Related to Economics.
#Bookmarks #Economics
Here’s something that goes beyond the Climate catastrophe, by Tom Murphy.
… Earth has only one mechanism for releasing heat to space, and that’s via (infrared) radiation. We understand the phenomenon perfectly well, and can predict the surface temperature of the planet as a function of how much energy the human race produces. The upshot is that at a 2.3% growth rate (conveniently chosen to represent a 10× increase every century), we would reach boiling temperature in about 400 years. … And this statement is independent of technology. Even if we don’t have a name for the energy source yet, as long as it obeys thermodynamics, we cook ourselves with perpetual energy increase. – Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist
Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist
Also a free ebook:
Where is humanity going? How realistic is a future of fusion and space colonies? What constraints are imposed by physics, by resource availability, and by human psychology? Are default expectations grounded in reality? – Energy Ambitions Collection
⁂
Die ökonomische Orthodoxie hat das akademische Tarnkleid ihrer ideologischen Prägung mit einem genialen methodischen Trick gewoben: Sie gibt ihre normativen Vorentscheidungen als Inbegriff ökonomischer Rationalität aus. Es ist die Rationalität des berühmt-berüchtigten homo oeconomicus, der strikt und rücksichtslos, ohne jede Empathie für andere Personen und «frei» von jedem Gemeinsinn, seinen wirtschaftlichen Eigennutzen maximiert. Jegliche Aspekte des guten Lebens und des gerechten Zusammenlebens in der Gesellschaft sind diesem akademischen Homunkulus fremd. – Raus aus der Teufelskreis-Ökonomie, von Peter Ulrich und Werner Vontobel, für Republik
Because, in a world where Creation and Communication are heavily commercialized, the act of Creating a Thing or building a community that doesn’t enrich our corporate overlords is a radical act. – The small things Manifesto
Raus aus der Teufelskreis-Ökonomie
News sources.
Ökonomenstimme ist ein Angebot der KOF Konjunkturforschungsstelle der ETH Zürich – Ökonomenstimme
The influence of capital
… the link between equity appreciation and economic growth has been weakened in two areas. First, labor’s declining share of profits means that corporations can grow earnings even in a “decelerating” economy. Second, changes in valuation multiples can have a large impact on equity returns independent of any changes in earnings or overall economic growth. … changes in valuations go beyond interest rates and are often inversely correlated with overall growth. – The Value of Nothing: Capital versus Growth, by Julius Krein, in the American Affairs Journal
As technological advance increases, the rare confluence will come to an end. New opportunities to throw values under the bus for increased competitiveness will arise. New ways of copying agents to increase the population will soak up our excess resources and resurrect Malthus’ unquiet spirit. Capitalism and democracy, previously our protectors, will figure out ways to route around their inconvenient dependence on human values. And our coordination power will not be nearly up to the task, assuming somthing much more powerful than all of us combined doesn’t show up and crush our combined efforts with a wave of its paw. – Meditations On Moloch
The Value of Nothing: Capital versus Growth, by Julius Krein, in the American Affairs Journal
Home office, return to office:
When more tech workers opted to earn their tech company salaries while living in cheaper cost-of-living houses, less tech worker money circulated to big city businesses.
This outflow of money does hurt the local economies of said cities, including the ones that big tech companies are headquartered in. In some cases, this pain has jeopardized a lot of the tax incentives that said companies enjoy.
That’s why we keep hearing about politicians praising the draconian way that the return-to-office policies are being enforced.
– Return to Office Is Bullshit And Everyone Knows It
Return to Office Is Bullshit And Everyone Knows It
Platforms like Google, Amazon and others:
This is enshittification: surpluses are first directed to users; then, once they're locked in, surpluses go to suppliers; then once they're locked in, the surplus is handed to shareholders and the platform becomes a useless pile of shit. From mobile app stores to Steam, from Facebook to Twitter, this is the enshittification lifecycle. –
Pluralistic: Tiktok's enshittification (21 Jan 2023), by Cory Doctorow
Pluralistic: Tiktok's enshittification (21 Jan 2023)
Dunning-Kruger effect:
The problem with the Dunning-Kruger chart is that it violates a fundamental principle in statistics. If you’re going to correlate two sets of data, they must be measured independently. In the Dunning-Kruger chart, this principle gets violated. The chart mixes test score into both axes, giving rise to autocorrelation. – The Dunning-Kruger Effect is Autocorrelation
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is Autocorrelation
Degrowth:
This means scaling down destructive sectors such as fossil fuels, mass-produced meat and dairy, fast fashion, advertising, cars and aviation, including private jets. At the same time, there is a need to end the planned obsolescence of products, lengthen their lifespans and reduce the purchasing power of the rich. – Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help
Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help
Business men vs engineers:
When Boeing made money, it was run by engineers. It made good product, and customers knew they could trust the brand. Now that Boeing’s run by businessmen, all it ever does is take more human lives than terrorism does. What good does any businessman offer? All they do is mismanage companies chasing after the perverse incentives. They’ve lost the plot. – the biggest threat facing your team, whether you’re a game developer or a tech founder or a CEO, is not what you think, by Doc Burford
Stop the enshittification. This talk is very good.
It's time to go on the offensive. To restore competition, regulation, interop and tech worker power so that we can create the new, good internet we’ll need to fight fascism, the climate emergency, and genocide. – "Disenshittify or Die", by @pluralistic@mamot.fr
Unionize and plan for a general strike:
In 2023, the UAW held its first honest elections for generations, and radicals, led by Shawn Fain, swept the board. How did workers win their union back? They unionized more workers! … Fain led the UAW to an historic strike: the UAW took on *all three* of the Big Three automakers, and cleaned their clocks. UAW workers walked away with three new contracts, all set to expire in 2028. Fain then called upon *every* union to bargain for contracts that run out in 2028, because if every union contract expires in 2028, we've got the makings of a *general strike*. – General Strike 2028, by @pluralistic@mamot.fr