Trash

(Note: See part one for a description of this series: The Infinite Economy)

(11/24/2008) – In part one of The Infinite Economy, I looked at the mechanics of banking and how our method of money creation creates an institutional imperative for a constantly growing economy.  In this article, I’m going to examine the phenomenon of obsolescence and how it has come to play an important role in building an economic system that specializes in turning raw, often irreplaceable resources into trash and pollution.

In once sense, the word obsolescence is tied at the hip to the ideas of innovation and improvement.  True innovation, a change to the established order or the way of doing things, by definition makes something else obsolete.  Over several centuries, the innovation of guns and firearms made swords, plate mail, and towering stone castles obsolete.  Cavalry became obsolete when we learned to put guns and armor on cars.  Its not that swords lost their ability to slice through skin, nor did horses become unable to carry soldiers across the landscape.  We just found more effective ways of killing people.

The printing press, electric light bulbs, metal ships, computers... all of these innovations have promoted economic growth, increased the standard of living, and I think have benefited society all-around.  The point is that there are many occasions when making a thing obsolescent is beneficial, because something better has taken its place.  Virtually no true innovations are planned, and most take decades to reach fruition, as the new invention or way of thinking is refined.