Book cover

World's Wasted Wealth II

by Dr. J.W. Smith, (Institute for Economic Democracy, 1994)

Reproduced on line is Part I of the book, World's Wasted Wealth II (1994).

It is an analysis of the enormous waste of labor, resources, and capital within the American Economy.

Parts 2 and 3 have been expanded into much more detail in the subsequent work, Economic Demcoracy; The Political Struggle for the 21st Century, which you can read on-line, in full, on this web site.

These are the chapters you can read on line in full:

Full Chapter and Sub-chapter titles:

Introduction

  • The Long March of History: Key Rights Retained by Property
  • The Evolution of Distribution by Unnecessary Labor
  • These People Do Work

PART I: Wasted Labor

  • Insurance
    • Health Insurance
    • Home Insurance
    • Auto Insurance
    • No-Fault Insurance
    • Life Insurance
    • Personal Responsibility
    • Self- Insurance
    • Socially Necessary Insurance
    • Worker's Compensation is Not Social Insurance
    • Product Liability and Malpractice Insurance
    • A Surprise Gift for Everybody
    • Liberating the Insurance Industry's Army of Employees
    • An Example Proves the Point
    • Their title is By Bluff
  • Law
    • Divorce
    • Probate: Pure Distribution by Wasted Labor
    • Standard Forms For Most Legal Needs
    • Accidents and Compensations
    • The Language of law
    • Conflict Resolution Law
    • The Corporate Lawyer
    • Criminal Law
    • Conclusion
  • Transportation
    • Who collects the Tribute
    • With Access to Technology, Both Inventors and Consumers Can Win
    • The Radial Tire
    • Developmental Maturity: Efficiency Through Interchangeable Parts
    • Distribution of Automobiles
    • Model Changes
    • Fuel Savings
    • Savings From Reduced Speed
    • Summary
    • Railroads
    • Crosshauling
    • Air Freight
    • Passenger Airlines
    • Waste Through Social Policy
    • Conclusion
  • Feeding the World
    • Is it Overpopulation, Or Who Controls the Land?
    • Beef: "A Protein Factory in Reverse"
    • The Waste in Processed Foods
    • It Was Done With the Best of Intentions
    • Conclusion
  • The Health Care Industry
    • Examples of Waste That Expose the Pattern
    • Routine Operations
    • Births
    • Defensive Medicine
    • Drugs
    • medical Technology and Patents
    • The Greater the Need the Higher the Charge
    • Owning medical Techniques
    • Piecework
    • The High Cost of Administration
    • The High Cost of Peer Loyalty
    • The High Cost of Dying
    • Corporations Take Over
    • Iatrogenic Illness
    • Alienated and Lonesome
    • Clean Environment, Good Food, Good Habits, Good Health
    • Positive Structures to Build On
    • The Most Effective Medicine is Cheap and Simple
    • Conclusion
  • Poverty And Rights
    • Someone Else Owns Their Piece of Earth
    • Someone Else Also Has Their Job
    • Those Who Give Up
    • Creating Proud and Functional People
    • Social Welfare Costs
    • A Negative Tax Can Replace the Welfare Bureaucracy
    • Equal Rights Will Eliminate Unnecessary Work
    • Sharing Rights to Productive Jobs
    • With Rights Go Responsibilities
    • Retirement
    • Welfare Disappears
    • Measuring the Number of Unemployed: Official and Unofficial Unemployment
    • Street People
    • Teenagers and Students
    • Teachers, Professors, and Support Labor
    • Functionally Challenged and Welfare Workers
    • Unpaid Homemakers
    • Threat and Guard Labor
  • Conclusion to Part I
    • Energy
    • Chemicals and Nuclear Radiation
    • Nursing Home Care
    • Funerals
    • Business Administration
    • Telemarketing Scams
    • Government Waste
    • The Mathematics of Wasted Labor

PART II: The Causes and Cures of Poverty In Today's World

PART III: The Excessive Rights of Property