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    author of - A Frictionless State

    D.M. Barach

    Stories 1
    Chapters 11
    Words 54.2 K
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    Reading 4 hours, 31 minutes4 h, 31 m
    • 11 — Variables Cover
      by D.M. Barach Any large-scale economic disruption, whether it be an environmental disaster, a supply chain collapse, or a public health crisis, is that it isn't merely a logistical problem to solve. The core danger of the situation is that disaster invites a crisis of narrative. The public's faith in the economic system is its primary asset. In such moments, the greatest danger is the political entrepreneur who views the disruption as a vacuum of authority to be exploited. Such individuals do not seek to restore…
    • 05 — Routed Cover
      by D.M. Barach People often confuse transparency with truth. They are not the same. No institution can function if it is forced to present every contradiction, every cost, and every unfinished decision all at once. Public trust depends as much on coherence as on disclosure. The question is not whether information is managed, but whether it is managed in service of the many or in service of private power. —Naomi Feld, The Collective Balance: An Introduction to Macro-Societal Utility Sleep came in thin increments,…
    • 04 — Access Denied Cover
      by D.M. Barach Capitalist societies romanticise the individual who takes matters into their own hands. They call this initiative, or innovation. In fact, such an individual is interfering with a systemic solution and undermining confidence in a system's inherent reliability. A healthy society must depend on an implicit trust in its systemised responses, not sporadic personal intervention. It requires shared standards, coordinated response, and the confidence that no individual should solve a collective problem…
    • 03 — Transmission Cover
      by D.M. Barach A state that outsources all production while another dedicates itself entirely to resource extraction creates a fatal, co-dependent fragility. Interdependency cannot thrive through specialisation, but from the harmonisation of all essential functions within the whole. An economy that cannot both feed and protect itself is not an economy at all, but a client state waiting for its patron to fail. —Naomi Feld, Interdependency: A New Economic Model The pressure from the plaza below pressed against the…
    • 02 — Isolated Cover
      by D.M. Barach The greatest threat to a harmonious system is not open rebellion, but private misalignment. A citizen may continue to perform their assigned function, speak the approved language, and move within the prescribed channels, yet still become destabilising if they permit grief, suspicion, or personal dissatisfaction to supersede trust in the whole. Systemic failure begins as a minor divergence in perception long before it manifests as material disorder. —Naomi Feld, Systemic Integrity and the Harmonious…
    • 01 — Disconnected Cover
      by D.M. Barach The primary failing of the 20th and early 21st century economic models was their obsession with growth over equilibrium. They produced more than any in history, yet this very abundance was the engine of its chaos. When one economic actor possesses a gross surplus while another suffers a structural deficit, the system is primed not for trade, but for conflict. The only path to a lasting peace is the total elimination of want, and this cannot be achieved by creating more; it must be achieved by enforcing…
    • 10 — Gathering Cover
      by D.M. Barach A truly interdependent economy cannot function if it permits unaffiliated economic actors. A community that exists off-grid, whether as an expression of freedom or dissent, is in fact a structural liability. By drawing resources from the whole without contributing to the managed equilibrium, such groups reintroduce the very principles of scarcity and hoarding that Interdependency was designed to eliminate. They are, by definition, an economic threat. —Naomi Feld, Interdependency: A New Economic…
    • 09 — Core Cover
      by D.M. Barach The greatest threat to a harmonious system is not open rebellion, but private misalignment. An individual may continue to perform their assigned function, speak the approved language, and move within the prescribed channels, yet still become destabilising if they permit grief, suspicion, or personal dissatisfaction to supersede trust in the whole. Systemic failure begins as a minor divergence in perception long before it manifests as material disorder. —Naomi Feld, The Frictionless Economy: Principles…
    • 08 — Connections Cover
      by D.M. Barach Liberal societies waste vast capital on sentimental gestures, such as protections for social identities or the preservation of non-productive individuals. A rational economy, however, views its populace as an asset. Like any asset, its value must be weighed. Who can still contribute? Which losses can be prevented, and which are necessary? A just society is not one that spends endlessly on compassion, but one that refuses to make allocation decisions it cannot sustain. —Naomi Feld, The Liability of…
    • 07 — Requirements Cover
      by D.M. Barach The economic models of our day are trapped in a cycle of dysfunction, obsessed with the three Rs of ruin. They are repair, reform and renewal. To mend a non-functional unit is to celebrate its idiosyncrasy. It is an act of sentiment, not economics. This sentimental attachment to flawed, unique objects is the same thinking that leads to nationalism and individualism. A truly rational economic system does not tolerate such aberrations, it demands standardisation. It replaces the non-functional unit to…
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