A Resource Based Economy is better than Free Markets

Here is my first and main argument on why a Resource Based Economy would be better in the long run. TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT This will be the Achilles heel of a Free Market Economy. Regardless if we have a Free Market or a Resource Based Economy, Technological Unemployment is inevitable. The advancement of technology is growing at an accelerating rate, radically reshaping industries and the global economy.Here are the technologies that are currently changing (and will change) our lives: 1. Computer and Machines According to Moore’s Law, the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles approximately every 18 months, which is why the capacity of computers and machines to perform tasks is getting better and faster while at the same time becoming cheaper. Companies are implementing more and more of technology in their businesses to automate work, which will continue to displace human workers into the future. It is very beneficial for businesses, but not so much for the overall working population. Most of the jobs being replaced by technologies today are the physical and monotonous work such as the ones found in manufacturing and retail industries. Few Examples: Robots in car factories, self-checkout lanes replacing cashiers, automated phone voice systems for telemarketing/customer service 2. Internet(The Digital Revolution): P2P, Open Source, Social Networking, and the ”Cloud” The Internet has been disrupting retail industries and other businesses. Companies are retrofitting their business models which increasingly revolves around the internet, displacing many workers. Almost anything you want to buy can be purchased on the internet.Online shopping sites such as Amazon & Ebay are quickly outcompeting the brick and mortar stores.Netflix and Redboxes are replacing Blockbuster(brick and mortar). Owning a website and a warehouse requires significantly less overhead, which means less employees. Additionally even the warehouses are also becoming automated. - Information is becoming essentially free. The amount of information in the internet is massive and ubiquitous, which will only continue to expand. Today any type of information can be digitized into files which can be text, documents, video (movies), audio (music), etc. The internet allows people to share information through files with other people around the world. People are increasingly watching tv shows streaming online, download movie torrents instead of buying dvds/bluray, and downloading music for free. Yes torrents are illegal but no one really cares; the only people losing out are the big record and entertainment companies who can't make a profit. Education is becoming priceless (literally) since anybody can learn almost anything for free on the internet through sites such as Google, Wikipedia, Khan Academy, MIT Opencourseware along with the vast amount of growing video tutorials on almost any subject on Youtube. This is making the value of going to college worth less and less, if the end goal is just to obtain a piece of paper in order to get a job. Unless that job is within the science/technology/engineering field, it will most likely be displaced by technology sooner in the future. Open Source Communities is a great representation of how a resource based economic system would work. People share information and ideas, collaborating with each other to accomplish a goal or task without the incentive of money. 3. 3D printers & Nanotechnology Although still in its infancy, it is a fast emerging technology that is eventually bound to replace the manufacturing and retail industry in the future. In the future this technology will allow us to create almost any object in the comfort of our own homes. With 3D printers you can make clothes, shoes, tools, bags, instruments, sport equipment, automobile chassis, buildings etc. Nanotechnology is the next step of 3D printing and will allow us to molecularly construct almost any object, material, or matter. This means we can create food, electronic gadgets, living tissues and organs. Though this technology is still way far off into the future, it is very promising. So why would businesses continue to invest in technology/computers/machines?It would be to their best advantage to do so. The advantages are:1. Higher Profits - It’s significantly less expensive than human labor in the long run.2. Higher Productivity - Computers/machines accomplish tasks significantly quicker, more efficiently, accurately, and precisely than humans.3. Can work 24/7, Doesn’t get tired (of course until it wears out or gets broken), doesn’t nag, doesn’t need vacations/ 401ks/pensions/insurance/& other liabilities. Of course there are still many jobs today that can’t be replaced by the automation of technology yet, but eventually anything that can be automated, will. Keep in mind this a long term process, but the trend is clear and it is moving in this direction. This disturbance of industries is what will cause the majority of the working population to be displaced in a Free Market.No work means no money, thus no purchasing power. We'll have a very high level of productivity, yet with only a few people that can afford them.Old industries might fall, but new industries emerge which means creation of new jobs. So people aren't out of luck after all right? Yes, this is true. There will still be people who have to design and maintain the machines and computers. Even so computers and machines will eventually be able to massproduce and repair themselves. The work that machines can't replace are the designing and creating of new ideas, technologies, and systems.Machines currently lack imagination/creativity, and don't have the capability to critically think (at least until we have AI).The only people that would really have jobs in the future will be computer programmers, engineers, scientists, and teachers. The problem is many people will be not able to learn and adapt quickly to this fast change of technology and will be left behind.