The title says it all. How would we determine demand in a Technocracy? Surveys? Some kind of price system? Just what runs out first at the distribution centers? All of the above?
The title says it all. How would we determine demand in a Technocracy? Surveys? Some kind of price system? Just what runs out first at the distribution centers? All of the above? I would have thought that if a distribution centre is starting to run low on a given commodity (the threshold being determined by various factors such as if the commodity is perishable and how much so, the local population, the size of the distribution centre and it's storage capacity etc), then they'd send the restocking order so that it gets there before the distribution centre runs out properly. But then again, I credit people with a modicum of good sense. My understanding is that in a technocratic economy, production is led by demand. Now, I've heard the argument that production would not be able to change in response fast enough. I think this misses out at least two things, however: 1) A technocratic economy is fundamentally different to a capitalist economy, with money and capital being abolished in favour of non-transferable Energy Credits which measure one's share of the productive output of society in physical terms. This means there's no investment, no venture capitalism, no commodity speculation, no stock markets, no currency exchange rates, and no more flighty, panicky markets. 2) A technocratic economy would not have growth for growth's sake, as appears to be the case under capitalism. A technocratic economy would not constantly need new markets in order to continue functioning. When technocratic economies need to grow (for example in the case of population growth), they can achieve this growth by improving or expanding the current means of production in a physically meaningful manner. Growth and development in a technocratic economy is dependent on what the population as a whole is doing, not how a select group of investors and super-capitalists spend their ill-gotten gains. Besides, it's not like runs on goods such that local markets run out is an unheard-or phenomenon under capitalism.
Thanks. That was very informative.
