Consumerism in the Global Village

#globaleconomy

During the Industrial Park era, economic engines ran on either capitalism or socialism.

Capitalism percolated wealth from the mass pool of consumers up to the storage vats of investors. This process worked well when there were enough cash rich consumers to keep the percolation flowing. The flow tended to dry up when the investors failed to trickle enough cash back to consumers leaving them jobless and often cash starved.

Socialism was supposed to correct the cash flow problem by attaching siphon lines to the storage vats. Whenever too much wealth accumulated in the vats, it could be siphoned out and manually sent back into consumer pockets. This worked well until the siphons began to take out more wealth than was percolating into the storage vats. The overflow of cash into consumer pockets could only be remanded by decreasing the real value of the cash in their pockets. So anything that cost one dollar yesterday required a dollar and a half today

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

After extensive analysis of the pros and cons of each economic process, Residents of the Global Village found that the consumer was the single point of failure in both capitalism and socialism. Too little cash in consumer pockets rippled into all sectors of the Industrial Park. This recession in the flow of cash forced Small Business owners to close their shops and move to more lucrative sites. Closed shops meant unemployment and decreased tax revenues. Decreased revenues led to budget cuts for schools which required furloughing teachers. Police and firemen suffered the same fate. Unless the cash flow could be increased quickly, this downward spiral decimated the quality of life beyond repair.

 

 

 

Residents also found that recessions do not end themselves. In fact, the prospect of falling into abject poverty sends fear into the hearts of capitalists. So they hold onto their wealth and cut off any trickle down cash flow.  Without the hope of increased cash flow, the consumer is left despondent and discouraged. The cash engine not only stalls, it freezes up. The only tool powerful enough to unfreeze the cash flow was Federal Taxation. Thus was born the concept of socialism, more commonly known as wealth redistribution.

Using an unbridled power to tax wealth, a whole plethora of new tax policies was put forth. Wealthy Individuals as well as Corporations were subtly, and sometimes overtly, disposed of their cash reserves. In turn, this cash was quickly distributed to consumers in the form of welfare checks, food stamps, unemployment compensation, and even grants-in-aid for schools and community services. The sole objective was to get cash into the hands of consumers as quickly as possible.

Initially, this approach met its objective. The cash engine thawed and consumers began to percolate cash back to investors. Although done with reluctance, the investors again trickled cash back into consumer pockets. All went well until both investors and consumers discovered the art of skimming off the top. This surfaced in the form of welfare cheating, overcharges, price gouging, tax evasion, and unabashed theft. The Industrial Park was plagued by this malady throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st Century.

Photo by Yasin Yusuf on Unsplash

Residents vowed to end this plague and find a new economic process to sustain the Global Village. They reasoned that if consumers were the single point of failure in both capitalism and socialism, then that is where the solution would be found. They were right.

Residents of the Global Village observed that the Industrial Park model did not build eudaemonic societies and never really could. The game of primacy practiced by residents of the Industrial Park was one that could never be won. You can either be gentle, kind, wise, and true, or you can be cruel, cunning, ruthless, and greedy. But you can’t be both.

While the Industrial Park model was constrained by moral obligation in the form of laws and regulations, this obligation was based on a bedrock of belief in a Higher Power. By simply jettisoning the Higher Power, the game of primacy could be won without regard for the constraints of law or fear of punishment in an after-life.

The bedrock of the Global Village model solves this conundrum by introducing a balancing mechanism that is not dependent on a Higher Power. Instead, it uses Big Data and Consumer Surveillance technology to maintain the balance between producers and consumers.

In the Global Village, every resident is both a consumer and a producer. One Resident needs plumbing service, another Resident provides the service. This transaction is automatically recorded by the Village Consumer Surveillance (VCS) application. The value of the plumbing activity is calculated at the time of the transaction and automatically entered. The Plumber's account receives a credit and the Recipient's account is debited.  The Plumber stops for a drink at a near-by Coffee Shop. Now he becomes the consumer and the Barista becomes the producer. Again, the transaction is automatically entered and the Barista's account is credited while the Plumber's account is debited.

Thanks to the AI capability inherent in the VCS application, neither the Plumber nor the Barista will experience an NSF event. Big Data tracks the transactions of the entire village simultaneously. The producer/consumer relationship does not depend on individual wealth or integrity. It is balanced across the wealth of the entire village. Only a catastrophic event can offset this balance. Even then, backup reserves can be deployed to restore the balance.

Every Resident of the Global Village is there by choice. However, those who exclude themselves from life in the Village have no Inalienable Rights guaranteed by a Higher Power. They must be fully self-sufficient and pose no threat to the stability of the Global Village. Should they become predatory consumers, they will be sent to reservations that are devoid of any technology.  

Using a combination of Big Data and Consumer Surveillance techniques, the GV Economy Team designed a self correcting process that created wealth and distributed it at the speed of thought. Just as a Supermarket is able to restock shelves as quickly as products are being sold, so residents of the Global Village are able to acquire any product or service on-demand. Likewise, the skills and talents of every resident are available on-demand. When a any consumer need surfaces anywhere in the Global Village, it is matched with producers and the need is met.

Humanity is being forced to seriously rethink social and economic systems in a post scarcity world. This problem no longer revolves around production because there will be enough for everyone and it will be handled by machines. Instead, the problem will reside around distribution, which could become highly political, but is a necessary growing pain of a diverse global society.

Big Data and Consumer Surveillance are used to maintain a level playing field. The concept of rich and poor does not exist. Everyone consumes and everyone produces. No one is required to produce or consume. Big Data keeps track of the inherent value of both goods and services so that every resident can participate in the exchange with full transparency.

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