Thank you for your post. Jevons paradox and the Tragedy of the Commons have an important role, unfortunately. In think that it is possible to reduce dramatically energy consumption maintaining the quality of life. But we need to change in many social and economic aspects dramatically in the most advanced countries. I don’t think that the capitalism is the problem, but the excesses of capitalism. This is the objective of my newsletter, suggesting ideas, technologies, a new economics, etc.
I agree entirely with the notion that we have not replaced any of the ancient technologies for energy production, and have instead increased our consumption of them. However, the double thesis that a) we must reduce consumption and b) capitalism is responsible for our problems is just plain wrong. Yes, it would be great if we could reduce consumption. It would be great if we could fly by flapping our arms. It would be wonderful if we could eliminate war, hate, and greed. But those ideals are far beyond our social and political capacities. As I have declared many times, we humans are, at heart, Pleistocene hunter-gatherers who are faking it as civilized creatures, and doing a poor job of it.
Humanity cannot possibly find peace so long as billions of people face starvation while the developed world lolls in luxury. Our only hope is to close the gap between rich and poor — and that will entail a stupendous increase in overall consumption. The average American consumes about 277 gigajoules of energy per year, while the average African consumes only 14 gigajoules. Bringing the entire world up to the consumption level of the developed nations will require immensely more energy. Failing to do so will generate more violence.
There is one small ray of hope: American per capita energy consumption has fallen over the last 25 years. Improvements in energy efficiency (LED lights, greater use of heat pumps, electric vehicles, etc) have been effective in reducing per capital energy consumption even as per capital GDP has increased by 2% per year. This may, however, be due to the maldistribution of wealth, skewing wealth towards investment rather than consumption.
I think that the problems cited in book would be better addressed by replacing income taxes with Pigovian taxes; calibrated properly, these would inhibit the worst excesses of our current economic system.
Thank you for your post. Jevons paradox and the Tragedy of the Commons have an important role, unfortunately. In think that it is possible to reduce dramatically energy consumption maintaining the quality of life. But we need to change in many social and economic aspects dramatically in the most advanced countries. I don’t think that the capitalism is the problem, but the excesses of capitalism. This is the objective of my newsletter, suggesting ideas, technologies, a new economics, etc.
https://josemdelavina.substack.com/
This is not what history says. You may have a good line of work as a TV commentator, I don't know that that's not my expertise.
I agree entirely with the notion that we have not replaced any of the ancient technologies for energy production, and have instead increased our consumption of them. However, the double thesis that a) we must reduce consumption and b) capitalism is responsible for our problems is just plain wrong. Yes, it would be great if we could reduce consumption. It would be great if we could fly by flapping our arms. It would be wonderful if we could eliminate war, hate, and greed. But those ideals are far beyond our social and political capacities. As I have declared many times, we humans are, at heart, Pleistocene hunter-gatherers who are faking it as civilized creatures, and doing a poor job of it.
Humanity cannot possibly find peace so long as billions of people face starvation while the developed world lolls in luxury. Our only hope is to close the gap between rich and poor — and that will entail a stupendous increase in overall consumption. The average American consumes about 277 gigajoules of energy per year, while the average African consumes only 14 gigajoules. Bringing the entire world up to the consumption level of the developed nations will require immensely more energy. Failing to do so will generate more violence.
There is one small ray of hope: American per capita energy consumption has fallen over the last 25 years. Improvements in energy efficiency (LED lights, greater use of heat pumps, electric vehicles, etc) have been effective in reducing per capital energy consumption even as per capital GDP has increased by 2% per year. This may, however, be due to the maldistribution of wealth, skewing wealth towards investment rather than consumption.
I think that the problems cited in book would be better addressed by replacing income taxes with Pigovian taxes; calibrated properly, these would inhibit the worst excesses of our current economic system.