Re: [tlug] Introduction to (Tech) Worker Cooperatives, 09:00AM on Sunday, July 12th JST

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 3:32 PM Joe Larabell <fred62@example.com> wrote:
> The problem with that is that humans, by default, seem to be hard-wired to maximize their own position in the social system -- no matter what system that might be. If you offer multiple alternatives, that will almost certainly result in people "gaming the system" to maximize their own outcome. If you were to ask a bunch of people for a top-ten list of the problems with Capitalism, the list would consist almost exclusively of instances where someone (or, more likely a class of someones) has gamed the system to their own personal advantage. The only way to avoid that is probably one-size-fits-all... but that almost certainly devolves into "one-size-fits-none". Anything else is just swapping the devil we know for the devil we don't.

It seems if some subset of the human population decides to "get rid of
captalism", that would sound great.  But it's only a matter of time
before the other subset (i.e., those still believing in capitalism)
will have something the first group needs and cheats them.  What we're
all talking about only works if everybody on the planet is in on it.
With 6 billion people on the planet with different backgrounds,
cultures, and religions all thinking independently, it's highly
unlikely that will ever happen.

Alternatively, someone needs to come up with a Star Trek-style
replicator.  :-)  If you can make everything out of anything, then the
value of everything suddenly diminishes.  "I don't need your Microsoft
Windows for 10,000 yen; I can replicate one myself with the bugs
removed".  ;-)

Ray