The God of the Machine - Tranche 50
Chapter XXIII, Excerpt 1 of 2
The Dynamic Economy of the Future
A man enters into the energy circuit an extremely variable quantity of energy and introduces a factor that does not answer to measure. In the intellectual effort of invention or discovery, the returns are incommensurable with any estimate of the energy applied. Inanimate nature contains nothing equivalent to the action of man’s mind. This is what happens by use of money, credit, or contractual agreements. No other arrangement is feasible for a high energy circuit.
For the very reason that the action of inanimate machinery is predetermined, the men who use it must be free. This is the meaning of the parallel sequence of actions, proceeding in reverse direction to the physical energy circuit. These actions carry on the succession of voluntary agreements by which the energy is routed. An engineer does not attempt to alter or abrogate the laws of physics in utilizing energy. Hence the inevitable breakdown of the long circuit in a planned economy.
The engineering problem then is to organize the long circuit for free men. The hook-up must be such that every man may change his place and occupation as he pleases within the whole range of possible choice. Whether intended to favor labor or to restrain it, the Wagner Act did not give any power to labor. No law can give power to private persons, every law transfers power from persons to government. It attached an instrument of government to dislocated mass. Dislocated mass cannot be controlled.
The Dynamic Economy of the Future
A man enters into the energy circuit an extremely variable quantity of energy and introduces a factor that does not answer to measure. In the intellectual effort of invention or discovery, the returns are incommensurable with any estimate of the energy applied. Inanimate nature contains nothing equivalent to the action of man’s mind. This is what happens by use of money, credit, or contractual agreements. No other arrangement is feasible for a high energy circuit.
For the very reason that the action of inanimate machinery is predetermined, the men who use it must be free. This is the meaning of the parallel sequence of actions, proceeding in reverse direction to the physical energy circuit. These actions carry on the succession of voluntary agreements by which the energy is routed. An engineer does not attempt to alter or abrogate the laws of physics in utilizing energy. Hence the inevitable breakdown of the long circuit in a planned economy.
The engineering problem then is to organize the long circuit for free men. The hook-up must be such that every man may change his place and occupation as he pleases within the whole range of possible choice. Whether intended to favor labor or to restrain it, the Wagner Act did not give any power to labor. No law can give power to private persons, every law transfers power from persons to government. It attached an instrument of government to dislocated mass. Dislocated mass cannot be controlled.
The last century of progressive education and economic intrusion is specifically designed to wreck both - the cognitive skills of the individual and their economic independence.