http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/

note : thankfully alternatives are emerging… ( such as open source peer production … http://p2pfoundation.net )

excerpt :

<< if "Demand" is ultimately limited once most people meet their basic
needs for food, water, shelter, information, and some consumer items ("the
best things in life are free or cheap"), or at least "Demand" is rising less
quickly than improvements in productivity "(Automation * Good_Design)", then
the number of paying "Jobs" will go towards zero. And as there are less
"Jobs", and so more competition for them, the remaining "Jobs" will get paid
less and have worse working conditions.

The absence of good "Jobs" creates a crisis in a society that only allows
people with jobs to direct the market and take goods from it (thus, the
unemployed will starve, or riot, or be on unrelated small and depressing
welfare payments, see Marshall Brain's Manna or described in the Triple
Revolution memorandum).
"War" can increase jobs by destroying any stockpiled goods or existing
infrastructure, requiring more goods and infrastructure, or vast stockpiles
of military might intended to never be used, but "War" has become too
terrible to contemplate even as stockpiles of war materials begged to be used,
and in any case, building a *need* for "War" into an economic system seems
inelegant and unethical, especially when "War" can so easily mean Armageddon
these days. >>