupidity -- are you aware...?
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Re: On human stupidity -- are you aware...?
And people wonder why I'm a pessimist.
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Re: On human stupidity -- are you aware...?
I would say your post is a perfect example of human stupidity.Ned wrote:Once I read a UN report that calculated the % of resources and man-hours spent on non-productive activities. It was estimating up to 90%.
This non-productive work fell in three categories:
Money-related activities/resources: planning, printing, distributing, destroying, banking, guarding, handling, speculating, trading, exchanging, collecting, reporting, insuring, taxing, investigating, prosecuting, etc., etc., etc.
Fighting over distribution: Wars, revolutions, armies, armament industries, police, crowd control, courts, lawyers, monetary/financial/tax legislation, oversight, lobbyists, security industry/personnel, bailouts/grants/subsidies, prisons, prison guards and suppliers, etc., etc., etc.
Profit-related activities: producing in slave-economies and shipping long distance to rich economies, fossil fuel industries and related cleanup activities, man-made global warming and environmental cost, ill-health, hazardous waste disposal, hanging on to obsolete technologies, killing off innovation, etc., etc., etc.
All this waste is due to our inability to do simple arithmetic.
We waste 90% of our resources in order to control our consumption with the monetary system, without which we could spend these resources multiplying our production capacity ten-fold, producing plenty for all conceivable needs (except for the pathological kind). Without this waste no control (and money) would be required. The expression: "Penny-wise and pound-foolish" comes to mind.
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Re: On human stupidity -- are you aware...?
What is meant by "productive" in this instance?Ned wrote:Once I read a UN report that calculated the % of resources and man-hours spent on non-productive activities. It was estimating up to 90%.
This non-productive work fell in three categories:
Money-related activities/resources: planning, printing, distributing, destroying, banking, guarding, handling, speculating, trading, exchanging, collecting, reporting, insuring, taxing, investigating, prosecuting, etc., etc., etc.
Fighting over distribution: Wars, revolutions, armies, armament industries, police, crowd control, courts, lawyers, monetary/financial/tax legislation, oversight, lobbyists, security industry/personnel, bailouts/grants/subsidies, prisons, prison guards and suppliers, etc., etc., etc.
Profit-related activities: producing in slave-economies and shipping long distance to rich economies, fossil fuel industries and related cleanup activities, man-made global warming and environmental cost, ill-health, hazardous waste disposal, hanging on to obsolete technologies, killing off innovation, etc., etc., etc.
All this waste is due to our inability to do simple arithmetic.
We waste 90% of our resources in order to control our consumption with the monetary system, without which we could spend these resources multiplying our production capacity ten-fold, producing plenty for all conceivable needs (except for the pathological kind). Without this waste no control (and money) would be required. The expression: "Penny-wise and pound-foolish" comes to mind.
Re: On human stupidity -- are you aware...?
Human stupidity is NEVER aware.
Unable to function on a sane, rational, logical level, they take refuge in obscenity, wild rejection, hysterical attack on anything that they feel threatening.
So pathetic, that only a competent criminal psychiatrist, neuro-surgeon or a simple straightjacket can control it.
They all need serious professional help.
Unfortunately, they are running the show.
The patients took over the mental institution.
Time to move to another planet.
Unable to function on a sane, rational, logical level, they take refuge in obscenity, wild rejection, hysterical attack on anything that they feel threatening.
So pathetic, that only a competent criminal psychiatrist, neuro-surgeon or a simple straightjacket can control it.
They all need serious professional help.
Unfortunately, they are running the show.
The patients took over the mental institution.
Time to move to another planet.