High-Tech Technology And Economy Domination
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| technology and economy |
To develop an accurate analysis of the current effects of high-tech technology on economic relations in today's world, it is necessary to first clarify the conditions. If the method of development is to analyze high-tech technology and economics from the point of view of solidarity towards life, the task is twofold, since it is about clarifying an additional concept like the concept of solidarity. Therefore, before economic analysis, the realities studied will be conceptually constructed.
On the one hand, the word solidarity needs to be defined. However, the purpose of this paper is not to clarify and analyze the definition of the word solidarity, but to agree on a specific definition. The word solidarity comes from the Latin sollicitudinis, and its original meaning is "anxiety, request, anxiety, to cause discomfort for one, excited, moved, anxious, alert, disturbed, anxious" 2. It has already been mentioned that this paper does not intend to make a historical journey through the essential and semantic concept of the word solidarity, so the definition that seems to be closest to the pure concept of solidarity will be accepted: "(John Paul II, Solicitudo Rey Socialis)
Regarding the definition of the term economy, I am going to randomize several definitions. "Economics is the study of how society decides what is to be made, how and for whom.", Which is always scarce, can contribute in the best way to meet the individual and collective needs of the society "3.
Personally, out of all the definitions, as an economist, I am interested in choosing the one that best suits my profession morally: Economics is the set of knowledge, processes, and relationships that seek effective satisfaction of material needs, individual and collective, as a whole. Of the people. This definition includes economics including capital letters, economic sciences and small scale economics, economic relations (production and supply of goods) between different people and human groups.
However, the central purpose of this study will be the impact of high-tech technology on current economic relations. For this reason, the most important and complex element to define to fulfill the purpose of this analysis is the concept of high-tech technology.
In today's post-industrial world, the adoption of the Toffler language by the high-tech revolution or the Third Wave Revolution is deeply influenced by the endless talk of innovation and high-tech technology. In the ad code, which deeply determines the common language of the people as they are permanently exposed to its effects, the term "high tech technology" is associated with the production of quality products and is associated with rich countries in such a way as to have the unpleasant justification of possessing high-tech technology. In general, the term high-tech technology is combined with the words progress, wealth, civilization, welfare, development, social progress, etc.
But what do we understand through high-tech technology? What exactly is high-tech technology? To answer these questions, an analysis of the current existing definitions of the term high-tech is required
the definition that integrates technology and high-tech technology
Kranzburg and Parcel: "High-tech technology consists of human endeavors to cope with the physical environment, which is provided by nature and which is caused by man's technological achievement."
Derry and Williams: High-tech technology is "a remarkably diverse set of knowledge and discoveries through which man has gradually dominated his natural environment."
Ortega y Gasset: "Reforms that people impose on nature to meet their needs."
Fernandez Fernandez: "One way to operate on reality, to transform it, be it material or unnecessary."
Alfonso Gago: High-tech technology is "everything that allows us to make more efficient use of material, energy and information resources so that the whole person and all people can be the heroes of their personal and collective history".
The definition that integrates high technology and scientific discipline
Bur
Mansfield
Galbraith: "high-tech Technology means the systematic application of scientific knowledge or any other organized knowledge to a practical application."
Strategy
Benavides Velasco: "A set of information and knowledge, derived from scientific or experimental methods, which, when applied systematically, makes it possible to create a reproducible form, create new or improved products, processes or services, as well as improve the application of processes." Provision of services. Already exists. Includes all relevant management and marketing strategies. "
Ignoring the interesting aspects highlighted by one or the other group of definitions, I am more interested in defining technical truth in the concepts that integrate high-tech technology and strategy, as they respond less to the overly academic concept of technical truth. As Freeman noted, in the beginning, technology and strategy were together, only so complex that traditional teaching methods were inadequate and a scientific resource had to be created. In this kind of definition, it is better to understand how technology is deeply related to the way of life and production of individuals and societies, the source of which is a wider cultural environment than a specific scientific environment (let's not forget that it is science. A method). In the first type of definition, there is a broader tendency to understand that it is a complete cultural environment that gives rise to high-tech technology, and not just the scientific environment (cultural environment includes broad and scientific knowledge).
Basically we are going to focus on three definitions given by Ortega y Gasset, Fernández Fernández and Alfonso Gago. Each of them raises interesting questions about technological truth:
Fernandez Fernandez
Transformation of material or inanimate reality
(It is very important to highlight the transformational element of technology unrealistic, and even highlight only those technologies based on information, without any material support. For example, some consultants are only available with their information and knowledge about running a business. Works directly on, restructuring work and systematizing production processes, manages to increase the company's production by 30% or more
Ortega y Gasset
Satisfaction of human needs
(As technology pretends to meet the material needs of the human race, so does it relate to economics)
Alfonso Gago
Allow more efficient use of resources and personal and collective character.
From there we can introduce our definitions that are understood by technology.
Technology is a set of tools and knowledge (information) that people apply to transform material or inorganic realities, to meet the needs of the human community, to find more efficient use of resources, and to enable individuals and individuals to play individual and collective roles.
Three issues stand out in this definition:
1. Technology is interrelated with the Economy by seeking transformation for the satisfaction of human needs through more efficient use.
2. The neutrality of Technology cannot be affirmed since it responds to a clear economic-political objective and is the result of a specific cultural and scientific framework. For example:
?? The objective of satisfying human needs depends on the ideological political conception that will exist about what human needs are. Then Technology responds to one or another ideology.
• In a secularist cultural framework where thought and a scientific approach to problems are born, there is a greater possibility of developing a new, more productive technological base. Then Technology responds to the cultural conceptions of each time.
3. Technology currently does not meet this definition nor does it meet its objectives because
a) It is not satisfying the needs of the human collective worldwide.
b) It is not making efficient use of resources (the economy of waste has prevailed in the production of new technologies)
c) It is not favoring the personal and collective role of all individuals and all peoples.
Therefore, current technology is not neutral because it is inserted in a structural exploitation system and responds to the demands of said system. Does technology have possibilities for the opposite? It is evident, its definition shows it that way, but you really need to do it.
2. Repercussions of new technologies in contemporary economic relations.
Address the analysis of the influence of new technologies in the contemporary economy necessarily implies a synthetic and by no means exhaustive approach, with certain areas or areas that cannot be dealt with with insufficient depth. However, I think it would be interesting to be able to review with a certain systematicity and order the most important consequences that I personally believe the new production base is having in the current economic reality. Previously, it is also essential to point out once again that this analysis is intended to be carried out from a solidary vision of human relations, so the initial objective is to try to elaborate and identify the fundamental characteristics that new technologies are imprinting on contemporary economic relations and value them. from a fraternal vision of human relations.
In the first place, as an initial frame of reference, it should be noted that economic relations today are characterized by maintaining a process of profound economic inequality at the international level, and even at the national level. This progressive inequality in the distribution of wealth at the international level is very well reflected in the following graphs, which express the percentage of resources owned by the different quintiles of the population by income level. In the transition from a glass-type distribution to a much more unequal champagne glass-type distribution, one can observe the deep structural inequality that the economic system has imposed throughout the 20th century.
.As can be seen, the distribution of wealth worldwide at the beginning of the 20th century presented a much more egalitarian form than in the middle and, especially, at the end of it.
Likewise, it can be verified that in 1990, according to data from the World Bank, 16% of the world's population that was integrated into the group of the 48 countries with the highest incomes, controlled almost 78% of the world's GNP. These figures bring us closer to the profound economic imbalance that exists at the international level today.
In the graph, it can be seen that the group of countries with more than $6,000 us. per capita they add up to a total of 48, representing 16% of the world's population and possessing more than three-quarters of the world's GNP. The tremendous inequality in the distribution of resources at the international level can be perfectly observed.
However, it is precisely from the beginning of the 50s when international economic inequalities accelerate fundamentally. What has happened in the world economic structure for this process to occur? Has technology had any influence on this phenomenon? In what sense?
I believe that there are three great transformations induced by the new technological base in the sphere of the modern economy:
1) They promote a productive restructuring of the traditional order and sectors. There is a transition from an industrial socio-productive system to another post-industrial socio-productive system.
2) New productive subsectors emerge that generate high added value, based on information. A new "star product" appears information and its technological application, which has specific characteristics as an economic good and also particular marketing.
3) There is greater segmentation of demand accompanied by greater flexibility in production. There are a series of impacts in the sphere of demand and repercussions that alter the labor reality of modern economies.
It is, therefore, necessary to stop and delve into each of these great transformations driven by new technologies in today's world. Those transformations are induced in the productive field, in the field of marketing, and the field of demand.
2.1. The transition from an industrial socio-productive system to another post-industrial socio-productive system.
It is very difficult to conveniently summarize the evolution experienced by the production system worldwide after World War II, however, a brief overview can be made mentioning the most important elements. 5
After World War II, the group of developed countries adopted a Fordist production system based on social consensus or legitimation via expansion of demand and generalization of mass consumption. With this, the possible union political movements of a labor nature were avoided that could lead to important political consequences not desired by the governments and de facto powers of the Western countries (let us not forget that we are at this time in the middle of the cold war). In this way, through the adoption of policies that would allow the satisfaction of mass consumption at the individual and collective level, it was possible to maintain a pax social contrary to the adoption of radicalized political and social commitments. This policy of consensus or Fordism led to the establishment of neo-corporatist union policies, corporatism that flooded the majority of the population that benefited from high levels of consumption and well-being based on progressive salary increases, the provision of public goods, etc. 6
This operating model was protected by Keynesian principles, principles that had a series of very important economic and political repercussions. However, with the arrival of the crisis years (the early 1970s), it seemed that this production model no longer met the demands of developed countries. In this way, the model that emerged as a response to overcome the crisis of 1973 was the neoliberal model, which in the production order was characterized by responding to the principle of flexible specialization. To clarify the situation, an exposition of the inspiring principles of the Fordist production system and the flexible production system can be made: the Keynesian model and the neoliberal model.
During the stage of international production based on a Fordist system and Keynesian principles (which could last until practically the middle of the 1970s), the production of the economies of impoverished countries still followed a typical colonial production and development model. In the production system of industrial society, raw materials are still an essential productive factor, and the underdeveloped economies were fundamentally based on the exploitation of raw materials and the natural resources they possessed. The large multinational companies, to take advantage of this important productive factor, were located in these countries but maintained a centralized structure for both their management and production,
During this time there is indeed some growth in poor countries, but the growth was much higher in Western countries.
?? GDP growth 1950-1973 western countries: 4.5%
?? GDP increase 1950-1973 Latin American and African countries: 4.9%
?? GDP growth per capita 1950-1973 western countries: 4%
?? Per capita GDP increase 1950-1973 Latin American and African countries: 2.1%
As Juan Torres points out, until the 1970s "the underdeveloped countries had inserted in world trade patterns as clearly specialized economies: they provided the North with natural resources or raw materials at low cost and received manufactured products from the North. The price relationship between both types of merchandise allowed the real terms of trade to be traditionally favorable to the rich countries, in such a way that the pattern of domination was not altered, although it allowed the poorest countries sufficient accumulation so that they the link of international trade would not be broken". As can be seen, economies that were in what Alvin Toffler calls "first wave economies" coexisted with other "second wave economies".
However, as we have already pointed out, one goes from an industrial production model to a post-industrial one. What role has Technology played and continues to play in this transition
As we pointed out earlier, technology is the result of the cultural environment and the material needs to be imposed by production systems (at the same time that it is also the result of political and cultural conditioning). The limitations of the economic system and the established production model require overcoming through the adoption of new technological bases, and in parallel, technological development is creating new cultural models and transforming production systems. The history of human development must be understood as a process, and therefore, human development in its technological and economic aspects is also a process.
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