"real work (work that checks scarcity) was replaced by another form of work (work that just buys stuff). "

@_@ My brain melts when I read Mudude. Buying stuff = Checking scarcity = work. The economy doesn't care if you think some work is "real" and some work is fake. People pay other people to do things or give them things that they want, based on the highest/lowest price they can get. No amount of communist verbal wizardry can change this. You want proof, just look at a video game economy: http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comm…

I hope, for your sake, that when you are 65 years old and you finally retire from the stranger, you write one final blog post with only the words "lol I troll u."

This gives good insight into why Charles can so easily buy into the socialist dream. If you primarily participate in "work" that doesn't produce something of tradable economic value, you become a bit removed from the more standard work scenarios that produce tangible goods and services. As these blog posts attest, there's clearly no scarcity in being a philosopher or publishing words and pictures.

Think of an armaments race (or elk antlers). There is no scarcity of weapons, however, we proforma escalate to show who can build the most.

In the same way we have 55 hour work weeks to justify our incomes for 2 hours work and 53 hours writing reports about it.

I, for one, would happily work less, have less, and have more free time to do more creative or volunteery things. This damn expected 8-hour work day keeps me occupied most of my waking hours. Just try arguing for a slightly lower salary in exchange for working only 4 days a week. Nigh impossible.

@1 the Keynesian economic model did not fail in the 70s.

What failed was our inability to avoid creating false front wars overseas and not increase taxes on the rich to pay for them.

Charles, here's the question that's at the heart of your argument: HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? You think we all have enough, right? I don't understand, so I'd like you to make things simple.

Where exactly is the line of scarcity drawn? How much is enough?

Is enough potatoes for dinner every night, "a chicken in every pot" with frozen vegetables, or locally sourced meats and plants, organically grown, balanced to improve health?

Is enough a wood burning stove in every home, baseboard heat, forced air, geothermal climate control, true solar energy?

Is it a radio in the house? A TV set in every living room? Is it internet access? LTE cellular networks? Google glasses? Integrated data access?

Is enough a doctor in your town who can amputate an infected leg without killing you? Is it the miracle of penicillin? Is it medical imaging scanners? Is it cancer treatment? Doubling human lifespans again over the next 100 years?

Exactly when do you want us to stop evolving? When should we just be contented with our lot and stop striving? When will scarcity really stop?

Please. Tell me. And then feel free to try to get that into policy.

If we had work that was real, the working hours would certainly continue their decline and the question at the heart of Keynes' paper would be confronting us directly: What do we do with freedom from economics?

What a fucking moron Charles Muede is.

Keynesian model didn't fail, it was appropriated by the ruling class, and what we got in the 80s was basically Keynesianism for the 1%.

Keynesian model didn't fail in the 70s it just got turned into Keynesianism for the 1%.