community and social requisites
regarding adam’s recent blog posting, several points to be made.
the industrial revolution did not originate in oil. rather, it found its beginings in the steam engine and the rapid increase in coal use in victorian england. however, the social norms of excess relating to oil usage may likely find their origin in the victorian age.
regarding the need for a class based society, i have many thoughts, most of which are contradictory. adam gives the example of a single company that is willing to violate the best interest of the community, and suggests that downfall is assured as a result. however, this example assumes much - more than I am willing to grant. first, it assumes that this company will in fact violate the best interest of the community, yet this would require participation of the whole company (or a significant subset of it). if the workers were set against wronging the community, i imagine the company would find it hard to do wrong. further, even if the company does violate the interest of the community in the ways suggested (FUD, undercutting prices, misleading adverstising, poor products, etc.), the example still demands that the very public which is being wronged participate in the wronging. the public would need to support this company through commerce which would require at least ignorance, and likely defiance of the interests of the community.
adam later suggests that a classless/one-class society cannot exist with currency, and would require labor intensive and menial jobs to be automated. despite current societal indications supporting this view, this is not necessarily the case. the idea of salary as compensation for a job is dealt with nicely in “Justice and Economic Distribution” edited by Shaw (1991), and I would recommend reading some of its articles. the main point to be made here is that it should be possible (at least in theory) to compensate a worker for the job performed so as to put all workers on an even level. the amount of compensation would be inversely based on the benefits of the job - those professions in which one is given title, position, or in which a worker enjoys the job is compensated in ways other than money. it is the jobs which are distasteful which require higher compensation; this very principal may be seen in effect today as the reason why jobs in waste manegement are highly paid.