Perpetualism, the new Economic Framework

By F. Rincker

Perpetualism has been integrated in the new philosophy of Agoracentrism, community oriented autonomy for prosperity.

Not to be modest about things I hereby lauch the new name of our future economic structure. It is called 'Perpetualism' because it will be the the last theory from now until eternity (practically). It will dictate how we sustain humanity into perpetuity.

Fundamentals of Perpetualism

The theory of perpetualism is still being developed, it's basic premise is that it describes a permanent situation. Here are the core beliefs on which it builds its arguments..

1. Energy will be free and abundant. It will be 100% renewable and available at next to no cost, eventually, in perpetuity.
2. Economics as we know it will become obsolete, because it is based on scarcity
3. Full employment will no longer be a goal, the labour saved by use of technology will simply mean we have more free time.
4. All basic needs will be adressed without cost. Sustainance is guaranteed for all.
5. Competition in the market place will be driven by culturual preferences, no longer by a forced profit motive
6. Land use will be unhampered by water shortages or water transportation cost.
7. Technological and medical advances will continue, which can a risk or a blessing.

1. Energy will be free and abundant

This is an unavoidable consequence of the nature of renewable power sources. The power they generate can be used to manufacture more renewable sources, and to keep that power going we only need to do maintenance. By strategicaly prioritizing energy requirements in certain points in our industrial processes we will reduce their cost and enable more renewable energy to be realized. The transition to abundant renewable energy is the main hurldle humanity faces, but the sooner it is taken the better for our future. Making and economic argument for it ignores dropping cost as it factor increases.

Phases towards Perpetualism

Below list of sectors could be made to work on renewables simultaneously with a slight preference in order..

Centralized energy generation should be avoided to minimize delays, financial strangulation (multi billion dollar projects that go nowhere) or opportunities for artificial scarcity creation.

2. Economics will become obsolete

Economics is about mamaging scarcity of labour, materials time to manufacture etc. What drives all economic activity today is energy, used in mines, logistics, manufacturing and embedding us during consumption.As energy will becom abundant and free this completely changes the economical system, because no longer will all activities be taxed and no longer are people forced into interacting with each other. That is a unique new situation. What if your home power is provided by payed for solar panels? Then your fridge and cooking equipment will work without cost. You won't have to make the money to pay for energy, which reduces the burden on employers and allows you to consume more. This will happen troughout the manufacturing chain until goods and services are really cheap. Until people only do things because they like to. People that hope to see large profits in renwable energy are missing the point. Renewable energy will release us from economic pressure.

It may be objected that you need skilled people to do things for money (like heavy industry), but first of all this will never be done to exploit because recycling yields all the raw materials needed, and second it won;t be dome in a competitive environment. whomever is motivated to undertake a difficult misson (building a water pipeline to some remote area) will do so with people that hope to benefit. 

3. Full Employment No Longer Necessary

For some time full employment has been unnecessary, but Keynsian economics meant that people that where not needed became jobless and poor. The main reason being that banks hed the intrinsic drive to extract money from society, and the competition they stoked made everybody feel you had to compete. Competition only makes sense if there are shortages. Modern food production show there are no shortages. With abundant renewable energy there will never be a need for people to use their manual labour to survive.

4. All basic needs will be adressed without cost

If you compare the labour involved in provideing the basic needs of 1000 people you will be surprised how little is needed. A few farmers, A few home maintenance hguys, a doctor, soem car repair men, some to take care of the heating system, but it is only a few that need to work. If these people an you have the energy vailable to run the systems you have, including the Cars, TV, internet, fridge, heating etc. then how much will you charge? Why really? Economic theory has taught of not to be usefull to each other unless we get payed. That won't be necessary anymore and we already see that because people like to have neat houses and vibrant culture, that will be the reason why they do things, more than their paycheck. It is imaginable that people will still exchange goods that are luxury items, but all basic needs will be free to all. A lot of this also depends on automation in production, which is no problem if running it and maintaining it is basically free.

5. Competiton will be based on cultural preferences

Because there is no dire necessity to do things, no economic pressure to pay for energy and allow people that make the stuff we need to pay for their energy and materials, choices will no longer be based on the cheapest option. Competition will be basded on what can be made, on how much quality effort was put into it, and estectic and cultural preferences. We will not want or need products that suck, are ugly or otherwise unatractive, and the makers will not like to make them.

6. Land Use Will Be Unhampered by Water Availability or Fertilizer Cost

Dirt cheap deslaination is here, it has been developed by a company called SaltWorksTech and its simple techonology will become open source under pressure of the need for water. Using the technology and abundent free renewable energy we will eventually see that water shortages can be fixed and any area can be connected to the sea and irrigated (again using renewables). Any area disclosed (for instance in the Moroccan desert will yield immense amounts of biomass or food usable for all kinds of products. This in turn will be enough incentive to bring the infrastructure into being. Fertilier can be made using renewable energy and will therfore be equally abundant and free.

7. Technological and medical advances will continue, a blessing and a threat

Education needs to be good in order to allow anyone to reason the justification of what he or she finds in the world. This will be a social proces and people will be happy to bring others into the balanced life renewables have afforded. Young people can be taught to learn, and the learning experience can be made much more interesting because travelling will be free. It is shown that bringing people into a village like social structure and allowing them to interact freely prevents them from developing anti social behaviour which can lead to unnecessary conflict. Policing is prevented by socializing, it should be minimized and invisible. Because there can be no real damage from crime there should be no punishment, only education, socialization and treatment. Killing is a natural thing, all animals kill, so it should not be treated as more than a diseaster for the family.

Computers are rapidly becoming so energy efficient they can remain operational without any replenishment of battries for years. This means sensor networks and control can infest our planet and create a virtual prison even in environments where there is no obvious instrument of restraint. Technolgy can hide itself from people that have not learned about its existence, like a drone can spy on an aboriginal that thinks it's a bird. Quantum computing will change things so dramatically it is a question whether it can be allowed. It is better to keep people educated so classical economics is not saved by theimplementation of a prison planet.

Medically we now know how to make cells regenerate in situ in adult individuals, we will be able to make organs repair themselves. We now know how to create nanoparticles that serve as markers on cancer cells to eliminate them. We know what makes us age and die. Medical science will continue to evolve and improve our lives and help us deal with addicitons and brain damaged criminals (a large part has frontal brain damage which makes them agressive). Society must be educated so it understands what is possible.