As you read this blog you will notice I have added two points this year. They are consistent with what the blog has been about for its 13 years of existence. The new two points are being repeated because I am constantly looking for ways to explain the complexities of a pro-commerce worldview.
The world changed radically 200 years ago. Before that there was a homogeneous 50,000 year period of human history with very little change and very little improvement over subsistence. The Industrial Revolution dramatically raised parts of the world to luxury and good health. There have been plenty of experiments during this 200 years to confirm that a new system of morals associated with commerce is the source of our modern vitality. The old system of political morals has been constantly tried since the commercial world blossomed by communism, socialism and its many variants. The political world and its moral system has failed miserably.
It is my job to constantly point out the two different moral systems, the industrial-commercial moral system and the political moral system.
In today's case, I use my local city of San Francisco. A recent budget surplus due to rapidly rising prices of homes over $1 million generated sufficient millions of revenue for the Board of Supervisors to argue about how to spend the money. The decision was finally to put more money into the pensions of the 26,000 city's employees, rather than upgrade a very antiquated computer system that constantly fails to deliver reliable information. It fails for the city employees and for citizens.
A political moral system is designed to maintain status quo by balancing power centers. An industrial -commercial moral system is designed to reduce costs.
In the city of San Francisco the most powerful power center is the city employees unions which includes fire and police. Their personal interest in their retirement far outweighs their interest in making their job productive. That is how the status quo is maintained. Productivity is what disrupts the status quo.
In an industrial-commercial decision, the productivity of the business has top priority, unless it has been rigidified by unions or old bureaucracies. The decision to use extra revenue in a business will always give priority to improving productivity, upgrading computers before increasing funding for pensions.
We have a mixed moral system today. Hopefully in time the two will become more distinct and the industrial-commercial moral system that has brought us longer lives and greater health will triumph.