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Showing posts from January, 2020

Economics, Nonsense and the Emperor's New Clothes

A bit of history Economics is a social and political understanding of production, distribution and consumption of goods and the roles of prices and policies in ensuring that production and distribution are sufficient to meet consumption and to generate wealth. Before the industrial revolution, the main issues were managing the use of common land and water, and fairness in the marketplace. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD) was a philosopher but wrote some arguments about the responsibility for businesses to establish just prices. In the 17 th and 18 th Centuries, economic thought reflected the dominance of agriculture as the source of wealth, and ownership of productive land by the aristocracy. In this view of economics, the labor of workers is related to the value of things workers produce. The American Revolution and the French Revolution coincided with new economic ideas about free markets and production. Adam Smith (1723-1790) made the well-known invisible hand argument, that

Diagnosing Green Energy Mythosis

Diagnosis of a Green Techno-Miracle Mythosis (GT-MM) An infectious thought virus that distracts from necessary change without causing any change. Dr. Susan Krumdieck, 2014 At Risk Populations: The most susceptible people will have preexisting anxiety about the subject of the GT-MM, but little resistance due to low technical knowledge levels Symptoms:   The GT-MM thought virus can be identified by careful observation: ·       presents with a green color ·       presents with a nearly lifelike computer generated image ·       presents as a solution to a problem, but the solution analysis is always missing ·       presents as a "nearly ready" technology ·       presents with call for further funding or government investment ·       presents with images, words and symbols that are non-technical but seem technical to the susceptible host ·       presents with anecdotal relevance, but no feasibility analysis ·       presents with one or more technolog

Outrage and its role in Transition

Climate Emergency  Outrage Outrage has been one of humanity’s key evolutionary strategies as we must have social structures in order to survive. People who behave in anti-social ways must be called out and corrected in some way or they would pose a threat to the whole. When we perceive something being unfair or wrong and against our code of social conduct, then we, as a group (it is a group behaviour) call-out, shame, and express our outrage at the perpetrator. This shared outrage is the necessary vehicle for carrying out ostracisms and punishments that again, keep the group together. Think about it, we probably individually have too much empathy to be able to convict and sentence and imprison someone for 15 years for possession of a stolen TV. Could any of us individually carryout the socially mandated punishment to cut off the hand of a person who stole bread… but as an outraged group, yes we can carry out some pretty horrific punishments. Researchers have found that w