On February 11, 2013, Jeff Immelt writes on LinkedIn.com:
America can turn a slow recovery into a strong comeback, one that grows our economy and firmly reestablishes our country as a powerhouse of ideas and production. The key – and what will determine the winners and losers of an exciting new era – is our willingness and ability to lead the next “big waves” of productivity.
There are four new drivers of productivity, and success in each depends on the technology and talent we develop. The first is how the sheer volume and increased access to shale gas in regions around the globe is changing the energy debate and the balance of energy power. It would require real infrastructure and pipeline integration between Canada, Mexico and the U.S., but North America could achieve energy independence within 10 years. The second driver for dramatically increased productivity is applying the lessons of social media to the industrial world and building what we call the Industrial Internet. By owning and connecting the analytical layers around industrial products – and using real time data to extract real timeknowledge – we can improve asset performance and drive efficiency. The third driver is speed and simplification because the only way to serve our customers better and compete in a complex world is by working faster and smarter. The last productivity driver, and related to the other three, is the evolution of advanced manufacturing. Manufacturing excellence, forgotten for too long, is once again a competitive advantage.
Now is the time to bring efforts like this to scale. The rise of analytics and software in the industrial world only multiplies the opportunity in front of us. America must capitalize. If we do, we can create new businesses and new industries. Advanced manufacturing will change not only the way we build complex machines but the entire competitive landscape.
This ia an article about the impact that shifts in the technologies of production has had and will have. It addresses using technology to advance manufacturing.
The author, however, does not address the reality that with the application of advanced technologies, private sector job creation in numbers that match the pool of people willing and able to work will continue to erode due to physical productive capital’s ever increasing role. This will result in exponentially fewer “customers with money” as income from employment will diminish. And without “customers with money” the economy will be held back from realizing its full potential.
This senario assumes that the OWNERSHIP of the FUTURE technological productivity will be financed in traditional ways which further concentrate ownership among the 1 percent wealthy ownership class.
To realize our full potential our archaic finance and credit mechanism must be reformed to enable EVERY American to acquire private, individual ownership in FUTURE productive capital formation and pay for their acquisition out of the earnings generated by the investments.
It is the fundamental principle of business logic that investments pay for themselves as their earnings are pledged first to pay off expansion loans and once paid for continue to generate earnings for their owners. Of course, there will be business failures and that is why it will be necessary to attach commercial capital credit insurance, backed by government re-insurance (if necessary), to the loan transactions facilitated by banks.
We should make every effort to ensure that the FUTURE economic growth of the American economy is financed such that we are constantly creating new owners and strengthening the capital estates of our under-capatilized citizens. This is the solution to the onslaught of tectonic shifts in the technologies of production, which is destroying or devaluing jobs, that will enable us to free economic growth from the slavery of “past” savings.
A National Right To Capital Ownership Bill that restores the American dream should be advocated by the progressive movement, which addresses the reality of Americans facing job opportunity deterioration and devaluation due to tectonic shifts in the technologies of production.
There is a solution, which will result in double-digit economic growth and simultaneously broaden private, individual ownership so that EVERY American’s income significantly grows, providing the means to support themselves and their families with an affluent lifestyle. The Just Third Way Master Plan for America’s future is published at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797.
This is a practical approach that would combine the efficiency of a free market-based economy with justice and freedom for all. Like so many people who correctly see the dangers of government redistribution strategies, today’s business leaders and virtually all academic economists remain blind to the artificial barriers that exist in our financial and tax systems, and in our corporate, welfare and labor laws that systematically block all citizens from enjoying truly equal opportunities to become capital owners without violating property rights of existing owners.
This is an approach that provides direction at a time when the United States and the world has no direction, no end, no goal. Socialism has been very much discredited, whereas the great majority of people do not believe in capitalism because they see it reward greed to the benefit of a tiny minority––the wealthy ownership class. This approach sets forth a heading to achieve prosperity, opportunity, and economic justice. It embraces technological progress as it significantly reduces the need for human toil work and empowers ordinary people to become capital owners using pure credit. Its goal is to create an OWNERSHIP CULTURE whereby EVERY American is strengthened economically and socially.
Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm and http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm
