We Need Fully Automated Luxury Communism”

He means the “Star Trek” universe with replicators, sick bay and holodecks. Unlimited energy to be turned into anything anyone could want just for the asking.

We might not have unlimited energy nor the ability to turn it into anything anyone could want but we could satisfy many more wants and needs with what we produce or could produce. We have a real problems with incentives.

How to create incentives to give stuff to those that need and how to incentivize production without incentivizing inequality. That is the problem with the “Profit Motive” it disincentives charity and it incentivizes greed. The “Profit Motive” is a perverse incentive. We have an incentive for Philanthropy, really we do. We have more than one incentive for Philanthropy, we have tax incentives and we have cultural and social incentives but they are very weak. Only the biggest donors see cultural and social incentives and only the rich see much in the way of tax incentives. Even at best the tax incentive returns only a third of your donation. Too many charities don’t do much to help those who are poor and need help, they have other missions.

Finally there is no incentive for equality. The incentives will always support inequality. Only some of the poor want everyone to be equal and very few of the rich want everyone to be equal.

If you passed laws requiring equal standard of living for everyone you would just create a new criminal class working to get around the laws.

TEK