Slightly Updated & Selected Summary Graphics

FROM AN ORIGINAL PRESENTATION TO

CLASS OF DR. ROBERT DANNIN

"CRISIS OF THE MODERN AMERICAN CITY'

AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

THURSDAY APRIL 30, 1998

A FURTHER SUMMARIZED AND MUCH ABRIDGED

PRESENTATION ON THE OCCASION OF THE BESTOWING UPON ME THE

“HUMANIST OF THE YEAR – 2004”

AWARD

BY THE CHURCH OF HUMANISM/HUMANIST FOUNDATION ON

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 19, 2004

TO WHICH I AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL FOR THE HONOR

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One Individual’s Idea About

PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION WITHIN A

WORLD SYSTEMS PATTERN OF UNDERSTANDING

Drawing Upon the Contributions Of:

R. Buckminster Fuller / Louis O. Kelso

And Others

This is very much an evolving work in progress

BY HAROLD H. CHANNER

PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION WITHIN A WORLD SYSTEMS PATTERN OF UNDERSTANDING

· PUBIC ACCESS PRODUCTION / DISTRIBUTION FREE TO PRODUCER

· OPEN TO ALL FOR NON MONETARY BASED COMMUNICATION

· EARLY EXAMPLE & AKIN TO NON COMMERCIAL USES OF INTERNET

· MODEL FOR OTHER NON COMMERCIAL BASED VENUES FOR EMERGING

COMFORTABLY LEISURED EXPRESSION OF THE FREE HUMAN SPIRIT

* IN TERMS OF ITS COLLECTIVE CAPABILITY MANKIND, AFTER 200,000 YEARS OF CULTURAL & TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT, HAS TRANSCENDED MATERIAL SCARCITY - “A NEW REAL CAPABILITY” TO PROVIDE "LIFE SUPPORT" (WITHIN AN ECOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE PATTERN) FOR ALL WORLD CITIZENS. IN TERMS OF CAPABILITY NOW MORE “HAVES” THAN “HAVE NOTS”.

* MOST IMPORTANT MILESTONE, OF THIS OR ANY OTHER, CENTURY. OBVIOUSLY THE TRANSITION IS IN OUR COLLECTIVE “DESIGN CAPABILITY” NOT THE ACTUAL MANIFESTLY INADEQUATE “REALITY” INHERITED FROM HISTORY. NEW POST SCARCITY “REALITY CAPACITY” HAS ONLY APPLIED SINCE THE YEAR 1970 – AGAINST ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY.

1. R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER 2. MARSHAL MCLUHAN

3. TEILHARD DE CHARDIN 4. RAY KURZWEIL

5. LOUIS 0. KELSO 6. MU-AMMAR AL GADDAFI

* INVOLVES TECHNOLOGICAL DISPLACEMENT OF LABOR IN PRODUCTION. PURPOSE OF THE INDUSTRIAL (AND POST INDUSTRIAL) REVOLUTION WAS - AND IS - TO PUT PEOPLE OUT OF WORK OR JOBS. DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME BY LABOR IS ALMOST UNIVERSAL BUT OUTDATED IN ECONOMY WHERE THE MAJOR AND INCREASING SOURCE OF PRODUCTION IS CAPITAL WHICH IS ALL OWNED BY A MINISCULE (PLUTOCRATIC) FEW. AN UNVOICED PARADIGM CLASH.

* TECHNOLOGICAL DISPLACEMENT OF LABOR REQUIRES A NEW ECONOMIC SYSTEM IN KEEPING WITH NEW REALITIES OF CAPITAL PRODUCTIVENESS RATHER THAN LABOR PRODUCTIVITY. OWNERSHIP MUST BE DISPERSED. AN UNVOICED CRUCIAL PARADIGM CLASH.

1. CHARLES HANDY (JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES)

2. LOUIS 0. KELSO / BINARY ECONOMICS

* ALL ACCEPTED ECONOMIC SYSTEMS (EXCEPT BINARY ECONOMICS?) ARE AND HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED ON VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF "THE LABOR THEORY OF VALUE” WHICH SEES LABOR AS THE PRIMARY OR ONLY LEGITIMATE SOURCE OF INPUT TO PRODUCTION. ALL SYSTEMS ASSUME THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF LABOR AND DISTRIBUTE MOST INCOME BY LABOR CRITERIA (JOBS). BINARY ECONOMICS ASSUMES TWO FACTORS OF PRODUCTION - LABOR AND CAPITAL AND PROPOSES DEMOCRATIZATION OF CAPITAL OWNERSHIP AS A PRIMARY COMPONENT OF BOTH CAPITAL FORMATION AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION – UNVOICED.

· UNIVERSALLY DISPERSED CAPITAL OWNERSHIP WILL: INCREASE ABILITY OF ALL TO PURCHASE WHAT CAPITAL INTENSIVE AUTOMATED SYSTEMS ARE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING - EXPAND MARKET DEMAND; INCREASE CAPITAL AVAILABLE FOR INVESTMENT IN ECOLOGICAL "COSTS"; ATTACK CAUSES OF POVERTY (LACK OF CAPITAL OWNERSHIP) RATHER THAN IT'S SYMPTOMS; STEADILY INCREASE THE NUMBERS OF THE COMFORTABLY LEISURED AND THUS REQUIRE MANY NON ECONOMIC VENUES FOR THE EXPRESSION OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT SUCH AS: PUBLIC ACCESS TV, FAIR USE OPEN ACCESS BASED INTERNET, NON COMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL/CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS, OR WHATEVER ACTIVITIES A LIBERATED POPULATION WOULD WANT TO START – OUTSIDE THE DICTATES OF AN INCREASINGLY BYPASSED MARKET SYSTEM.

BUCKMINSTER FULLER GRAPH FROM HIS “WORLD GAME” FINDINGS OF THE PERCENTAGE OF THE WORLD POPULATION WHO COULD BE SEEN TO BE “HAVES” IN THE MODERN EXPERIENCE IN TERMS OF OUR ABSTRACT TECHNOLOGICALLY AUGMENTED "CAPABILITY" TO PROVIDE "LIFE SUPPORT" TO THE WORLD POPULATION. FURTHERMORE BOTH “GROWTH AND EQUITY” COULD BE REALIZED WITHIN AN ECOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE MANNER THROUGH THE INCREASING ELEGANCE OF "GOOD DESIGN TEMPLATES” - “DOING MORE WITH LESS.” THINK MOORE’S LAW WRIT LARGE. HE PROJECTED FROM THE YEAR 1952 “A TWENTY YEAR PERIOD OF IMMINENT CRISIS TO ALL HUMAN INSTITUTIONS AS WE APPROACHED AND CROSSED THE 50% MARK”. HE LIVED OUT HIS LIFE IN THE BELIEF THE PROCESS HAD ACCELERATED AND THAT WE CROSSED THE 50 % MARK IN 1970. REMEMBER THIS IS “CAPABI LITY” NOT ACTUAL “REALITY.” HHC

JAY BALDWIN

Bucky Works: Buckminster Fuller’s Ideas for Today

John Wiley & Sons Inc. 1996

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Earthman’s Critical Moment

“Think of It. We are blessed with technology that would be indescribable to our forefathers. We have the wherewithal, the know-it-all to feed everybody, clothe everybody, give every human on earth a chance. We know now what we could never have known before – that we now have an option for all humanity to “make it” successfully on this planet in this lifetime. Whether it will be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment.”

Buckminster Fuller, 1980

Historically, according to Fuller, all theories of economics, all political ideologies have been founded on one basic tenet – the fundamental scarcity of life support. “It has to be either you or me, not enough for both.” Buckminster Fuller was the first to scientifically and incontrovertibly find that there is ample to support all humanity.

We have never been in this position before, according to Fuller. 1970 marked a turning point in man’s technological evolution. The “invisible” metallurgical, chemical and electronic revolutions now makes it possible to do far more with ever less resources, energy, and time investments. …………………………………………………. JAY BALDWIN

As inconvenient to the established Paradigm as “Post Scarcity Economics” would obviously be there have been a wide variety of projections of the concept. Below are some suggested links of the many attempts to assert the major premise. All obviously call for fundamental definitions of terms such as “What is the standard by which “have ness” is defined & of course the countless assertions defining “Human Nature” as inherently greedy with human desires unlimited and insatiable hence never able to be met” et al. But the time is ripe for new modeling and discussion and even argumentation based on a serious examination of the basic assumption itself. This rather than the seemingly wide spread default attitude of dismissing the concept as ipso facto absurd and/or naive thus routinely “overlooking” the possibility of what could well be the major “Paradigm Shift” in the History of Mankind. Political and business leaders would understandably have the most difficulty comprehending the assertion – representing the major beneficiaries of the historically inherited institutional entities and belief systems. Indeed in the end they might well represent what amounts to a Modern Day Ancien Regime. But intellectuals and the masses of world humanity need not be so restrained as the Increasing awareness of an unavoidable growing gap between the World’s “Post Scarcity” Capability and its Performance will inevitably create unacceptable Political instability beyond even that so evident today. HHC

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Louis O. Kelso and Patricia Hetter Kelso estimates of the relative real inputs to production in the American economy of Labor (Physical and Intellectual) and Capital over time assuming reasonably competitive markets. So ingrained is the “ethic” of the “Labor Theory of Value” that they thought it best to refer to Capital Owners as “Capital Workers” in keeping with their understanding that Capital instruments do “Work” - as surely as the most diligent human surrogate worker – and that indeed the observable trend is for Capital Instruments to do ever more of the Worlds “Work”. The reflexive prevalent attitude of equating “Economic” man with Essential Human Values including the whole vast array of values around the “Work Ethic” all contribute to camouflage and maintain the fundamental miss-match between the way goods and services are produced and distributed and particularly their trends projected into the future. Cybernetic contributions (now almost exponential) are only adding to the much longer Historical trend. Represents US Economy but applies to World trending. HHC

Chart of concentration of capital ownership in the U.S. over time. The same general pattern applies to virtually all economies of and the World Economy as a whole – Plutocratic ownership and control of the real means of production. With “The Labor Theory of Value” it only worsens. HHC - Below Quotes @ www.kelsoinstitute.org

"Conventional wisdom says there is only one way to earn a living, and that's to work. Conventional wisdom effectively treats capital (land, structures, machines, and the like) as though it were a kind of holy water that, sprinkled on or about labor, makes it more productive. Thus, if you have a thousand people working in a factory and you increase the design and power of the machinery so that one hundred men can now do what a thousand did before, conventional wisdom says, 'Voila! The productivity of the labor has gone up 900 percent!' I say 'hogwash.' All you've done is wipe out 90 percent of the jobs, and even the remaining ten percent are probably sitting around pushing buttons. What the economy needs is a way of legitimately getting capital ownership into the hands of the people who now don't have it."
Louis O. Kelso, Journal Asset Based Finance, 1982)

"The trouble with today's techniques of finance is that they're designed to make the rich richer. None are designed to make the poor richer. That's why the poor are poor. Because they're not rich."
(Louis O. Kelso, San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle, 1978)

"The Roman arena was technically a level playing field. But on one side were the lions with all the weapons, and on the other the Christians with all the blood. That's not a level playing field. That's a slaughter. And so is putting people into the economy without equipping them with capital, while equipping a tiny handful of people with hundreds and thousands of times more than they can use."