Ilustration by Erik Berndt

Vivir Bien — Resources for a solidarity economy

The End of (Artificial) Scarcity

author Smári McCarthy
abstract The modern materials economy has been marked by an unwillingness to face
the subtle repercussions of the industrial revolution. In this essay I intend to
play out this future drama of mankind in three parts. First, I will set the stage by
showing that we have perhaps unknowingly built several political assumptions
into our society in such a way that we cannot see these foundations, let alone
replace them when they are sinking into the mire. Second, I will show that the
failure of these foundations is not merely inevitable, but that it has already hap-
pened. Finally I intend to try to describe a couple of methods we can use to build
new egalitarian foundations for our societies.
publication_type book_chapter
language en
website http://freebeer.fscons.org/
part_of Free Beer
available_at www.smarimccarthy.com/Dump/artificial_scarcity.pdf