Dan Bull - Dear Mandy [an open letter to Lord Mandelson]

[uncloned]

well, the problem is, people need money in the current system to survive in any fashion besides off the land sustenance. And that is impossible in a city - because those who do it are really just living off of the left overs of those who are gainfully employed.

The world-wide eradication of money probably won't happen until an essentially free, reliable, and abundant energy source is found. From what I understand Japan is testing a satellite that beams down solar energy as microwaves. Something like that needs to become practical - and then the human population needs to be humanely reduced. ( not reduced by war, plague, poison, etc.) Once that happens the "star trek" future, as I call it, is possible - if a world dictatorship can be avoided.

[Louigi Verona]

Needing money to survive and doing business are two fundamentally different things. Copyright apologists often try to plump those together, saying "making a living" when actually meaning "making a fortune".

[KrazyKatz]

What's wrong with making a fortune?

[Louigi Verona]

There is nothing "wrong" with making a fortune. What's wrong is making it a necessity at the expense of the society.

[Sam_Zen]

So in that sense it's definitely proven wrong. Because the efforts are no longer in relation to the profit.
And it gets worse when people already have a fortune. The mind is weak and gets crooked with greed.
So they can afford to invest in an expensive campaign to 'milk' more fortune out of the common crowd.

About software : A genuine, efficient written program is a piece of art imo.

And scientists who are involved in commercial enterprice are making bad science indeed.
Because they start a research no longer with an open end, but are ordered to find something to make profits.
So any outcome during the research, that doesn't fit for the set goal, doesn't count and goes in the paperbin.