Luke
26th August 2010, 14:27
If I'd have to point to one single issue of which Avalon Community members are pretty much ignorand, I'd say economics.
On the other hand there is no other single issue that affect lives of us all.
Why is such state of things? My bet is the education system, that forces it's subordinates to treat every subject as self contained "it" that does not relate to other "it"'s. Economy is a system, so it is forbidden, instead we have set of "separate" issues like history, logic, geography, philosophy, money, law, politics. And then we have media programming that shows those dealing with economy as some magicians from ivory towers etc. And we have alternative scene , where every single issue has "solution", but of course they make usually no sense, as they ignore whole spectrum of problem, which leads to quite bright people supporting complete balderdash of "resource based economy" "war economy" "economic dictatorship" "no-money economy" "sci-fi futurism""socialism" and whatever is popular on the forum these days.
What saddens me is to understand how economy works, you need about 20 minutes of attention. Failing that, you're simply doomed to fail for first feel-good con around. But it's really simple. Here it goes:
1. Economy is system of human actions.
2. It is designed to maximize energy efficiency in limited resource environment
That's all it is about.
We cannot create new resources (yet). Till we figure out how to create matter, we're stuck with using what we can obtain from environment we live in , or recycle what is already obtained.
Obtaining can mean mining raw resources or using product resources from other neighbouring systems, like ecosystem or Sun.
Problem is, every transformation has un-recoverable cost , called entropy. With closed system (as ours pretend to be) this means that after finite number of transformations there will be no more matter/energy for next transformation. System would be dead.
Only "if" seems to be how fast it'll happen.
E=mc2 says, that when we're dealing with matter we're dealing with energy really. So whatever we talk of "things" (products, tools, our body-vehicles) or "transformations" (using skills, building, destroying etc.) we are talking about energy
Every single being out there seems to naturally seek way to optimize it's behaviour in terms of energy efficiency (even if they do not know about it). Humans differ (or seems to differ, officially) from other life forms in that they such make decisions as a result of thought process not pre-designed feedback loops.
This brings us to matter of exchange.
Since we live in limited environment the things we need to live are not readily available. Arable land is in the valleys, stones in the mountains, fish in the rivers, trees in forest and so on. you may marry two of the things in one place, but you need to travel for other ones. Since you are not alone in the world, there is strong possibility there would be another that is currently using the resources you need. Also other peope have simply skills you dont't have to make things, or they do it faster/cheaper than you would be able to do. So there are four ways of obtaining goods:
1. You can obtain them in their natural occuring form, and make what you need (you need to invest your energy in finding resources; finding knowledge to transform them; learning skills corresponding to that knowledge)
2. You can exchange things/skills/knowledge with other people seeking what you have and they want (you trade your energy for energy of others, both parties acquire what they value more)
3. You can obtain what you want by force ( war, looting, pillaging, theft, robbery all fall in this category)
4. You can obtain what you want by means of appealing to other emotions, feelings etc (both beggary and conning fall in that category)
Generally first two ways are more energetically effective than two latter ones (not to mention karmic debts involved) So any sane economical system would emphasise them and not the options 3&4.
Problem is, there is no sane economic system in the works right now. Instead of promoting productivity and peaceful exchange we promote robbing and extorsion in the name of higher "cause" (though we give them better sounding names : taxes, benefits, shares etc) and adding insult to injury, we use resources without neither knowing how to produce them in first place or even understanding their role in the very system that support our own lives!
Moreso, one need to understand that economic problems are in the root a moral ones. Taking example from engineering world: every designer or builder need to make moral choices when they design/build: would this structural column bear the loads intended ? would the truss will have good length for place intended for it? would wall material will provide enough insulation? Every engineer worth his salt make such choices every day. So should any man involved in economics, as his bad moral decisions are as deadly as a structural column not strong enough.
To make good moral decisions one need to communicate. Without communication, you cannot obtain good information/knowledge in constantly changing world. What was good logical conclusion today, may not be so after some chain of events will take place.Also, values of things are subjective. Without good knowledge you cannot make good appraisal of goods involved in deal.
Problem is, one need to often rely on information from other people, not easy to verify. Worse, if information comes from source that is in some kind of superior/inferior relationship, 2nd Celine Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celine%27s_laws#Celine.27s_Second_Law) kicks in, making sure information you have would be distorted, and it'll likely compromise your decision grounds. So in order to receive true knowledge, all communication must happen on plane of equality.
Without equal standing of all involved there can be no exchange. Voluntarism is implied. only Free people exchange. With one holding privilege there is no exchange, only extortion.
So any sane economic system would involve energy exchange among equal, free people, based on moral decisions rooted in knowledge
This way thing work smoothly. Notice we are talking free individuals. Sure, people make mistakes, but in sane economic system one know real fast that he made a mistake and he can minimize losses. With communication there is constant feedback. without privileges, one that made mistake looses energy to an extent of mistake made. You simply can't go more efficient by that.
Of course many people do not like it. You need to be vigilant, resourceful, know what is going on. Without that any wealth you have would be soon lost. That is why some people engage in social structures that block free exchange: to have wealth without all that burden of producing exchanging, inventing, being informed. People who want wage wars do not want to worry how to fund them. Nobility do not want to earn it's status and palaces. Imagine a war where general would need to pay for every bullet his soldiers shoot; it's simply impossible with free exchange, money for total war are always looted!
Now, economics mean money? Not at all, you see.
Money is just a tool of exchange. It's utility is rooted in simple empiric fact that two people often do not have things needed to balance deal. If one have boots to trade and need eggs, but one who have eggs need timber, there is a problem. Money is a solution to this problem. Money is a good that many people recognize as having a value, and are willing to exchange various goods for it. It's proxy for goods and skills one have/produce but the other side of the deal does not want. Using money you do not need to arrange complex barter exchanges. This makes system far more efficient and faster working. It saves people energy. It is also a claim on people's energy. Faking money one steals energy of all involved!
Traditional money follow these rules:
1. it's good many people recognize as having a value.
2. Hard to multiply
3. Easy to transport
Traditionally precious metals were used, as they cannot be produced at will and have high percieved value/size ratio. Also money is not wealth. You can be enourmously wealthy without having single unit "coin of the realm.
Now if you look at money this way, you'll see that nothing currently considered "legal tender" is money at all. Dollars, Euro, Francs, Yen, Renmibi are all electronic/paper constructs, so they can be multiplied at will, with value being only such as faith of those using them (thus they are called fiat money - ie. faith money). The second people would believe them worthless, they are!
Now off to a banks. Funny thing is, economy does not need banks at all. With real money (like based on precious metals) value of the "coin" raises when economy expands (bigger economy, same amount of money goods = lower prices, so you can obtain more goods per unit of money). You do not need accountants and bureaucratic machine- money under your mattress is gaining value automatically! (no wonder control freaks hate metallic money or "conflict" diamonds and other true curencies) Banks are reduced to safe storehouses at best, when you need them at all!
Investment bankers are another thing. Their role, traditionally, was to connect people with wealth that wanted to invest it with people with ideas how to invest wealth. Again, it's a very moral role, that allows new ideas to come into existence. But of course, even that is twisted now.
So look around you, see how things flow. Do you see people freely exchanging and producing OR you see people looting and mooching? or worse: people looting and mooching in the name of belief constructs? Where energy goes? This are all economic questions!
Feedback please!
On the other hand there is no other single issue that affect lives of us all.
Why is such state of things? My bet is the education system, that forces it's subordinates to treat every subject as self contained "it" that does not relate to other "it"'s. Economy is a system, so it is forbidden, instead we have set of "separate" issues like history, logic, geography, philosophy, money, law, politics. And then we have media programming that shows those dealing with economy as some magicians from ivory towers etc. And we have alternative scene , where every single issue has "solution", but of course they make usually no sense, as they ignore whole spectrum of problem, which leads to quite bright people supporting complete balderdash of "resource based economy" "war economy" "economic dictatorship" "no-money economy" "sci-fi futurism""socialism" and whatever is popular on the forum these days.
What saddens me is to understand how economy works, you need about 20 minutes of attention. Failing that, you're simply doomed to fail for first feel-good con around. But it's really simple. Here it goes:
1. Economy is system of human actions.
2. It is designed to maximize energy efficiency in limited resource environment
That's all it is about.
We cannot create new resources (yet). Till we figure out how to create matter, we're stuck with using what we can obtain from environment we live in , or recycle what is already obtained.
Obtaining can mean mining raw resources or using product resources from other neighbouring systems, like ecosystem or Sun.
Problem is, every transformation has un-recoverable cost , called entropy. With closed system (as ours pretend to be) this means that after finite number of transformations there will be no more matter/energy for next transformation. System would be dead.
Only "if" seems to be how fast it'll happen.
E=mc2 says, that when we're dealing with matter we're dealing with energy really. So whatever we talk of "things" (products, tools, our body-vehicles) or "transformations" (using skills, building, destroying etc.) we are talking about energy
Every single being out there seems to naturally seek way to optimize it's behaviour in terms of energy efficiency (even if they do not know about it). Humans differ (or seems to differ, officially) from other life forms in that they such make decisions as a result of thought process not pre-designed feedback loops.
This brings us to matter of exchange.
Since we live in limited environment the things we need to live are not readily available. Arable land is in the valleys, stones in the mountains, fish in the rivers, trees in forest and so on. you may marry two of the things in one place, but you need to travel for other ones. Since you are not alone in the world, there is strong possibility there would be another that is currently using the resources you need. Also other peope have simply skills you dont't have to make things, or they do it faster/cheaper than you would be able to do. So there are four ways of obtaining goods:
1. You can obtain them in their natural occuring form, and make what you need (you need to invest your energy in finding resources; finding knowledge to transform them; learning skills corresponding to that knowledge)
2. You can exchange things/skills/knowledge with other people seeking what you have and they want (you trade your energy for energy of others, both parties acquire what they value more)
3. You can obtain what you want by force ( war, looting, pillaging, theft, robbery all fall in this category)
4. You can obtain what you want by means of appealing to other emotions, feelings etc (both beggary and conning fall in that category)
Generally first two ways are more energetically effective than two latter ones (not to mention karmic debts involved) So any sane economical system would emphasise them and not the options 3&4.
Problem is, there is no sane economic system in the works right now. Instead of promoting productivity and peaceful exchange we promote robbing and extorsion in the name of higher "cause" (though we give them better sounding names : taxes, benefits, shares etc) and adding insult to injury, we use resources without neither knowing how to produce them in first place or even understanding their role in the very system that support our own lives!
Moreso, one need to understand that economic problems are in the root a moral ones. Taking example from engineering world: every designer or builder need to make moral choices when they design/build: would this structural column bear the loads intended ? would the truss will have good length for place intended for it? would wall material will provide enough insulation? Every engineer worth his salt make such choices every day. So should any man involved in economics, as his bad moral decisions are as deadly as a structural column not strong enough.
To make good moral decisions one need to communicate. Without communication, you cannot obtain good information/knowledge in constantly changing world. What was good logical conclusion today, may not be so after some chain of events will take place.Also, values of things are subjective. Without good knowledge you cannot make good appraisal of goods involved in deal.
Problem is, one need to often rely on information from other people, not easy to verify. Worse, if information comes from source that is in some kind of superior/inferior relationship, 2nd Celine Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celine%27s_laws#Celine.27s_Second_Law) kicks in, making sure information you have would be distorted, and it'll likely compromise your decision grounds. So in order to receive true knowledge, all communication must happen on plane of equality.
Without equal standing of all involved there can be no exchange. Voluntarism is implied. only Free people exchange. With one holding privilege there is no exchange, only extortion.
So any sane economic system would involve energy exchange among equal, free people, based on moral decisions rooted in knowledge
This way thing work smoothly. Notice we are talking free individuals. Sure, people make mistakes, but in sane economic system one know real fast that he made a mistake and he can minimize losses. With communication there is constant feedback. without privileges, one that made mistake looses energy to an extent of mistake made. You simply can't go more efficient by that.
Of course many people do not like it. You need to be vigilant, resourceful, know what is going on. Without that any wealth you have would be soon lost. That is why some people engage in social structures that block free exchange: to have wealth without all that burden of producing exchanging, inventing, being informed. People who want wage wars do not want to worry how to fund them. Nobility do not want to earn it's status and palaces. Imagine a war where general would need to pay for every bullet his soldiers shoot; it's simply impossible with free exchange, money for total war are always looted!
Now, economics mean money? Not at all, you see.
Money is just a tool of exchange. It's utility is rooted in simple empiric fact that two people often do not have things needed to balance deal. If one have boots to trade and need eggs, but one who have eggs need timber, there is a problem. Money is a solution to this problem. Money is a good that many people recognize as having a value, and are willing to exchange various goods for it. It's proxy for goods and skills one have/produce but the other side of the deal does not want. Using money you do not need to arrange complex barter exchanges. This makes system far more efficient and faster working. It saves people energy. It is also a claim on people's energy. Faking money one steals energy of all involved!
Traditional money follow these rules:
1. it's good many people recognize as having a value.
2. Hard to multiply
3. Easy to transport
Traditionally precious metals were used, as they cannot be produced at will and have high percieved value/size ratio. Also money is not wealth. You can be enourmously wealthy without having single unit "coin of the realm.
Now if you look at money this way, you'll see that nothing currently considered "legal tender" is money at all. Dollars, Euro, Francs, Yen, Renmibi are all electronic/paper constructs, so they can be multiplied at will, with value being only such as faith of those using them (thus they are called fiat money - ie. faith money). The second people would believe them worthless, they are!
Now off to a banks. Funny thing is, economy does not need banks at all. With real money (like based on precious metals) value of the "coin" raises when economy expands (bigger economy, same amount of money goods = lower prices, so you can obtain more goods per unit of money). You do not need accountants and bureaucratic machine- money under your mattress is gaining value automatically! (no wonder control freaks hate metallic money or "conflict" diamonds and other true curencies) Banks are reduced to safe storehouses at best, when you need them at all!
Investment bankers are another thing. Their role, traditionally, was to connect people with wealth that wanted to invest it with people with ideas how to invest wealth. Again, it's a very moral role, that allows new ideas to come into existence. But of course, even that is twisted now.
So look around you, see how things flow. Do you see people freely exchanging and producing OR you see people looting and mooching? or worse: people looting and mooching in the name of belief constructs? Where energy goes? This are all economic questions!
Feedback please!