Might societies remain able to support local and global trade in a new community framework? Hopefully yes, because future prosperity may well depend on doing so. Globalization arguments on the part of progressives and conservatives alike, often don't take into consideration what is actually at stake. For one thing, too many discussions miss how vital it is for anyone with limited income to access affordable global product, even as free traders also tend to miss the importance of recreating local dynamism.
With a little luck, future communities which create local services diversity via time arbitrage, will also continue to advocate for the preservation of global trade. Otherwise, it could prove difficult to keep consumer options as open and diverse as possible. While time based services could be central to local production, by no means is augmentation of basic time scarcity the sole option. For instance, besides more traditional economic opportunities, citizens may also actively take part in 3D manufacture, even if only for their own flexibly constructed dwellings. With 3D innovations, especially in recyclable plastics, one of the most promising avenues for more affordable ownership in community investment, would be the local manufacture of building components and infrastructure.
Likewise, traditional transportation hubs at the periphery of walkable community core, will hopefully continue to bring mass manufactured product to most local communities in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, daily economic strategies would focus on creating services diversity which to some degree would reflect what is now found in the most prosperous regions of nations. In all this, one imagines how future populations will be able to recreate new local diversity, while preserving the movable feast of global diversity to the greatest extent possible.
It's unfortunate that forms of capitalism which function reasonably well, are inexplicably catching much of the heat for other aspects of modern day economies which have functioned poorly for some time. Even more discouraging, is that the inability to face economic issues where they are most pressing, is leading to a cultural backlash. Everyone needs to take a deep breath, regain perspective in terms of resource scale possibilities and system potential, and put these disabling cultural wars to rest. Also: If product responds to scale with fully supplied markets, breaking up its representative firms may leave more negative than positive effects. On the other hand, if product is vastly limited because it does not scale to full markets due to monopoly, regulation, or knowledge use limits, try different economic approaches to create full market scale, but again, set the cultural wars aside.
Now it is time to address head on, the mixed economy additions of the twentieth century which never quite functioned properly to begin with. By way of example, many aspects of healthcare have essentially proven impervious to reform in recent decades. If we don't create new avenues for economic diversity in non tradable sectors, too many political constituents might end up even more determined to destroy wealth which holds considerable value. Why? Often for no better reason than when everyone gets mad, surely some relief can be had by breaking something!
If we can disregard the impulse to destroy wealth due to anger, it would also help to conceptualize two separate spheres in our minds at the same time - the local and the global. By tackling the present problems of insufficient scale in time based services and flexible housing ownership options, there's a good chance we could move beyond the growing political divisions of the present.
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