Post Highlights from 2019

Here are highlights from some of this year's popular posts.

Where is the Educational Upside?  One major issue regarding formal education in general - whether public or private - is a tendency to treat "desirable learning and competence" as "scarce goods for which men and women must compete". Consequently, formal education contributes to artificial skills scarcities and imbalances in time based services markets. While knowledge and skills capture have become deeply embedded in ways which aren't readily remedied at state or national levels, communities could nevertheless start taking local action. Local education has the potential to not only become broader in scope, but more closely connected to the evolving wants and needs of all citizens.

Money Price is Most Relevant for Traditional Scale  An incredible amount of economic time use potential remains untapped. Yet more of our accomplishments could provide value for others, if we were to capture mutual wants and needs in a marketplace for time value. We need to derive value from our scarce time more effectively, especially since time based product does not scale via traditional means.

Monetary pricing is most relevant for output which scales on traditional terms, and it can't always offer similar benefits for human capital's natural scarcity in the form of time based product. Earlier forms of tradable sector dominance, meant societies could mostly rely on monetary compensation patterns which captured additional monetary gains from scale. In this context, a wide array of time based product was readily derived from revenue surplus, taxation, and multiple forms of financial debt. However, as we continue to adjust to a services dominant economy, there may gradually be fewer options for gains in scale to accrue to aggregate income in general. Fortunately, these losses might be amended by seeking aggregate output gains that include knowledge, skill and time value as wealth components alongside monetary compensation.

Has GDP Measure Lost Its Practicality?  Even though monetary representation is but a partial approximation of progress, there is no consensus how intangible resource factors could contribute to a better framework. Yet it would be counterproductive to discard elements of GDP measure which clearly serve valid purpose. In all of this, practicality and utility are as relevant as ever. Economic time value is an intangible component which needs more clarification, especially given our high levels of time scarcity and already existing financial responsibilities. There's a good chance that economic time value would be the most logical addition to current GDP measure.

What Really Preserves the Labour Theory of Value?  In some respects the labour theory of value has been disproved, especially when labour is applied to product which exists separately from time value. However, the labour theory of value likely has some adherents in unexpected places, particularly among providers of high skill time based product. Social position for example allows professional associations to reward personal labour via a rationale that one's time represents quality product deserving of monetary reward. Here one can also find much of today's intangible resource capacity, which causes much confusion as to actual productivity gains. More markets are needed for forms of quality time based product that don't negatively impact total factor productivity.

Inclusive Economies Can't Be Built on Exclusive Pricing  Interestingly enough when this post was written, Wikipedia provided more information on inclusive growth, than on inclusive economies in particular. Yet that was a reasonable search result, since growth is always necessary, before more individuals can participate and gain economic access. Consider why the correlation of inclusiveness with economic growth, matters. Should people become convinced that economic growth is no longer necessary, markets would become more exclusive by design. Such a result would only close the door further on those who still seek access.

One way to counter this impulse, is to create additional economic value for time based product. Doing so would also mean less pressure on earth's physical resources for the monetary support of time value. Direct reciprocity for time based services is an inclusive approach, which could result in more supply and demand for applied knowledge, hence additional growth in the use of knowledge for all citizens.

Time and Fiscal Revenue as Scarce Commons  One way to decipher whether additional budgetary debt burdens can be safely imposed, is to stop and ask: Do we really understand the full extent of aggregate time obligations we have already imposed? What if we discovered how many economic time hours would be necessary to meet those already existing obligations, only to realize current or near future generations don't actually have that many economic time hours to spend? Given the possibility of such a scenario, time value may need to evolve beyond a purely monetary focus, so that societies aren't jeopardized once budgetary burdens in general become more difficult to repay.

Some Broader Considerations re MMT Logic  There are too many competing demands on present day fiscal policy, for it to provide a strong framework for the underpinnings of a 21st century economy. National income taxes were established during historical periods when (now mature) economies could still rely on expanding tradable sector growth. Much of these revenue sources consequently benefited from traditional scale, which allowed millions to contribute to the government's wealth redistribution patterns of the present. Alas, since gains in traditional scale are no longer widely distributed in aggregate income, more than monetary representation may be needed, to preserve the knowledge dispersal and skill sets so important to modern society.

Time as Economic Unit: Intervals of Certainty  Time arbitrage could bring greater stability and precision to how individuals plan and manage the use of their time. Indeed, such an economic option might even prove more useful than the proposed Facebook currency (Libra) which inspired this post. While workplace skills arbitrage is partly useful for personal time management, it is mostly feasible when personal income is sufficient for individuals to delegate to others, the responsibilities they lack the time to accomplish on their own.

Markets Could "Find a Way" For Services  Sometimes, supply side conservation of unique skills capacity may come at the expense of supply side potential for markets as a whole. Just as aquaculture provided a market solution for overfished oceans, time arbitrage might ultimately create solutions for overfished governmental revenue.

When is Hierarchical Structure a Good Approach?  Normally, time arbitrage would utilize relatively flat organizational capacity, in order to get things done. However there will always be occasions when hierarchical organization is more efficient and appropriate. Examples include complex procedures which are not often needed locally, and also workplace outcomes which clearly go beyond the contributions of single individuals.