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I think they have to be considered with respect to people's relative purchasing power. Ensure that if the velocity of money goes down that people's relative pu

I think they have to be considered with respect to people's relative purchasing power. Ensure that if the velocity of money goes down that people's relative purchasing power remains equivalent. In other words, if making things more durable results in people working fewer hours, then we need to know whether that results in negative income repercussions for workers. A rudimentary example: 1x disposable widget took .5hrs to mfg. market price =$10 and lasts 1yr. CO = $10/yr 1x durable widget takes .6 hrs to mfg. market price =$50 and lasts 10 yrs. CO = $5/yr And you extrapolate that... So, yes, your costs go down over time, but so do your wages, so the deflation has to be measured so that earnings don't go down quicker than cost of living/cost of goods and services. Commensurate.

Silhouette 9y ago
But this is make-work. It's a polite fiction, designed to support an economic framework that is looking less relevant as technology and automation play an increasing role in our industry. Our current economic system may even become obsolete within our lifetimes, hence the recent interest in alternative models like universal basic incomes. In terms of real productivity, a durable widget that has a 20% overhead to manufacture but lasts 10x as long is far more useful, and in terms of quality of life, people needing to spend fewer hours of their lives doing mundane work is a desirable goal in itself. In the long term, it seems likely that either people will find new ways to make a living, just as they did on countless past occasions when technology rendered a particular vocation obsolete, or we will move towards a different economic arrangement where people don't have to work full-time to earn a decent living, or quite possibly we will see some sort of hybrid with aspects of both newer types of work and reduced working hours.

Silhouette 9y ago

But this is make-work. It's a polite fiction, designed to support an economic framework that is looking less relevant as technology and automation play an increasing role in our industry. Our current economic system may even become obsolete within our lifetimes, hence the recent interest in alternative models like universal basic incomes. In terms of real productivity, a durable widget that has a 20% overhead to manufacture but lasts 10x as long is far more useful, and in terms of quality of life, people needing to spend fewer hours of their lives doing mundane work is a desirable goal in itself. In the long term, it seems likely that either people will find new ways to make a living, just as they did on countless past occasions when technology rendered a particular vocation obsolete, or we will move towards a different economic arrangement where people don't have to work full-time to earn a decent living, or quite possibly we will see some sort of hybrid with aspects of both newer types of work and reduced working hours.