Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Coming Uproar Over Physicables

If the debate over gun control is any indication of the coming fight over IP, then these will surely be interesting times. Although the government forced Defense Distributed to take down it's download of it's now popular gun, it is still alive and well in the torrentverse. If this is what will happen when 3D printers catch off, it will certainly get interesting. Consider this: as it is, people are complaining about the Chinese taking jobs, when in actuality, it is technology, and not the Chinese, that are taking jobs. The United States is not the only one suffering. Over the past ten years, China has lost 45 million jobs to automation, jobs that are never coming back. Enter 3D printing. Now think about this: if we don't need to mass produce items, and don't need a large work force to contend with, what will this do to the economy? Will we see a renaissance of the family craft work as seen prior to the Industrial Revolution? Will we see increasing regulation on 3D printers? How will workers react when 3D printers allow for small runs of things at lower prices? And think of the IP uproar corporations will raise when we can get Nike shoes for only $20, $30 dollars, instead of $70 or more. Prices will drop to almost at cost level, while at the same time unique items will still fetch a high price.

And perhaps corporations, mercantilism,  and ultimately IP will be defeated. As for implications to Agorism, instead of having inferior and simple goods, as is the case of farmer's markets, marketplaces in the same vein as farmer's markets could open up and electronic, as well as other goods, could be sold, in a similar good are sold in Asia in bazaars, and since manufacturing and self employment would surge, individuals could be self employed, and get away with the agorist lifestyle more than they can. This, along with the already collapsing revenue from the corporations and individual tax returns, will cut off funding for Leviathan, as well as the special privileges it bestows.

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