[extropy-chat] economics of scarcity to economics of plenty

[BillK]

On 10/31/05, spike wrote:
> Jack, why is full employment defined as success?  Is not
> the goal to have machines do our work, freeing us to do
> whatever we please?  That is what I would call economic
> success, even if everyone does not achieve it.
>

Link this POV to the article in NYT
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/magazine/30pensions.html>
The End of Pensions
By ROGER LOWENSTEIN
Published: October 30, 2005

In 1980, about 40 percent of the jobs in the private sector offered
pensions; now only 20 percent do.

Earlier this month, Miller and Delphi gave in to the pressure and
sought protection under the bankruptcy code - the largest such filing
ever in the auto industry. It followed by a few weeks the Chapter 11
filings of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, whose pension
promises to workers exceeded the assets in their pension funds by an
estimated $16 billion.

The three filings have blown the lid off America's latest, if
long-simmering, financial debacle. It is not hedge funds or the
real-estate bubble - it is the pension system, both public and
private. And it is broken.

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So our magic machines will have to support a non-working population.
How? Everybody on Social Security?

BillK