Retribution not enough

[Steve Schear]

At 02:49 PM 10/22/2001 -0400, Steve Furlong wrote:
>Harmon Seaver wrote:
>
> >        Of course you're ignoring the fact that sometimes the reason 
> that they
> > are "starving on their own retched little plots of land." is because of 
> NAFTA
> > and huge multinational corporations importing so much US factory farmed 
> corn
> > and other ag products into that country that they can't compete. We've been
> > thru this discussion before.
> >       All else being equal, there is no logical reason in the world why 
> they
> > should be "starving on their own retched little plots of land." Peasant 
> farmers
> > have been making an adequate living on "their own retched little plots of
> > land." for at least since before any recorded history, and, for that 
> matter,
> > can still do so.
> >       The average size farm in the world is only 7 acres, and if you 
> talk to
> > most of those farmers, they would much rather live and work on their little
> > subsistence farms than move into a city and work in a factory.
>...
>
>Then let them. A self-sufficient subsistence farmer won't be bothered by
>the trade his neighbors are carrying out. [1] His farm can be a
>neolithic bubble as the world progresses.
>
>If he _isn't_ self-sufficient, then he does care about the trade going
>on around him. That's been the case forever, and new trade always
>disrupts someone who was making his living with the way things were.
>
>And if he wants to make use of metal tools, then he'll have to exchange
>as best he can for them. But, again, he's not self-sufficient, unless he
>can dig and forge his own metals. Complaining that the world isn't the
>way it was for Grandpa shouldn't get a sympathetic ear from anyone who
>uses metals, plastics, or medicine, or who eats fresh produce out of
>season.

One of the great long term hopes for nanotechnology is the "cornucopia" or 
StarTrek replicator, a device which can "manufacture" from raw materials 
and information a broad variety of consumables and hard goods.  If it ever 
does come about and is not something centrally controlled and monitored a 
'la Stephenson's Diamond Age, it could usher in an age of individual 
sovereignty the likes of which the world as not known since its transition 
from hunter gatherer to agriculture.  It might also spell the end of economy.

steve