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telekinetic · 11-18-2008, 01:09 PM

What about the people who manufacture and engineer the farming equipment? What about the people who drive the trucks and trains and planes to distribute the goods, and the people who build them? What about the people who process the food, and the people who build the machines that process the food? What about the power generation and distribution to power all of this utopia, both due to the electric grid and the petroleum needed to fuel the farm and transportation equipment? What about the computers to coordinate the production and distribution of this food, and the networks to support that coordination? What about the distribution centers for the food? What about the space industry needed to support the network of satellites that allows GPS to function, thus enabling super efficient automated farming? Now we need rocket scientists, too! And that is just for food! We also need to manufacture and distribute clothing and shelter, and all of the things that go along with both of those. I'd assume we still need running water, so you still need that utility company as well, and we'll need roads constructed and maintained to get the food to everyone, so we still need civil engineers and construction workers. Plus, if we're going to have vehicles driving and flying around, we need repair shops, and subassembly manufacturers (I make seatbelts!).

What you are describing is a society benefiting from extreme specialization, but without any of the neccessary industries to support that specialization. If you want to maintain the level of efficiency you seem to desire in agriculture, I think you would need to maintain a startlingly large segment of the manufacturing and engineering base.

I am not denying that we have 'unnecessary' redundancy in some areas, but I'm still not sure "Lets have a few workers specialize to feed and clothe the many" is a realistic model, from many angles. And this doesn't even begin to deal with the motivational aspect: Without money, even in your more optimistic model, how would you ensure that you had workers willing to work 12 hour backbreaking days(agriculture is not easy) to allow 97% of your population to loaf about?

11-18-2008, 01:09 PM	#9 (permalink)
telekinetic zomgomgomgomgomgomg Location: Fauxenix, Azerona	What about the people who manufacture and engineer the farming equipment? What about the people who drive the trucks and trains and planes to distribute the goods, and the people who build them? What about the people who process the food, and the people who build the machines that process the food? What about the power generation and distribution to power all of this utopia, both due to the electric grid and the petroleum needed to fuel the farm and transportation equipment? What about the computers to coordinate the production and distribution of this food, and the networks to support that coordination? What about the distribution centers for the food? What about the space industry needed to support the network of satellites that allows GPS to function, thus enabling super efficient automated farming? Now we need rocket scientists, too! And that is just for food! We also need to manufacture and distribute clothing and shelter, and all of the things that go along with both of those. I'd assume we still need running water, so you still need that utility company as well, and we'll need roads constructed and maintained to get the food to everyone, so we still need civil engineers and construction workers. Plus, if we're going to have vehicles driving and flying around, we need repair shops, and subassembly manufacturers (I make seatbelts!). What you are describing is a society benefiting from extreme specialization, but without any of the neccessary industries to support that specialization. If you want to maintain the level of efficiency you seem to desire in agriculture, I think you would need to maintain a startlingly large segment of the manufacturing and engineering base. I am not denying that we have 'unnecessary' redundancy in some areas, but I'm still not sure "Lets have a few workers specialize to feed and clothe the many" is a realistic model, from many angles. And this doesn't even begin to deal with the motivational aspect: Without money, even in your more optimistic model, how would you ensure that you had workers willing to work 12 hour backbreaking days(agriculture is not easy) to allow 97% of your population to loaf about? __________________ twisted no more Last edited by telekinetic; 11-18-2008 at 01:16 PM..