America is Losing the War with Itself

The economy is not improving. People are getting used to expect less and in response they are reducing their budgets. That is the poor, the middle class and the rich; the super-rich are making more money than ever and they are accumulating even more wealth. The super-rich are in a frenzy of buying cheap companies and other assets. It is estimated that the super-rich, which are only 2% of the population of the U.S., are already close to owning 50% of the wealth of the U.S.; up from 10% in 1980.

And still the super-rich want to pay less taxes, even though they normally pay a lot less (percentage wise) than a janitor. Not only that, but they are not investing in America, they are investing in “bubbles” that produce them a lot of money while they last and then give them access to cheap properties when they “burst”.

Because the super-rich are getting richer by sacking America, they do not care about America, its people or the future of America. If you do not believe this, then try to explain why the tallest buildings are not built here anymore, why the newest factories are not here, and why 75% of the population of America is poorer than it was in 1980. It is because the super-rich and the elected government officials that are paid off by these super-rich, so that they can get elected, do not care about America, they care only about themselves. As Warren Buffet said a few weeks ago: “there is class war, and we are winning it”; this ”class war”, through which the rich are making the rest of us poorer, is destroying the American economy.

The other reason why America is in such a bad shape is the war mentality that has been imposed upon their citizens, there is a war in Afghanistan, in Iraq, the war on drugs, the border wars and maybe, if Israel lobbyists have their way, a war with Iran. These wars have had a cost to the U.S. of many trillions of dollars, many deaths and many more enemies. But much worse than that is the fear and hate that these wars, along with the propaganda used to justify them, has produced in the people of America. Now politicians are trying to get elected by bashing China, “illegals” and Muslims.

In essence, America is losing its wars! And because all these wars were started within, then America is losing the war with itself.

Afghanistan or Iraq did not declare a war against America, those that allegedly took part in the 9/11 terrorist actions were mostly from Saudi Arabia. It is believed that they had support and were trained in Afghanistan; but so were the Contras trained by the U.S., as were many groups used by the CIA to bring down governments in many parts of the world, and yet the U.S. has not been invaded due to these actions, and it is obvious that nobody would consider that as a good excuse for an invasion of the U.S.

The war on drugs is in reality a war on the freedom of choice of Americans. If an American wants to get drunk or smoke a cigarette it is Ok, but if he wants to smoke pot then it is a crime. This war is another Prohibition and its moral justification is very weak. Still, this war is lost and has been lost for many years, yet the government stubbornly keeps on with it.

The war on the “illegals” reflects the lack of a realistic immigration law and border protection; also it is a way of ensuring low cost labor with which the American “legals” have upgraded their lifestyle. But it is also an internal American issue and it is a lost war considering that there are already at least 12 million in the country (how do you count illegals?).

The hate of Muslims is another manifestation of the way that the propaganda used to justify the other “real wars”, with some help from Israel, has distorted the American tradition of freedom of religion; even though it has been heavily supported by the racists that still exist in this country. This is also a “lost” war, because the only way of wining it is by reviving lynching; which last time I checked was still illegal.

The founding fathers were aware that the most likely way their dream of the United States of America could be destroyed would be from within. America is being destroyed from within! Something must be done and fast to avoid it.

Economic Recovery until 2030?

There are Bad Omens

The 21^st Century, as we all know, has started with very bad omens. In the year 2000, Neo-Cons took over the government of the only superpower left after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR.

Then came 9/11 that most of the world condemned and in the U.S. created a sense of patriotism; in an appalling turn of events President George W. Bush and his group managed to use the tragedy to infuse fear and create a panic situation that sent human rights and progress back half a century. They not only used 9/11 to disregard the Constitution of the United States of America, the United Nations and the Geneva Convention; they managed to present their immediate response to 9/11 and the actions that came after as their greatest triumph. Moreover, to make things worse, Bush’s administration messed up the wars it started and everything it came into contact with.

With two wars raging, the Palestinian occupation by Israel still a protracted problem, that some say created, but that at least stimulated the Islamic kind of terrorism, and the worst economy in half a century; President Obama took office in 2009. He has good ideas and better intentions, but the corruption in Washington is widespread and the Republican Party has proven to be a highly motivated enemy of progress. They are opposed to basic research on principles that it goes against their religious beliefs; and, 3 of the 10 Republican candidates for president in the last election raised their hand asserting that they did not “believe” in Darwin’s theory of evolution! Is it blatant ignorance or just plain political hypocrisy?

The world is facing a financial crisis that seems to be pointing to a crisis of capitalism. Capitalism was created to deal with the need for capital by the Industrial Revolution, to start and expand industrial plants in order to produce goods, now it has overextended its reach by allowing the banking and investing system to create money. One thing is to raise capital to produce and sell goods; but using capitalism to create capital without the production of anything seems to be very wrong. It is like making a loan without backing it with assets or like a government printing out excess money.

To make matters worse, since the Reagan years, when “trickle-down-economics” was introduced, there has been little “trickle-down” and a lot of “let’s trickle-up to the wealthy” making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Wages have not grown in real terms and the only salaries that have grown, a lot, are those of the CEOs and top managers.

When a few years ago the bankers started giving away money in the form of easy to get refinance mortgages, driven most probably by their motivation to get good quarterly numbers and so get huge bonuses, people were happy to get money to spend and forgot about the downward salary trend. The resources of families are now being hit hard and the economy in general is going to most probably be stagnant in terms of real growth on “Main Street”.

Salaries and wages will stay down for a while keeping the economy flat because there will be no more easy mortgages to compensate. This situation must be changed; but with a flat economy and the money in the hands of the “let’s not trickle-down” gang there is little hope. Maybe, after a while, they will realize that to really make a lot of money goods must be sold and paid for; capitalism needs consumers!

The fast development of cybernetic solutions is going to create other obstacles for a recovery of wages, especially low wages. As soon as these robotic solutions get to the level where it is cost effective to substitute humans with semi-intelligent machines in simple jobs, it will be done. Millions of jobs fall into categories that could be at risk of being lost. In the past new types of jobs have been created when a given category is replaced by machines. However, now there is a different type of machine that replaces intellectual labor as well as the physical type.

Times up to 2030 will be interesting. New technologies that are spurring a plausible wide-ranging paradigm shift will be in the stage of adolescence with all the aches associated with it. Social change will not be well defined and it will be sporadic, if at all. In addition, the economy, especially when dealing with banks, will continue to be beyond any doubt global; if left on its own, short-term profit and further domination by the wealthy is all we can hope for.

Why be Optimistic

Doomsayers say that only a cataclysmic population reduction would make a difference in getting rid of climate change and preventing water scarcity or land shortages over the next decades. There are almost 7 billion of us now and we expect more. To reduce the impact of these problems in the short term there will be a need for miraculous improvements in technology and changes in lifestyle.

Technological and engineering miracles can happen when three factors are present: readily available technology, money to support that technology, and energy to run it. Political and social will must also be present, but money regularly buys that too.

The world needs techno miracles. It has always needed them and sometimes they do happen. Nobody will deny that the industrial, communications and transport systems that exist today are a miracle and that they do work. You use your cell phone to call a Blackberry or a land phone without even thinking about it, take a plane to a place 10,000 miles away, and drive a car or a truck or store food in your fridge. All these use energy but we do not think too much about it. We have reason to believe that techno miracles will be even more plentiful in the future. There are reasons to be optimistic.

Capitalism, in its pure form at least, also works on a foundation of optimism. Imagine, would you invest your fortune in any capitalistic undertaking if you knew for sure that the end of the world was close? On the other hand, would anybody be concerned about the stock markets if they believed that the markets were doomed anyway? No, we humans are made to be optimistic about the future, otherwise we would not have children or go to work or buy goods. Not only humans; life is optimistic!

Considering that we are born optimists and that the world, its technology, humanity and life will continue to thrive during this 21^st Century let us put things in perspective and try to make the best of the world and our future lives as we humans have always done. It could be close to or after 2030, but conditions will improve dramatically!

Excerpt from “The History of the 21st Century: the best that civilization has ever seen” by Humberto Contreras –  for sale at amazon.com and lulu.com.

Legalizing Drugs: the manual

The case for drug legalization is supported by several facts:

1.  Some drugs are illegal and as such growing, transporting, selling and using them are criminal acts. Drugs are illegal, but are still widely available. Under these conditions, the illegality of drugs creates criminals; many criminals.

2.  Other mind-altering drugs are legal. Alcohol, tobacco and inhalants (household or industrial chemicals) are readily available. And then there are pharmaceuticals that are available either over-the-counter or through a prescription. And many of these legal drugs are known to have effects as serious as from those that are illegal.

3.  The business of illegal drugs does not pay taxes; except for the bribes that many public servants receive.

The reasons for keeping drugs illegal are not necessarily associated with public good; some of them are:

1.  Politicians get elected by playing on the fear that everybody’s child or relative will become addicted to drugs as soon as they are legal. This was not the case when prohibition was repelled and in most cases where individuals abuse alcohol there seems to be an associated use of illegal drugs.

2.  Moralists like to dictate other people’s lives and this is a big opportunity.

3.  Politicians, public servants and police get extended powers and appropriate big chunks of money to fight the war on drugs; thereby increasing their dominance over their subjects.

4.  Drug dealers do not want to lose their lucrative business; so they pay, or at least encourage, politicians and morality groups to keep the status-quo.

It seems that drugs are kept illegal for all the wrong reasons and it is inevitable that drugs will be legal someday. The question is not if they are going to be legal, but when.

However, lifting the prohibition on drugs is not an easy task; there is a system that cultivates, transports and distributes drugs that has been in place over the many years that this prohibition has been in effect, and there are many players involved. It is also quite global in its scope.

It will not be enough to just make it legal to possess small amounts of drug or to open marijuana cafes, to change the drug business there have to be several simultaneous events:

1.  Make drug cultivation, import, export, transport, sale and consumption legal; any drug.

2.  Regulate and tax the drug business; from beginning to end. Put these regulatory powers in the hands of credibly non-corrupt officials.

3.  Make sure prices are not as high as when drugs were illegal; the point is that the drug cartels will not be able to compete against this new system of legal drugs.

4.  Define exactly which crimes are drug related and which are not. Stop police action against drug related crimes.

5.  Establish an amnesty board to discharge criminals convicted of drug related crimes; modify the sentences of those that also committed other crimes to reflect this amnesty. Extend the amnesty to cartel members.

6.  Disengage drug cartels from the drug business.

7.  Regulate the cultivation of drug crops to make sure the crops are taxed and accounted for.

8.  Establish import and export tariffs, transportation rules and depositories for drugs to make the distribution safe and efficient.

9.  Promote the establishment of modern factories to process and package drugs.

10. License drug sales following the tobacco, liquor store and bar laws. Make sure minors are not allowed to use drugs.

11. Educate the public about the dangers and risks of drug consumption. Be truthful.

12. Deal with drug, and alcohol and tobacco addictions as a medical problem. Fund research to find better treatment options.

It will not be easy, but in five years nobody will even remember that drugs were illegal and the cause of so much suffering. Those that enjoy drugs will do so without remorse and those that abuse them will suffer due to their bad choices; as has always been the case.

Police will have the time to fight against real crime and not against “victimless criminals”. Politicians and moralists will find a new “cause”.

Jobs are not Coming Back

The news tell us every day that:

1.  We are losing jobs – we are losing when the number of new jobs isn’t enough to replace those lost in the past years plus those for young people needing a first job.

2.  Businesses profits and productivity are growing – thanks to laws beneficial to the rich and technical progress.

When you put both of these trends together there is an inevitable conclusion: There is no way that there are going to be jobs for everybody in the future; or at least for the 95% that are considered to be employable – 5% is the “right” unemployment number according to capitalism.

Technology has brought innumerable ways to improve productivity. Not too far away, in 1870, 70 to 80% of the population of the US was directly employed in agriculture. That number is now between 2 and 3%. And the US produces hundreds times more food that in the 1870s. The same is happening with all goods; just 10 years ago, the auto industry employed double the workers and yet they produce basically the same number of cars.

There is a finite amount of goods that can be consumed by the population of this country and even of the whole world. With today’s installed industrial capabilities it is easy to produce twice the autos or 20% more food with very little effort; and most probably with very little increase in the work force. Just buy more assembly-line robots and farming machinery. 

It is easy to imagine an economy that produces ten times what we produce today, but where will the consumers come from? The problem is that with the lack of well paid jobs and the increasing disparities in wealth and income distribution there are and will continue to be fewer consumers.

And the rich do not buy in the quantities and variety that middle class consumers do. No matter how rich a person it can only eat so much, use one car or yacht at a time and in general there is no comparison between the consumption of one multi-billionaire family and one hundred thousand middle class families earning $70,000 dollars a year.

The answer is not simple. All over the world, we’re witnessing a growing gap between production and consumption, while the environment and the life-style of many families keeps on degrading.

This can’t go on for too long. Workers who will continue losing their jobs won’t allow it.

What happened to the American Dream?

The American Dream ideal used to be the feeling that citizens of every rank can achieve a “better, richer, and happier life” as was first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931.

This idea is a corollary to the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence: “all men are created equal” and they are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Having a well paid job along with owning your own home and a car has been the measure of this promised prosperity.

However, in the program “The Kudlow Report” of June 7, 2010 this idea of an egalitarian American Dream was redefined to be the right of business and its owners to pay less taxes that the rest of us. According to Kudlow, and his cronies, the American Dream is now the exclusive and inalienable right of the rich; if you are rich then you are worthy of the American Dream, if you are not wealthy you should either try to be rich, difficult in these times, or just help the rich get richer.

Sorry Kudlow, but if you are rich in Somalia, France or Mexico then you have already achieved the “American Dream.” The difference used to be that here in America you did not had to be wealthy to achieve this dream.

They do not want to give away new jobs – they just have to make their existing employees work harder and longer hours – or if they give you one you are paid less. They foreclose your home, and then you will never qualify for a mortgage. These very rich are the same ones that provoke financial crisis because they know that at the end of the day they will make money out of it.

And it is the obligation of President Obama to give more privileges to the rich; otherwise he is punished by being called names, such as “socialist,” “communist” or “a failed leader.”

It is quite obvious that the very rich and their lackeys have decided that the United States of America belongs to them and that the rest of us are here only to serve them and satisfy their wishes. No more American Dream for the masses; that could only mean less money for the rich!

Capitalism is Intrinsicaly Flawed

Along its two-hundred years of history, capitalism, which started as monopolism, has been quite successful in achieving increasing standards of living in most of the countries where it has been put into operation. However, as all economic systems it has shown serious deficiencies:

• Reliance on free markets, that ultimately rely on rational and objective investors.
• Repeated cycles of “boom-bust”.
• Regulations are usually made and enforced by politicians backed by the same people that benefit from them.
• Even more worrying, is the relentless accumulation of capital in the hands of very few extremely rich people and corporations.

It has been pointed out, and proven by many behavioral economists, that investors are not: “automatons capable of objective reasoning that can correctly take into account inflation and that make their decisions based on pure financial self-interest”; as required by free markets theories. They are instead human beings that feel sadder about losing $10,000 than happier about winning the same amount. They do not always follow logic, most of the time emotions drive their actions towards overconfidence during the boom and, very fast, to panic during the bust. There is no such thing as efficient markets because investors are not, in any way, efficient. They succumb to several human biases:

• They react with overconfidence to information that agrees with their viewpoints.
• Investors overvalue the most recent information disregarding contradictory existing news that is not so recent.
• They ignore signs that point to an impending crisis.

This quite human behavior makes it impossible to avoid the “boom-bust” cycles that cripple capitalism every 5 to 7 years.

Another scary effect of these continuous “boom-bust” cycles is the fact that after every cycle only the financially fittest survive, which makes some of the already rich, immensely rich, and all the others poorer. We see larger banks absorbing smaller ones, sometimes at ridiculous prices, even though these large banks were already “too big to fail”. We also see wages, house prices and wealth in the hands of the middle classes plummeting. The extremely rich are richer, the poor are poorer, and even some of the rich fall closer to poverty.

Another shortcoming of capitalism derives from the way it interacts with politicians. It is a historical fact that many politicians have been corrupt all over the world; there are tales of political corruption since the dawn of history. Nowadays capitalists use their money to improve their chances of making more money. The most efficient ways of doing this are through advertisement to enhance sales, and by using politicians to swing the laws and regulations in their favor. They have the money and politicians love that money. In some countries, including the U.S., political contributions have even been institutionalized in a way that it is legal to buy the good will of politicians. And of course, the ones that excel in buying politicians are those with the most money.

Some argue that regulations can solve the problems of capitalism. However, the institutions that are in charge of drafting, approving and enforcing these regulations are either: very close to banking and big business or, even worse, they are in their pockets. The kind of strong and easy to enforce regulations that could solve these problems are also, for the most part, beyond the current comprehension of economists.

Capitalism is a great system if you are a loaded capitalist; it is even good most of the time for people on the street. However, recapitulating, three huge shortcomings mar this picture:

1. “Boom-bust” cycles every 5 to 7 years.
2. Unrelenting accumulation of wealth in the hands of very few people.
3. Intrinsic motivation, and the means, to corrupt governments.

Change in Drug Policies?

After 40 years, the US has spent $1 trillion dollars on the war on drugs that has only produced more violence and more drugs.  

Gil Kerlikowske, the current US drug czar  stated to the AP that “In the grand scheme, it has not been successful, … forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified.”

President Obama promises to “reduce drug use and the great damage it causes” by treatments for drug users. However, Obama spends $10 billion for police and incarceration out of the $15.5 billion destined to control drug use.

If the US is really going to shift to programs that cut consumption and rehabilitate drug-users, will the problem fade away? Reducing 15% drug usage in several years is a very mild goal. What about the other 85%? The drug dealers are being assured of a much easier, safer and lucrative market, which could reduce the price of drugs or increase their profits.

Under this new policy of the US,  what will Colombia and Mexico do? The only problem facing drug dealers is going to be while they are in those countries or smuggling the stuff. Once they are inside the US they will be Ok. Considering the terrible consequences that their (proxy) war on drugs has produced in Mexico and Colombia, it seems inadvisable to continue a war that the promoter has declared a failure and that it wants to abandon. Maybe it is time for Latin-American countries, preferably also the US, to abolish the prohibition on drugs.

What could be the consequences of allowing legal sale of drugs in Latin-America? Let us remember what happened after alcohol prohibition ended in 1933.

• Alcoholism was reduced because instead of drinking bad quality hard liquors as a symbol of protest and manhood (or womanhood), people started enjoying drinking beer, wine and good quality liquor.
• A minimum drinking age was established.
• Price of liquor dramatically dropped.
• Much less violent crime, and non-violent too.
• Income of crime syndicates was cut dramatically, so they turned into loan sharking, labor racketeering and drug trafficking.
• Police could dedicate themselves to make the streets safer, instead of being corrupted with huge amounts of money.
• Respect for the law went up.
• The depression ended.

Alcohol use (during the Prohibition), prostitution, gambling (not in state-sponsored casinos) and drug usage are what is called ”victimless crimes”.  But because they have been made illegal then the people involved become violent, abusive and criminals. Even though nobody calls the police, the police use harsh measures to impede them; though with little success.

If Latin-American countries legalize drugs, but not the US, there is a big problem. The border between the US and Latin-America is northern Mexico, US ports and airports.

Let’s imagine that Mexican (and American) entrepreneurs start a business in a border town in Mexico; this business is a supermarket of drugs. You can go there and buy cocaine, heroine, marijuana, ecstasy, you name it! And you can go home and overdose all you want, if you die it’s your problem. If you want to go through the border to the US, then you are committing a crime; but with the new policy, once you are inside the US enforcement will be minimal and everything will be Ok.

Under these conditions we can expect:

• Mexico, and other Latin-American countries, will make a bundle of money out of taxes collected from growing, processing, packing, transporting and selling drugs (a VAT is recommended).
• Impoverished farmers will get some good money from their crops.
• The price of drugs will plummet to a fraction of what it is now.
• The drug cartels will make money only from smuggling drugs into the US and selling them there.
• Latin-American countries will be safer and their governments stronger.
• Drug cartel bosses will find a way of using their money; maybe buying banks (they are as bad as the cartels) or going into politics.
• The recession will be over.

Although the US will think that Latin-American countries are traitors, and the Republicans will try to dismantle NAFTA, most probably the US will not declare war against Mexico or Colombia; maybe Ecuador, because it is smaller. Anyway, a war will most probably be very unproductive. Or the US could maybe bomb the crops and the supermarkets (which will be soon after built as bunkers); with Napalm? Or the CIA will start revolutions, or declare sanctions?

One way or the other, isn’t it time to take the right path and abolish drug-prohibition? What are we waiting for? That 15% of the drug-addicts are cured? That the government of Mexico falls into the hands of drug cartels and that they will push for an even stronger prohibition; to keep the price of drugs high? That the government of the US falls into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels? Stop giving money and power to the drug cartels, legalize drugs and end this recession.

Banks Get Richer, You Get Poorer

Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Company made money in the stock market every day during these last 61 days. Even when the market was shocked by the 1000 points loss on May 6, they made money. Should we be surprised?

Banks, finance companies, the stock markets and other entities that guide the economy are in the hands of the few that are very rich. Investments are completely controlled by huge investment funds that are managed by companies owned by the same very few rich people.

These very rich individuals, and their banks, create wealth for themselves without the public having anything to do about it. Thanks to their almost unlimited wealth they manipulate the, so called, “free markets” for their own purposes; which are making more money. These moneys that they make are those that you lose; along with rich people that are not as rich as these “to big to fail” banks, and their owners.

When we look at this record performance of the banks we have to accept that it is not because they are “lucky”; it is because they manipulate the markets. These 4 banks form an Oligarchy and they act as one when it suits their interests. It seems that the sellout of 15 billions in stock by Citigroup, that latter was labeled as a typo, started this mini-crisis. But we have to wonder about the motivations behind this “typo”. Thanks to these manipulations by the banks, all of us are poorer and of course these banks are richer.

If a clerk steals 100 dollars and is caught, he goes to jail; yet these bankers steal billions, after they got so many billions from the government. Should we keep suffering this no-jobs, no-money crisis just because the ultra-rich crave for even more money; when will somebody do something about it?

Flat Economy and Little Hope

The resources of families are now being hit hard and the economy in general is going to most probably be stagnant in terms of real growth on “Main Street”.

Salaries and wages will stay down for a while keeping the economy flat because there will be no more easy mortgages to compensate. This situation must be changed; but with a flat economy and the money in the hands of the “let’s not trickle-down” gang there is little hope. Maybe, after a while, they will realize that to really make a lot of money goods must be sold and paid for; capitalism needs consumers!

The fast development of cybernetic solutions is going to create other obstacles for a recovery of wages, especially low wages. As soon as these robotic solutions get to the level where it is cost effective to substitute humans for semi-intelligent machines in simple jobs, it will be done. Millions of jobs fall into categories that could be at risk of being lost. In the past new types of jobs have been created when a given category is replaced by machines. However, now there is a different type of machine that of replaces intellectual labor as well as the physical type.

Times up to 2030 will be interesting. New technologies that are spurring a plausible wide-ranging paradigm shift will be in the stage of adolescence with all the aches associated with it. Social change will not be well defined and it will be sporadic, if at all. In addition, the economy, especially when dealing with banks, will continue to be beyond any doubt global; if left on its own, short-term profit and further domination by the wealthy is all we can hope for.

Excerpt from the book: ”The History of the 21st Century”

The History of the 21st Century

Author Humberto Contreras presents a view of the 21st century that encompasses an understanding of how civilization has been evolving for more than 50,000 years. He considers that it is an open experiment that has produced not only technological progress, but also social progress. Humberto likens this process to the evolution of life and promotes the idea that human quality of life has improved continuously and it has been accelerating since the renaissance, and maybe even before that time, and now is growing exponentially. His book: The History of the 21st Century is available in paperback at Lulu.com and Amazon.com.

Dr. Contreras used his experiences in designing scenarios to quantify risk, especially when studying nuclear waste disposal where the timeframe was up to 10,000 years into the future. He used this expertise to write his 244-page book about what is likely to happen in the years from 2010 to 2100. What distinguishes Dr. Contreras’s book is that he presents the future from an optimistic viewpoint, which is fitting with his ideas of civilization always forging ahead improving quality of life. This is decidedly different from the plethora of books and articles that show an apocalyptic future. In his book, Dr. Contreras defends and shows how civilization has improved continuously and even in the 20th century, with all its wars, catastrophes and failed dreams, quality of life improved dramatically. He proposes that the 21st century is going to be the best that civilization has ever seen.

In this book Dr. Contreras explains that scientific and technological progress may possibly bring the end of scarcity; which could very well happen before the end of this 21st century. However, Dr. Contreras cautions that the present capitalistic trend of short term profit and greed cannot be continued because making or keeping people poor is against consumerism; keeping people poor means that there are less consumers thereby making everybody poorer.