4.3.3 The Centralization of Society Public acceptance may also be influenced by the effect that SPS has on the centralization of society. One of the other Societal Assessment white papers addresses the centralization issue as it has been broadly discussed with reference to large electric generating systems.* This discussion complements that treatment of the more traditional centralization issues, but consideration here is limited to the geographic concentration of economic activity and population. At this preliminary stage, it would appear to these writers that SPS will not revolutionize society to a more centralized state. Nor do we presently feel that SPS will even hasten the centralization of economic activity in the U.S. In fact, the opposite effect may be a more realistic expectation. Given the need to locate rectenna sites in rural areas, SPS may serve as a catalyst to decentralize the U.S. economy and society from its present state. SPS may have a decentralizing effect on American society for two reasons. First, the greatest impetus to move to rectenna-bearing regions would be among electricity-dependent industries which tend to be more capital intensive than they are labor intensive. Although there would be some immediate shift of investment from existing urban/Industrial centers to newly developing regions containing rectenna sites, the shift of jobs and population would be slower to evolve and the existing spatial distribution of society would remain largely unchanged. If this is an accurate picture of what may happen, SPS may be credited as exerting more of a decentralizing than centralizing force on American society. Second, by the time that SPS becomes operational, the economics of transmitting electricity may change to the extent that power can be shipped long distances back to existing urban/Indus trial load centers. If this becomes the case, any movements to rural rectenna-bearing regions would be counter to the trend of centralization that would continue if SPS electricity were to be transmitted to existing loads. *The white paper entitled Impact of CentraZizatton/Decentratizatzon on a SateZZzte Pouer System by J. Naisbitt deals with the more fundamental centralization issues surrounding large electric generating systems such as nuclear power. That discussion includes consideration of government involvement in system development and regulation, the concentration of decisionmaking in the electric utilities and financial institutions, and the influence of public involvement in electric system planning.
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