Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970124073553.00833210@ilhawaii.net> Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 07:35:55 -1000 From: Jay Hanson <mailto:jhanson@ILHAWAII.NET> Subject: Re: Entropy and Economics? -Reply To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
At 11:20 AM 1/24/97 -0500, you wrote: >Just one question, Jay. When you get out of school, do you plan to
Gosh, you flatter me!!! I am already retired. <G>
>"....the economy is increasing entropy in earth subsystems and changing the
>emergent properties of our life-support subsystem so that in 35 years, it too
>may no longer be functional.
>
>I guess you would say that development assistance to poor countries or
>efforts to stimulate economic growth in the more economically advanced
>countries will just accelerate our approach to economic entropy. Maybe, from
Yes, this is true. Moreover, I remind you that it is not just my opinion, it is now the scientific consensus.
>a development policy perspective, we should encourage poor countries to stay
>underdeveloped. That way the party can go on longer for the rest of us. Might
Two issues here:
#1 I suggest we take a long hard look at what exactly is being "developed". Here in Hawaii, economic development is actually "economic strip mining". Investors aim to take as much money home with them as possible -- and they do an excellent job. The cost of living always increases faster than wages because economic development NEVER pays for its own infrastructure (those pesky externalities again). That is one of the reasons developers are always involved in politics: $1,000 in the mayor's pocket is a hell of a lot cheaper than $100,000 for a traffic light.
In fact, unless you can control your borders, it is not possible to make things better for your residents and keep them that way. As soon as you have an "attractive" community it does just that: "attracts" people until it is no longer "attractive".
What development actually does, is exchange problems that communities can solve (e.g., insufficient infrastructure) for problems that communities can not solve (e.g., crime).
[ See http://csf.Colorado.EDU/authors/hanson/page23.htm ]
#2 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is how we measure our economic "success." An increase in the GDP actually means the satisfaction of more and more trivial wants, while creating more and more powerful externalities that in turn destroy both our life support and social systems. When society spends even more money to defend itself against these unwanted externalities, the GDP increases even more (positive feedback again). For example, the costs of treatment of cigarette-induced cancer, pollution-induced emphysema, and television-induced crime are added to the GDP.
There is strong evidence that the U.S. economy is making us poorer by increasing costs faster than it increases benefits:
[ See http://csf.Colorado.EDU/authors/hanson/page11.htm ]
Jay