I agree with this in principle, but typical solutions proposed by the right are not workable for a number of reasons: a) they are almost always revolutionary, no evolutionary. Your typical soapbox speeches by GOP start with "I will eliminate...". There is no guarantee that such drastic changes will produce better result than status quo; b) too many sacred cows - changes have to be systemic, focusing on a small part (for example PBS or some politically unpopular Department) will have hardly any net effect. If your elected officials are not speaking about cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Corporate Subsidies and Defense (all of them), then they are bullshitting you and are not serious about budget.


Still, I think log-term we will have to completely rework governance. Industrial Age is all but ended, we are now entering Information Age. Automation and early efforts into AI make more and more typical employment areas irrelevant. We are withing 5 years of eliminating Tier 1 Customer Support, we can now automate most of the manufacturing and are getting to the point where robots are cheaper than Third-World sweatshop labor. I predict that within 20 years we will need less workers than today all while maintaining or exceeding historical productivity and GDP growth. Implications of this prediction is that unemployment is here to stay, simply because society does not need that many workers. Sure, bright and educated will always be in demand but not everyone in the society is capable of it. So what going to happen when only PhDs with 120+ IQ are employable? More importantly, what kind societal pressure would all these unemployed put on the system, especially if they are abandoned by the government? I can see return of religious wars, riots, walled cities...

The only logical conclusion that many of you going to hate is that Welfare State is the future's mode of operation. As society's efficiency increases, and population increases there is ever-increasing need to maintain social contract to avoid complete breakdown.

Last edited by sinij; 10/10/12 07:31 AM.
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