Imagine Non-Profit Society: Utopia or Necessity

By Sašo Tomažič

This is a book about the present-day global socio-economic system envisioning the steps that should be taken towards a better future. The contemporary economic theory is rather elaborate for an ordinary person and sometimes even for a professional to understand. Moreover, it has too often been proved wrong, especially the accolades of the self-regulating free market.
In his book Professor Sašo Tomažič shows in an adept manner why recurrent economic crises cannot be avoided in all the various forms of capitalism. His is an unconventional view of a natural scientist and engineer observing economy from a distance and so bypassing the pitfalls of countless details which only distort our perspective. The examples the author employs to highlight his ideas are straightforward and simple but for all that none the less valid. Most important, he explains how the current economic system could gradually be transformed to a more stable and just one, naming it the non-profit society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sašo Tomažič
• Release date: Mar 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370384457

Sašo Tomažič

Saso Tomažič received the Ph. D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Ljubljana in 1991. Since 2002, he is a full professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Ljubljana. He is the head of the Laboratory of Information Technologies and the head of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies. He was an adviser for information and telecommunications system at Ministry of Educational System and Sport from 1992 to 1998, a member of Strategic Council at Ministry of Defiance from 1999 to 2000, and the national coordinator of research in the field of telecommunications at Ministry of Educational System and Sport from 2000 to 2003. His research interests include ICT, signal processing, information theory, data mining and knowledge discovery, and sensors. He has authored and/or coauthored 5 textbooks, 10 chapters in research monographs, and more than 200 journal and conference papers. He was an associate editor of Electrotechnical Review and he is currently the chief editor of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering Publisher. He was leading researcher of 15 R&D projects and he is the head of research program Algorithms and Optimization Methods in Telecommunications, which is one of two research programs every time named among the best research programs in Slovenia. Since 2006 his interest is in improving society for better quality of life for all humanity.

Book preview

Imagine

Non-Profit Society: Utopia or Necessity

By Sašo Tomažič

English translation by Manca Gašperšič

Cover page by Studio Hunan1st

Copyright 2017 Sašo Tomažič

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Contents

Foreword

Part 1 Profit of Capital

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Profit, earnings, and surplus

Chapter 3: Private property

Chapter 4: Shares

Chapter 5: Money

Chapter 6: Interest

Chapter 7: Financial sector

Chapter 8: Indebtedness

Chapter 9: Austerity

Chapter 10: Unemployment

Chapter 11: Population ageing

Chapter 12: Feedback loop

Chapter 13: Propaganda

Chapter 14: Conclusion

Part 2 Non-Profit Society

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Changes in the collective consciousness

Chapter 3: Monetary reform

Chapter 4: Money as a medium of exchange

Chapter 5: Redefining property

Chapter 6: Stable and ecologically sustainable economy

Chapter 7: Strengthening social security

Chapter 8: Motivation for work

Epilogue

Foreword

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

John Lennon

People in the developed Western world certainly lead a far better life today than our ancestors did one hundred, five hundred, or one thousand years ago. The overall standard of living has increased dramatically. The average person can now afford a host of comforts that not even kings previously enjoyed, such as bathrooms with hot water, central heating, air conditioning, and vacations on the other side of the globe, among others.

Regrettably, this statement is only accurate for the developed world or the so-called golden billion. What about the rest of the world, where poverty and hunger remain rampant, and wars continue to rage? Something must be wrong.

However, not even a high overall standard of living can make the Western world conform to our ideals. Anxiety, stress, and fear of the future are all widespread. Financial and economic crises only contribute to this fear. Such crises cause unemployment rates to rise; hunger and poverty then occur, and the wealthy grow disproportionately richer. Something must be wrong.

All developed Western countries are in debt; most companies and individuals in these nations are in debt as well. These debts can no longer be serviced; however, indebtedness continues to grow. Funds for social security, health care, and pensions are all dwindling. Something must be wrong.

Pollution that continues to worsen contributes to global warming and the melting of polar ice caps. Floods are threatening. Ozone holes continue to open. The weather is becoming increasingly unstable and unpredictable. Ecological disaster is imminent. Something must be wrong.

Bloody wars are being fought in various corners of the world. The threat of terrorism is growing. The number of refugees and economic migrants continues to increase, as well as the number of demonstrations and protests. The number of people who resort to alcohol and other drugs to escape from their problems continues to grow. Organised crime is on the rise. Something must be wrong.

This topic and similar subjects often come up in conversations with my friends and colleagues. We all agree that change is necessary and that the current situation cannot continue. We must be mindful of the future of our children and the future of our planet.

Admittedly, we have often philosophised over fine food and drink. After all, we are in the Western world’s middle class, which has a fairly good standard of living. Refusing good food and wine would probably contribute nothing towards improving the world. Something must be done. Something must change. However, what—and how?

Change is in the hands of politicians, but I have neither sought any political role nor ever felt competent to do so. The only thing that I can do is vote for politicians who best represent my values and vision by providing programmes of measures that lead in the right direction, towards a better, more just and stable society, and hope that these politicians will successfully implement their programmes. However, in this respect, I have always ended up disappointed. People vote for politicians who have promised the impossible, aspired to maintain the existing socio-economic system, and/or proposed reforms that have simply led in the wrong direction. How could such politicians have been elected? Was it not obvious that they would not be able to deliver on their promises? Was it not obvious that their proposed reforms made no sense?

During my conversations, it struck me that all of these considerations were not as obvious as I had once thought. Most people do not devote much thought to the aforementioned problems because they trust distinguished economists, professors and Nobel Prize winners who create strategies. Why should they not trust such individuals? A Nobel Prize is not awarded without good reason. Nevertheless, these individuals’ theories have often proved to be wrong. For instance, the theory of the self-regulating market economy was disproved long ago but continues to have many supporters. The term economist has become something of a catchword for experts who are able today to explain why the events they predicted two days ago did not occur yesterday.

There is a widely held belief that the current socio-economic system (democracy with capitalism) has been the best system to emerge to date and that we can overcome crises via the implementation of small corrections but we cannot avoid them altogether. I do not ascribe to this view. Throughout history, advances in science, technology, and the collective consciousness have transcended the limits of the existing socio-economic system. Change is and has always been inevitable: societies have shifted from slavery to feudalism, from feudalism to capitalism, and from capitalism to socialism. In my opinion, a change from socialism to capitalism represents a step backwards. Granted, socialism had flaws, but those flaws did not necessitate such a step; the socialist system merely required an upgrade that would eliminate these flaws. Communist regimes, which (aside from their names) had nothing to do with the idea of communism, inflicted great damage because they sparked considerable resistance and even hatred of the socio-economic system, which was actually highly progressive, perhaps overly so, and long before its time.

Under capitalism, we cannot avoid crises because their causes are built into the very foundations of the system. The capitalist system was outgrown and outflanked by scientific and technological developments long ago. For real change to occur, it should be outgrown in and by the collective consciousness. Personally, I do not believe in rapid changes. I am more partial to evolution than to revolution. People should first understand why changes are necessary and what types of changes must be implemented to avoid future crises, new wars, global pollution, and ecological disaster. Only then will politicians be elected based on policies that lead in the right direction, namely, towards building a better, more stable and just society.

When I shared my thoughts regarding why crises are an integral part of capitalism and what should be done to prevent such crises with my friends and colleagues, I was mostly met with surprise. They found my views on these issues, which reflect the perspectives of a natural scientist and engineer on finance and economics, to be highly unusual. However, all of them unanimously thought that my views were understandable, reasonable and logical. I often heard them say, Interesting, I’ve never thought about it that way.

Comments similar to that statement encouraged me to write this book. Although I am not a politician, I can nevertheless change the world a little. Perhaps I can provide a small contribution to a better understanding of the issues above, at least for a handful of people who might happen to read this book. Many readers, particularly economists, will dismiss this book as naïve because it offers oversimplified and generalised explanations. However, I believe that these matters really are quite simple and are only rendered complicated by individuals who seek to obfuscate the essential aspects of these topics.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the current socio-economic system and aims to shed light on the deeper reasons behind crises, wars, all types of inequality, and pollution. I regard profit of capital, which is incorporated into the very foundation of capitalism, as the main reason underlying these problems. Therefore, in this part of the book, I describe how profit of capital, which is the main driver of progress and growth under capitalism, inevitably creates crises, wars, and ecological disasters. Under capitalism, progress is contingent on the extremely negative human trait of greed: the desire to have as much as possible and to have much more than others.

The second part of the book is dedicated to various measures and reforms that could gradually transform the current socio-economic system into a new system that is more progressive and more stable; I call this system the non-profit society. The terms socialism and communism have been too often misused and abused. The most important aspect of reforms that are designed to transform society is that they should lead in the right direction rather than postpone addressing issues that are bound to grow worse with time.

I am grateful to everyone who has contributed useful comments during the course of my work. I would particularly like to thank my wife Sonja for her constant support and my friends Vanja, Alenka, Zdenka, Miriam, Franci, Tadej, and Miha, as well as everyone else whose remarks and advice have in any way helped to make this book better and easier to read. I am also grateful to my current and former colleagues in the Laboratory of Information Technologies of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana, with whom I have exchanged many opinions and tested the validity and comprehensibility of my theories.