21,000 Flexible Public Fabrication Facilities across the USA - by IdeaScale
Paul D. Fernhout
opengov site :
http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/8412-4049
"""
The USA needs more large neighborhood shops with a lot of flexible machine
tools. The US government should fund the construction of 21,000 flexible
fabrication facilities across the USA at a cost of US$50 billion, places
where any American can go to learn about and use CNC equipment like mills
and lathes and a variety of other advanced tools and processes including
biotech ones. That is one for every town and county in the USA. These shops
might be seen as public extensions of local schools, essentially turning the
shops of public schools into more like a public library of tools. A few
variations have been developed in that direction (Men's Shed, FabLab,
TechShop, or in books like David Morris' "Neighborhood Power: The New
Localism").
http://www.mensshed.org/
http://fab.cba.mit.edu/
http://techshop.ws/
Here is a related article about "The Case for Working With Your Hands":
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html
And a related idea:
http://100kgarages.com/
"""
It's already been voted against twice. :-(
Also, look like the "Why" field does not preserve formatting. :-( And unlike
the other field, you can't edit that one after posting, apparently.
I also posted one on the Triple Revolution memorandum, but it is "Pending
Moderator Approval" probably because it includes the word "revolution":
"Revisit the Triple Revolution Memorandum sent to President Johnson"
http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/8402-4049
"""
In 1964, a memorandum was sent to President Johnson that has not received
much action yet. Here is a link to it:
http://www.educationanddemocracy.org/FSCfiles/C_CC2a_TripleRevolution.htm
And a related Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triple_Revolution
While some of the specific suggestions may be out of date, the core ideas
remain current, that that progress in human rights and technology and
weaponry means we need to rethink our social contract, including by things
like extending social security (a basic income guarantee) and medicare to
all regardless of age or wealth.
...
The greatest challenge our society faces right now is post-scarcity
technology (like robots, AI, nanotech, biotech, etc.) in the hands of people
still obsessed with fighting over scarcity (whether in big organizations or
in small groups). The problems the USA faces right now, with rising
unemployment and an unstable economy and limited access to health care, were
predicted in that letter. Using it as a base, and then going beyond it,
could help reboot the USA into a more sustainable and joyful society. Our
social institutions are lagging behind the post-scarcity potential of our
technology that could deliver abundance for all. Otherwise, our mainstream
economics will continue to falter as it encounters what are essentially
divide-by-zero errors resulting from increasing abundance (like how
companies facing ultimately limited demand for consumer goods can produce
more with less people).
"""
--Paul Fernhout
Paul D. Fernhout
> I just posted this idea (previously posted to this list) to the USA's
> opengov site :
> http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/8412-4049
> It's already been voted against twice. :-(
It's up to voted against nine times (I'm the only positive vote. :-)
People in New York State pay $20K per student to support a school system
that turns out human beings who often can't take care of themselves
materially and often don't even have a basic understanding of the technology
their lives depend on. We've spend endless amounts on other things, so US$50
billion is trivial in comparison (a few months of the Iraq war) for
something that would empower every person in every location in the USA to
learn about how to make things and have easy access to the tools they needed
to do hobbies or small businesses. I'm really surprised to see just nine
straight votes against the idea. I have to accept it if people don't like
the idea, but I remain surprised.
I'd say maybe it was because the why section was so long and the formatting
was not preserved, but you can vote on these ideas from the main page where
you would not even see that section.
One comment was: "The federal government has screwed up enough things already!"
So, that may reflect the sentiment that Libertarians and Republicans have
cultivated for decades. Richard Wolff makes a related point in "Capitalism
hits the fan" about how the US population has been trained to think
regulation is a dirty word.
I guess I should not be amazed anymore about people voting against their own
self interests after heavy propaganda and little time to think about the
issues (otherwise people would not be voting for either of the two major
parties :-). I've seen votes against self-interest enough over the past few
decades, like with small retail business people voting against universal
health care, when that is a big advantage WalMart has over them.
The US is spending approaching a trillion dollars a year for "defense", but
a one time expenditure like this is too much?
Anyway, I can't sort out how much the voting down is my presentation or a
huge wave against government spending. (As if the government was even taxing
people directly anymore for spending these days.) I mean this is
*investment* in the countries physical plant and human skills. Most other
defense spending is stuff you hope you never use.
Anyway, I'm obviously completely clueless about something here. :-)
--Paul Fernhout