Economics and Evolution: A scientific approach to economics
It is often said the economics is a social science. A real science of economics would be based in the nature and biology of humans.
If humans did not invent, then the study of economics would just be the study of human evolution.
If humans did not invent, then the study of economics would just be the study of human evolution.
Indeed. In modern/recorded history, it is not biological evolution, it is intellectual adaptation that has allowed humanity to grow and dominate the earth. Inventions are the minds' gifts to humanity.
Good article.
O.A.
Barry Goldwater
Man's shortcomings, in the area of food, is not production but distribution. Man has the ability to think and reason as opposed to the rest of the animal kingdom operating on instinct in the main. But it has to be used. Overseas food deliveries in the face of constant complaints of starving children? What is that? reality or politics? What happened to food banks? Or is that too.... a story. Follow through on those foreign shipments. Routinely we delivered on the ships and saw the same bags of rice or other grains in the local market a bit later - for sale. No one party to blame. Happens on both their watches but then there really is only on party. In any case...mother nature hand in hand with man's abilities could, should, would but it isn't. I'd hardly blame nature. It's on autopilot mode of survival.
I particularly like the idea that the steady state is not possible for living entities. So much for the political concept of 'sustainability' with which we are bombarded.
In my younger days I read many of the Utopia proposals, I realized that human nature (good or bad) is not like that and these Utopias cannot work. dbh puts it another way in demonstrating the role of evolution. That is, suppose one animal evolves to match the environment, other animals will evolve and change to upset the balance. On top of that there is brain/mind/thought/invention (exclusively human attributes?). This modifies the importance of species adaptation by evolution to that of a species consciously changing aspects of its environment.
Competition, friendly and otherwise, is not just between species but also between cultures.
This gives an impetus to the question of how to maintain and enhance the edge, dbh tells us it is not just intellectual freedom but that property rights are essential.
This dates to 2010, before my arrival in the Gulch so that's my excuse for not seeing it before. As well as enlightening, Dale's article provides some entertainment in the comments. The discussion on peak oil made no mention of large scale shale extraction technology which was just coming in at that time. Whether the word peak ever meant anything for oil, the concept is now a non-issue.
Also worth mentioning in the context of sustainability and renewals is the saga, or rather farce, of the DRAX power station. This is one of the largest in the UK, it was built over a large resource of good quality coal. But now that coal is defined as evil, the power station has been converted to use wood. Trees are chopped in Virginia, then shipped across the Atlantic to be burnt in a power station.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Note that methane starts being produced within a month or sooner of biomass being covered up. We should not be calling that a fossil fuel.
Question: What does the widespread use of birth control in the western world do for the rate of invention?
Does it remove an impetus for innovation because the individual income is not under as much downward pressure?
I have often said that in a free society it is amazing how inventive (heroic actually) people are and how non-inventive (evil actually) people are in a non-free society..