Blog Roll: Technology

 

This page is currently UNDER CONSTRUCTION, but you can start thinking about the Questions below while viewing the video above and the State-Space Model outputs below.

For me, it is really difficult to write about Technology without either falling into the "Gee-Wiz" trap or the "We-are-all-Doomed" trap. I think the problem is Techno-Fascism and the dawning realization that we might already be living in that future. I guess I'm just too committed to stop now, so misinterpret what I'm doing in any way you want. It won't really matter to the Future!

Posts

• About Technological Change  The System Theoretic approach differs from Conventional Economic Wisdom.
• The Artificial State what would happen if machines take over control of politics?
• Productivity, Efficiency and Learning-by-Doing in Italy. Italy is not the "Sick Man" of Europe!
• UK Growth and Technology Which form of Technological Change (TECHE or TECHP) the UK emphasizes will change the future.
• Measurement of Technology and the Productivity Debate Current economic measures ot Technological Change are only part of the process.
• Productivity Debate: Overview In case you haven't taken advanced courses in Economics.
• Technology in the Roaring Twenties The start of Tech Bubbles.
• The Minsky-Kindleberger Model for Economic Bubbles The model involves the World-System.
• Technological Change in Israel Is it a Myth?
• Technology in Russia Do they really think it can sustain the War in Ukraine?
• Technology Long-Waves A Qualitative-Historical approach (not everything is State-Space models).
• Stable French Technology Cycles A wild Phase Diagram!
• Technology Growth Paths in the World System TECHE and TECHP.

Notes

Wikipedia Links

• Techno-fascism can refer to many things!
• Technology the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way.
• Artificial Intelligence the capability of computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making.
• Solow-Swan Model an economic model of long-run economic growth. It attempts to explain long-run economic growth by looking at capital accumulation, labor or population growth, and increases in productivity largely driven by technological progress. 
• Social Media   new media technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks.
• History of Technology the history of human invention of tools and techniques. Technology includes methods ranging from simple stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and information technology that has emerged since the 1980s. 
• Silicon Valley a region in Northern California that is known as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley.
• Societal Collapse the fall of a complex human society characterized by the loss of cultural identity and of social complexity as an adaptive system, the downfall of government, and the rise of violence.
• Steady-State Economy an economy made up of a constant stock of physical wealth (capital) and a constant population size. In effect, such an economy does not grow in the course of time.
• Systems Theory the transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e., cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. 
• Cybernetics the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the outcomes of actions return as inputs for subsequent actions.
• Social Systems the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions.
• Technocracy an expert-based type of governance. In its strongest sense, it is a form of government in which decisions across all sectors and policy domains follow evidence-based, efficiency-oriented procedures grounded in scientific methods and instrumental rationality.
• Dot-Com Bubble a stock market bubble that developed during the late 1990s and peaked on March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Internet.
• AI Bubble a concept that asserts there is a stock market bubble growing since 2025 amid the AI boom, a period of rapid increase in investment in artificial intelligence (AI) that is affecting the broader economy. Speculation about a bubble largely originates from concerns that leading AI tech firms are involved in a circular flow of investments that are artificially inflating the value of their stocks.

Questions

1. Are we really doomed by Technology, especially Artificial Intelligence?
2. What role will Technology play in Societal Collapse?
3. What role might Technology play in a Steady-State Economy?
4. Is the current Political System in the US Techno-fascism?
5. Does Systems Theory treat society and politics as a machine or does it treat machines as systems?
6. Is it possible to control Social Systems?
7. It AI Machines took over Politics, would it be any worse that the current Trump Administration in the US?
8. Is the Political Bureaucracy in the US a Technocracy?

Blog Roll: Healthcare

 

“...the executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie” Marx’s famous formulation in The Communist Manifesto.

Understanding Society+1

The PBS video (above) plays an interview with a Primary Care Physician explaining (1) why US Healthcare is so expensive and (2) why nothing is going to be done about it ("...the system is designed to make money off illness..." and it makes a lot of money).

Here is my Directed Graph summary of a chatGPT dialog on Healthcare Reform:

and

Posts

• Policy Wedges and State-Space Simulation Models If ever there was any political will, there is a way to control the US Healthcare System.
• US Healthcare Expenditures: Three Futures There is no political will for keeping Health expenditures in line with growth in the US or the World Economy.

Notes

Questions

1. What is the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate? Why didn't it work (the "Doc Fix")?
2. What does the history of attempts to control US Healthcare say about the possibility of Medical Cybernetics?

Readings

Pasdirtz (2007) Controlling the US Healthcare System with Policy Wedges Springer Health.

Google AI Summary

George W. Pasdirtz’s 2007 paper “Controlling the U.S. Health Care System with Policy Wedges” introduced a state-space modeling approach to address the long-term growth of the U.S. health care sector, which has historically expanded faster than the economy PubMed+1.

Core Methodology

Pasdirtz built two state-space models:

• U.S. economy model (1950–1999)

• U.S. health care system model (1950–1999)

The economy model’s output served as a reference input to control the health care model’s growth, allowing simulation of a “controlled” scenario where health care growth matched economic growth PubMed+1.

The “Policy Wedges” Concept

A policy wedge is a targeted intervention that shifts the growth path of the health care system toward the economy’s growth rate. These wedges are measurable, policy levers—changes in investment, pricing, or service delivery—that can slow health care growth without eliminating care macropolicyspace.blogspot.com+1.

Key Findings from Simulations

To align health care growth with the economy over the late 20th century, Pasdirtz’s model suggested:

• 13% reduction in capital expenditure

• 15% reduction in drug prices

• 32% reduction in physician service prices PubMed+1

These reductions would have brought health care spending as a share of GDP from 3.4% in 1950 to nearly 14% in 1999 back in line with economic growth PubMed.

Application to Universal Health Care

Pasdirtz also applied the framework to universal health care design:

• Use planning and economic incentives rather than over-engineering benefits

• Avoid centralized, command-and-control approaches

• Balance coverage and cost control through targeted interventions macropolicyspace.blogspot.com+1
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Significance

The “policy wedges” approach offers a quantitative, simulation-based roadmap for:

• Cost containment in health care

• Universal coverage design

• Data-driven policy-making that avoids ad hoc or politically charged reforms macropolicyspace.blogspot.com+1

In short, Pasdirtz’s framework provides a macroeconomic modeling tool to test counterfactual outcomes and design policies that align health care growth with economic growth, with practical implications for both cost control and universal coverage.

Blog Roll: Canada

Aug 22, 2026 Waking Up to an Escalating Canada-US Trade War The two countries are locked in a potentially devastating tariff war after last-minute demands ended talks in Washington late Friday night.

 

ChatGPT ranks Canada's Economic Problems as follows:

However, if Canada is approaching a Steady-State Economy, these interrelated problems are part of the structural change.

You can run the CA_L20 Model, the NAL20 Model and the ULS203 Model on my Google site using R-code. These three models are either stable (or very close to stability) and will reach a Steady-State Economy after 2100.

Questions

1. If Canada becomes a Steady-State Economy, what new problems will it face? What problems will go away?
2. Are there any possible benefits for Canada of a Trade War with the US?

Posts

• World System (1950-2000+): The Economy of Canada What effects do you think the US-Canada Trade War will have?
• Trump Takes the US on a Random Walk  Fighting with Allies is an attempt to distract from Trump's many legal problems.
• Globalization and Trump Tariffs The Global World-System is collapsing and Trump thinks (?) he can circle the wagons.
• Eight Futures for Canada  The best Geopolitical future for Canada is to become a Steady-State Economy. Alignment with the US puts the country in growth-and-collapse mode.
• Geopolitical Linkages: Canada, Mexico and the US. Trump bullying will bring Canada and Mexico closer together.
• Canada backs out of the Kyoto Protocol  CO2 emissions in Canada do not look under control.
• How Canada Avoided the Financial Bubble A controlled banking system!

Notes

• The Economy of Canada an advanced and diversified mixed economy. The nation relies upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. As of 2026, it is the eleventh-largest in the world in nominal terms. Its GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms ranks third among G7 countries.
• The Politics of Canada The political system functions within a framework of parliamentary democracy and a federal system with strong democratic traditions. Canada is a constitutional monarchy where the monarch is the ceremonial head of state.
• The History of Canada The period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. The lands encompassing present-day Canada have been inhabited for millennia by Indigenous peoples, with distinct trade networks, spiritual beliefs, and styles of social organization. Some of these older civilizations had long faded by the time of the first European arrivals and have been discovered through archaeological investigations.
• The Geography of Canada The country has a vast geography that occupies much of the continent of North America, sharing a land border with the contiguous United States to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean.
• Canada-US Relations The countries have had a long and complex relationship that has had a significant impact on each other's history, economy, and culture. The two countries have once historically considered themselves among the "closest allies". They share the longest border (8,891 km (5,525 mi)) between any two sovereign states in the world. Americans rank Canada as one of their respective most favoured nations and historically, a majority of Canadians have held mostly favorable views of the United States. However, the two countries' relations saw rapid deterioration during President Donald Trump's second term due to the 2025 U.S. trade war with Canada and U.S. annexation threats towards Canada.