Category Archives: GDP.

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S IT IS TIME TO RETHINK OUR MEASUREMENT OF ECONOMIC GROWTH.

27 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by in 2018: The Year of Disconnection., Capitalism, Fourth Industrial Revolution., GDP., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The common good., The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., Wealth., What Needs to change in the World

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

 

 

( A three-minute read)

Right now one of the reasons our economies have to grow is because of debt.

The global economic system runs on money that is itself debt.

GDP (gross domestic product) has outlived its usefulness as a metric of economic size and is it stoking social and environmental crisis by encouraging growth at any cost.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "picture of gdp per capita"

The kind of statistics we’ve used in the past just isn’t working anymore.

With the planet warming and some resources already exploited to near-exhaustion, including many fisheries, with technology removing trade agreements, (as companies and customers increasingly transact their lives in the cloud not to mention blockchains) we need something that accounts for such factors.

GDP can no longer measure the distribution of wealth within a country.

Even where there is growth, disenchantment with how it is shared out can be seen vividly in Brexit-bound Britain. Notably, So, while its total value can go up, gains are all too often skewed to top earners. Those lower down the ladder can fall further behind in relative terms.

It does not encompass the black market, omitting a huge source of activity and income in many developing countries, including in Africa and Latin America.

We’ve got to find another mechanism to include much bigger parts of the population, and use different metrics to measure the success of a country.

So, what are the alternatives to GDP?

The WEF this week proposed a broader measure of growth called.

The Inclusive Development Index (IDI) is an annual assessment of 103 countries’ economic performance that measures how countries perform on eleven dimensions of economic progress in addition to GDP. It has 3 pillars; growth and development; inclusion and; intergenerational equity – sustainable stewardship of natural and financial resources.

However for this to truly work countries would need to be liberated from the pressures to exploit their citizens in the hunt for income to repay debts and we would need to remove the creation of debt- based money.

Another word we would have to cancel the debt of sovereign nations and move the creation of money away from the state.

Of course in a capitalist world, this is unrealistic.

China alone owns– $1.168 trillion as of January 2018 of U.S. debt.

However, the European Union which is in need of reform could do a lot to liberate its members from the tyranny of growth.

Some creative long-term thinking is needed.

It could actively downgrade consumption, by banning advertising on mobile phones, I pads and Public place, all of which use manipulation of emotions.

It could write off a reasonable chunk of the Greek debt by spread it among its members in return for solar power.

It could turn the euro into real money by insisting that all banks in the European Union hold at least 50% reserves against money lent. 90% of the money circulating in our economies is created out of thin air.  Banks lend it into existence.

It could create a basic minimum income by taxing all profit-seeking Algorithms.

It could tax plastic and sugar.

It could stop the farcical traveling circus which sees the European Parliament move between Brussels and Strasbourg every month.

It could set an example for the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, we are all to busy with I am alright Jack isolation syndrome – its grow or collapse.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisements

THE BEADY ASK’S: IS IT TIME TO REMOVE THE IMMUNITY OF PROFIT SEEKING ALGORITHMS,THE WORLD BANK AND THE IMF.

01 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Fourth Industrial Revolution., GDP., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Our Common Values., Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., War., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

 

( A seven-minute read)

We all know that Social Media as it is called is having an effect on many if not all aspects of society both for good and bad.

TECHNOLOGY is now described as the third Industrial Revolution, with profit-seeking algorithms being the mercenary soldiers of the platforms on which Social media relies that are not only going to cause an algorithm war that will continue to unstabilize the world we live in.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "picture cyberwar"

An algorithm war will be the great oxymoron of our time.

Why will they cause a war? A digitally controlled systems war.

Because of originality.

At the moment it is vital that natural substances and public knowledge remain in the public domain so that we all have equal access to the collective humanity’s intelligence. Soon, however, we will not know who owns what, seed patenting, plants, medicines, and genetic materials, data, you name it and some algorithm will be controlling it.  The more a nation or group of people is dependent upon digital systems, the more vulnerable they will become.

If we are to have a planet where companies can roam the planet in search of ever cheaper means of making a profit with these algorithms we must demand a global minimum wage.

Algorithms are already addictive. Promoted by multinational corporations that are avoiding taxes by their home countries.

The most effective way to take back control is to establish a Cloud Strongroom where all software programmes, are registered to their origins and a copy of the original program is held for future reference, transparency, available to all.

There is no doubt about the impact of AI. What will be automated next?

AI is only one fish in a vast ocean of technological progress.

” You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” Jobs.

Scientific data is piling up around us telling us that we are currently destroying what is left of the earth  >  deforestation, warming and acidification of oceans, CO2 emissions, melting ice caps, species extinction 100 to 1000 times faster than before the last Industrial Revolution, overfishing, soil degradation, over-exploitation of the earth ecosystem, running out of oil,  pollution of drinking water, breathable air etc.

The list is endless combining to what we call human progress – GDP.

When in reality what is need is to decouple GDP from material throughput.

Consumption in rich countries is outpacing CDP growth. Perhaps if we placed a moratorium on Advertising for a few years we might reduce consumption and release us from the tyranny of growth at any cost.

If we peel back the false promises of technology the problems we have are much deeper causes, to tackle such as inequality, and consumption that is putting our plant at risk. Not to mention technology replacing many jobs creating a crisis of unemployment.

It’s time before the technology of profit-seeking algorithms plunders what is left of the world resources that we redistribute on merit bases that reflect the population of a country and their development needs the voting power within the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO.

If you look at the World Bank and the IMF you will see that most of the countries representatives in both institutions are finance ministers, or central bank governors while the WTO has trade ministers neither of which have people or the environment as their mantra.

This needs to be done as

Our major world institutions are long overdue in need of reform.

In order to create a fairer global economy is it not the time to democratize the major global institution’s and remove the veto powers.

Right now votes are apportioned to each country according to the financial shares in the institutions with the rich countries claiming over 60%.

The World Trade Organisation is technically democratic with one vote for each member state, but in reality, it is the countries with the biggest markets that pull the punches.

The poorer countries are don’t have the negotiating prowess or the funds to make their voices heard.

Instead of a few powerful countries setting the agendas and predetermining decisions in what is called the green room a large dose of transparency is required allowing the media to access whether the rules and penalties stand up to the common sense notion of fairness.

Perhaps we can get social media to evolve to where it is the people of countries that elect who represents them in these Institutions.

If we don’t bring our institution into the technological age there is little likelihood that the next wave of general learning algorithms (that will be able to solve problems with us specifying how) will place power in our hands but rather in the hands of a few companies and as we have witnessed recently power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

When men run out of words they reach for their swords, not their mobile phones.

One way or the other Algrothims are going to change human history.

All human comments appreciated. All like click chucked in the bin.

 

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: WE NEED A NEW WAY OF MEASURING GROWTH.

30 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in 2018: The Year of Disconnection., Algorithms., Capitalism, Fourth Industrial Revolution., GDP., Happiness., Humanity., Our Common Values., Poverty, Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., Wealth., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Aid., World Organisations.

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

( A Four minute Happy New Year read)

As David Attenborough once said.

” Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth on a finite planet is either a madman or an economist” I would add technology in the form of profit seeking Algorithms.

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of GDP"

Infinite growth might have seemed possible when Captain Cook was around, unfortunately it no longer holds.

However we are all still lead to believe that GDP marks human progress.

Our world is rapidly changing.  Markedly defined by the Internet.

We are now standing on the threshold of divorce between Money and State with natural systems under enormous pressure which I am sure I don’t have to high light here.

With the planet groaning, ever trade deal is a new frontier of accumulation a form of World GDP exploitation that was and still is promoted by the help of the World Bank, and the IMF.

We are now at a stage where GDP growth is beginning to create more poverty, and inequality than it eliminates.

Unfortunately the resources of the world have been exploited both for debt and profit rather than sustainability, and as long as GDP growth remains the main objective of Globalization we will see more and more countries going into irreversible debt, and war over freshwater, air, and energy.

These profound changes are emboldened by the evident failures on both levels of political control: Technological Regulations/ Laws and the growing power of monopoly platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, the Cloud etc.

Don’t worry say’s technology we can decouple sustainability and material throughput.

A beguiling vision of a future lightweight economy.

Facebook and the Cloud are gathering an unprecedented amount of power and allowing their business practices to be a disruptive force for democracy.

All pointers signaling the widespread decay of the economic and political frameworks in which our institutions operate.

With profit seeking algorithms rich countries are in fact increasing consumption, still producing stuff and by 2030 it will be in the 100 billion tons.

There is also a growing belief as we convert to renewable energies and begin to use negative – emissions technologies that we can change the damage to the climate.

However if we continue to ignore that energy use is only part of the problem.

It is what we are doing with it is the problem.

Polluting our sea, chopping down our forests, producing cement, creating land fills with waste, eroding our land, all contributing more and more greenhouse gases. Switching to clean energy will do nothing to slow this down.

The problem is much deeper than we are willing to admit. 

We need a new consciousness for a different world.

Our crucial first step would be to get rid of GDP as a measure of economic growth/progress and well-being.

We need to have an open discussion about what we really value.

We are all aware of the individual problems, but the main problem remains the same – Inequality due to the distribution and exploitation of the world’s wealth.

Any rich country that has food banks, people sleeping on the street, is for me a failed state.

I have written many a post with a solution that to date has fallen on deaf ears.

it is my conviction that at this point and time its impossible to correct the imbalances of Capitalism. We can only ensure that Capitalism pays for the damage by introducing a World Aid Commission.

0.05%

On all High Frequency trading, on all Sovereign Wealth Fund Accusations,on all Foreign exchange transactions over $50,000, on all Social Media platforms postings, on all Bitcoin’s, and other digital currency transactions.

This fund would be a perpetual source of money.

It could replace the begging Organisations.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of world aid funds"Re Establish the United Nations an effective world organisation that could address and react to world needs, where ever, when ever.

It could be managed under the UN umbrella, provided it was totally independent/ transparent of any lobbing and political veto interference.

Its funds could be granted with no repayments requirements.

It would change the world for the better, by spreading its wealth where it is needed most.

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of world aid funds "

Of course the problem remains as to how we get our Capitalist Master to implement such a course of action.

Perhaps Bitcoin’s ability to promote the divorce between Money and State, might be a place to start. 

All suggestions appreciated.

All human comments appreciated. All Like clicks chucked in the bin.

 

THE BEADY EYE LOOKS AT THE TYRANNY OF GROWTH.

02 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in Algorithms., G7., GDP., Happiness., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The Future, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations.

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

 

( A Twenty minute read)

They say we have free will, but there are many types of tyrannies in our world.

You could describe our hand-held devices which are keeping us connected to anything, anytime, anywhere as one. 

We now use our hand-held devices for almost everything. More importantly, they use us for everything.

The extreme availability of information has not led to a more enlightened population, but to more confusion.

Connectivity is both a blessing and a curse.

It has become the pathway for almost all we do as we have become helpless without technology and the need for immediate data at our fingertips. But this is taking its toll.

The number of times we look at our phones daily would shock you: some studies say 50 times, others as many as 75 to 150 times. Most of our e mails are reactionary.Tyranny of the Should

Information technology is all-pervasive in production and consumption.

Each time we look at the phone, we look away from what we should be or were focused on. Our collective ability to stay focused on anything is destroyed.

How does this connect to Growth.

It is too simplistic to attribute all of our economic problems to government: indeed, that sort of reasoning is counterproductive: it absolves everyone else responsibility.

Although part of the responsibility lies with forces that are outside a government, a significant share rests with the attitudes, preoccupations, we have to Artificial Intelligence that is now analyzing our every movement to the extent that advertising is becoming personalized.

I’m not saying that growth is bad but growth that destroys value just for profit is cancer that is driving inequality with a tendency to cluster around the short-term, issues while ignoring reality is going to bite us all.

I want to begin by touching on a crucial economy-wide factor
in the erosion of our economic strength which fosters short-term
thinking.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of social media advertising"

Advertising:

 It is a major driver of unnecessary consumption.

This hasn’t always been the problem. Advertising use to inform you of the useful qualities of an object. Now it manipulates your emotions like anxiety and promises to improve social acceptance or class distinction.

It is now with a frenzy of social media advertising attaching its self to saving the world  that is driving consumption to new dizzying heights.

Growth for growth’s sake, is an ugly word with even uglier connotations when it is using social media in the form of algorithms FOR PROFIT, regardless of the cost.

So what is driving it:

In the information age, time is compressed and events are squeezed into ever-decreasing periods.

We have governments encouraging a restless, fleeting mode of being, and a superficial, hurried culture, which is inimical to fundamental values.

They encourage growth programs, the benefits of which are available   immediately, but the costs of which appear only at a later stage. They are less interested in public investments that have to be financed now but do not payoff adequately before the next election.

It’s as if human progress depends on economic progress.

At minimum, the kind of short-term oriented cycle in which we find ourselves behaves as though tomorrow is forever. And, in fact, a series of tomorrows will create a forever — a very predictable one — and not a very desirable or promising one.

Rewards which are heavily focused on short-term results, even if they make some financial sense, often do not deliver the economic promise or the synergy which is anticipated.

Perhaps it is true that the landmarks in human progress — in the arts, science, government, or elsewhere — have rarely been reached in societies in which the economy was unable to free most of its members from a daily obsession with subsistence needs.

On the contrary, wherever the economy is feeble or stagnant for
a prolonged period, where most people see their basic material
needs as unfulfilled and the prospects for improvement as
unlikely, the result is almost invariably either a dull fatalism
or political upheaval, neither of which is likely to be favorable
to liberty and freedom.

However we are now looking at a unremitting focus on economic growth. The drive to achieve growth at practically any cost and to the exclusion of all other measures of prosperity.

This focus on GDP growth as the prime measure of economic success is out of date. It’s not how big it is that counts, it’s what you do with it.

The distance to the future – is no longer the next election, it will be how much you are willing to pay the Cloud for information. The cumulative effects of almost five decades of constantly accelerating reliance on government regulation to address social inequities and problems is coming to an end.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of social media advertising"

The linkage between ownership and participation is changing.

Social Media is not just eroding the meaning of democracy but effecting our critical thinking skills. Polluted with consumption advertising it is adding to global inequality.

While there are hundreds of different marketing strategies, only one can bring in consistent sales from day one. Social media advertising. This is why global social ad spending doubled from $16 billion in 2014 to $31 billion in 2016 and is projected to increase another 26% in 2017.

One of the fascinating things about social advertising is that there is virtually no limit to your ability to scale.You don’t have to wait for someone to search for your targeted keywords. You don’t have to wait for someone to run your promotion or read your blog.

( For Instance:

With more than 2 billion monthly users, Facebook hosts over a quarter of the world’s population, providing advertisers with an unparalleled opportunity to reach virtually anyone and everyone. It provides free lead magnet like:

  • Whitepapers
  • Ebooks
  • Product coupons
  • Sitewide discounts
  • Limited-time offers
  • Giveaways
  • Free shipping

These leads can then be nurtured with a targeted autoresponder. Offering free products, download-ables and predictable discounts and coupons for her audience. Doing so has earned Facebook more than $1,000,000 in annual sales in just 2 years. Facebook allows more advanced targeting than any other advertising platform on earth. Advertisers can target by location (within a 5-mile radius), job description, interests, past activity, and many other incredibly valuable criteria.

Instagram now boasts more than 500 million monthly active users and commands one of the highest audience engagement rates in social media, 58% higher than Facebook and 2000% higher than Twitter.

Twitter with 328 million monthly active users, it remains one of the most popular social media platforms. Brands don’t need to pay in order to reach their followers, which enhances the platform’s value even when running paid ads.

Pinterest: With 175 million monthly users is highly targeted toward women with an 81% female user base.

LinkedIn : Where you tend to find the highest average disposable income, has an estimated 227 million monthly active users.

Snapchat Advertising:    310 million users.   

All Social advertising is incredibly measurable.)

(You can, in fact, control when you choose to look at your hand-held device.)

In light of this one easy solution to over-consumption would be to ban advertising- at least in pubic places and on Social Media where Profit seeking Algorithms are used.

Much of’ the crippling of our economic systems can find its roots in Algorithms for profit. (see previous posts)

The consequences of elected government’s short-range perspective are not difficult to understand. They are seen as having succeeded in undermining the economy through overbearing regulation, tolerance of inflation, indifference to the cost of environmental and social programs, and a pervasive anti-business attitude.

Government thus diminishes the private sector’s sense of responsibility —
both in economic and ethical terms — for its own conduct and for its own performance.

While I appreciate that degrowth will not happen as quickly as we need it to do and it will take generations to move our collective consciousness on most issue, we don’t have that kind of time any longer.

Technology that ostensibly should help people save time, has instead led to a situation where time is scarcer than ever.

When an exponential growth curve becomes vertical, time has ceased to exist as duration.”life stands still at a tremendous speed”, with serious consequences for culture, intellectual life and the very fabric of society.

What we do not know today is what it will take to send us to
the pumps.

The struggle now concerns the right to be unavailable, the right to live and think more slowly.

Choosing to live according to one’s own self-made conception of reality, human nature, and happiness is a recipe for tyranny.

It is about time that we ask what wireless communications and the Internet are preconditions for. They are problems need to be understood well, in order to be dealt with the political upheaval that is around the corner.

Relying on averages generate by computers is worsening inequality

within countries, and the world as a whole.

So is there anything that can be done legitimately that will have a positive effect.

Becoming more grounded in ones own true feelings and perceptions is a primary indication that one has begun to free himself from the “tyranny of the should.”

Assuring that investment in future profitability is not sacrificed on
the altar of quarterly earnings growth. Refocusing our approach to economic decision-making, to benefit all not the few.

Willingness to pay the price today for the health and vitality of the country tomorrow is the ultimate test of stewardship. To live with a view to the regime should not be supposed to be slavery, but preservation.

Finally, it is as we all know easy to point the finger, however we are the will in any form or symbol and we are identifiable as water.  

However if we are to address any of our world problems and stop the self-perpetuating downward cycle, with all the suction of a whirlpool, from which there will be no escape we cannot and should not rely on technology to bail us out.

There is only one solution. Make Greed pay a World Aid commission of 0.05% ( See previous post)

Technology, if it has not yet become the de fac~o

decision- — . . . maker in the production process, has

certainly become a participant who cannot be

ignored.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.
 

 https://youtu.be/cV_D2hC50Kk