[extropy-chat] Seven cents an hour? (was: Riots in France)

[Jack Parkinson]

>  "spike" <spike66 at comcast.net> said:
> Subject: RE: [extropy-chat] Seven cents an hour? (was: Riots in
> France)
> To: "'ExI chat list'" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Message-ID: <200511130208.jAD28He08413 at tick.javien.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of BillK
> ...
>> Production jobs being moved overseas to low wage economies is still a
>> problem, no matter the credentials of the person pointing it out. BillK
>
> If production is done by nanotech miracle factories,
> the result is exactly the same as offshoring, is it
> not?  Yet we don't dread that at all, we fondly
> anticipate it.  We would need to come up with a
> new name for manufacturing jobs lost to nanotech.
> Downsourcing?  In-shoring?
>
> spike

There is at least a potentially big difference between NMT and off-shore 
manufacture...

The politics of the situation would determine the extent of the difference. 
By way of illustration, I would think the 'new name' you mention would 
depend a lot on the cost of nano-production to the end-user. We might call 
it 'price-gouging' if the means of production was limited to an elite few. 
We might call it 'a new era of accessible consumer goods' if the technology 
was widely available. And we might call it 'a miracle' - if it was open to 
all...

If it WAS open to all - then no-one should lose. Everyone would have access 
to whatever they wanted or needed. OK, huge corporations might curl up and 
die - but even their constituent stockholders and management would have no 
cause for complaint if their lifestyles were not threatened - and were even 
perhaps further enhanced by a manufacturing technology operable at 
individual/household level.

Jack Parkinson