Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!cunyvm!ndsuvm1!plains!stinnett From: stinnett@plains.UUCP (M.G. Stinnett) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Re: Future Work (was Re: prognostications about expert systems) Message-ID: <4043@plains.UUCP> Date: 6 Apr 90 22:15:48 GMT References: <53291@bbn.COM> <3923@plain Reply-To: stinnett@plains.UUCP (M.G. Stinnett) Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo Lines: 52 In article <1990Apr6.015105.3143@world.std.com> madd@world.std.com (jim frost) writes: >stinnett@plains.UUCP (M.G. Stinnett) writes: >>Yes, I've heard of a consumption tax. The best sort of this tax is >>simply supply and demand. If I buy a lot of something, the price goes >>up and I pay more. > >Really? Buy a Sparcstation. Buy ten Sparcstations. If you buy ten, >each costs less. This holds for most industries (eg "value pak" >food packaging) since it's usually about as easy to make ten of >something as one of something. You're talking about small scale. Now if, say, 100,000 of us go out and try to buy ten Sparcstations each, then most assuredly the price will go up (initially). Extended further, if we produce enough demand that Sparcstations are in short supply because of shortages of parts or raw materials, then the price will stay up or increase. You're confusing supply and demand with economies of scale. >Of course if you meant that ten Sparcstations will cost more >cumulatively than one, I would tend to agree with that :-). > >>Finally, your comment about those evil corporations enslaving people at >>$4 per hour to flip burgers: You know, no one has to work for McDonalds. >>They are free to sell their labor to the highest bidder. > >There are many areas in this country where you take what you can get. >Depends on the economy. I won't even go into foreign economies. In every area of the country you take what you can get. In some areas there is a shortage of labor, so you can get substantially more than in other areas. Over the very long term this will tend to equalize. >>A few inherit. Most millionaires worked hard and used their brains. > >Mmm. "Most"? > Yes, most. Making a million isn't as hard as it used to be due to inflation. But another poster mentioned that family fortunes rarely increase. This is true; there are some exceptions. But usually either the kids or grandkids manage to disperse the wealth or spend it. But there's a lot of folks with good ideas and a willingness to work hard and take risks. Look how many people became millionaires when Apple went public. --M. G. > >jim frost >saber software >jimf@saber.com