andyh said
The problem is that if you bring an end to demand then the business collapses and then people are out of work.
The more this happens across various business areas the more likely the entire economic system tips into collapse.
If someone is providing a better treatment for a disease, people will want that treatment, they would be willing to pay more, it’s basic free market competition.
The diseases are cured, job over, you move on to the next opportunity and compete in a new field, attempt to come up with better and/or cheaper solutions, ad infinutum, when all the worlds problems are solved people will want hoverboards ,self tying shoelaces and flying dogs etc.
**Did I read that in Jaques Frescoes manifesto???**
A free economic system cannot collapse unless the need for resources and desire for goods collapses.
The collapses we have seen in the last 100 years have been the direct result of centralisation and I would argue that the major ones have been intentional also.
andyh said
This is inevitable anyway at some point as population size grows and possible profit opportunities narrow.
There was once a time when you could point to new innovative models appearing but now we see outsourcing changing all that and thats going to happen regardless of state intervention,
As population grows wealth increases, humans create wealth.
As for outsourcing, you need to ask why? And those jobs areb’t dissappearing, they are moving, there’s no doubt that money is a factor but it’s not the reason. Who controls the monetary supply, coprorations, and state policies? ,What type of entities are outsourcing? Could they exist in a free society?
andyh said
even if there were no states or gov at all people would simply seek what is most profitable and what is most profitable is not necessarily in the best interests of humanity at large
If you think poeple would only/primarily seek profit and that this is a bad thing, what prevents that type of thing in a statist society? How is that working out?
andyh
thats the point I was trying to get across by stating that if you cure one disease, for example AIDS then all the business surrounding it is then gone. Brilliant that the disease is gone , no denying that but what would be the motive to do so from a financial perspective? The human perspective is definitely there, no arguing that and I'm all for it, however I see no gains to be made within a monetary system for that to actually happen because people need to eat and pay bills, simple as. Unless that is addressed first then you will not see the latter sorted.
From above
If someone is providing a better treatment for a disease, people will want that treatment, they would be willing to pay more, it’s basic free market competition.
The diseases are cured, job over, you move on to the next opportunity and compete in a new field, attempt to come up with better and/or cheaper solutions, ad infinutum, when all the worlds problems are solved people will want hoverboards and self tying laces etc.
andyh
For the time being AIDS is NOT cured, it is simply 'managed', many such similar situations exist within so called healthcare or perhaps deathcare as you'd prefer to call it and I wouldn't blame you either, however I blame the profit motive itself as core blame rather than any state which itself basically exists for profit motive in turn 
There really isn’t a true profit motive in healthcare because of state intervention it’s practically impossible. Yeah you can make huge amounts of money at the expense of other poeples misfortune but that’s because you’re playing to the state and not the customer. A lot is being made these days of cannabinoids as treatments for diseases, if profit motive existed in a free society people would be growing the herb in their back garden and sellling it for next to nothing, instead, today, you would be locked up for pursuing profit and delivering people cheap medicine should they want it.
andyh
I'm not sure what you mean by BC (basic credit, ie treasury bills?)
I only see co-ops as a way of addressing it all like mondragon because it puts more direct control in the hands of the public instead of state, it also reduces tax to the state because everyones self-employed and reliance on the state because they have their own infrastructure and services, it also keeps the profit within the system because they have their own shops selling goods to their own workers.
Not a perfect model by any means but a damn site better than the one we put up with now and once in such a situation people are better situated to come up with yet better models.
Sorry, I meant bitcoin or other digital currencies, even LETS or some of the time accounting software.
As I think I said before I think co-ops are a great solution once they are not enforced, I don’t see them as the best total solution BUT in a free society my opoinion would probably be proven wrong.
