In the latter half of the 20th century, this changed radically: Industrial production had by then increased to the point where the availability of raw materials had become a point of crucial importance. The iconic resource crisis (although this went largely unrecognised at the time) was probably the oil shock following the peak of the Texas oil production.
At least, this is stated by a Swedish Professor called Svedberg. He argues that the inflation indices have been too high, whereas a lot of other people have argued that the changes recently introduced with regard to hedonic pricing have made the indices too low, so I am just passing that along.
Svedberg does have an interesting table in one of his lectures (pdf) which shows that the use of metals and oil has grown at a slower rate than overall economic production since the 1970s. This strongly points to their relative scarcity. With regard to metals, I would guess that recycling rates have gone up a lot, and that the figures shown here are of overall inputs, not extraction.
Particularly over the last 15-20 years, GDP growth has been driven by activities that consume little or no physical resources - information, banking, service sector etc.
activities that consume little or no physical resources - information, banking, service sector etc.
there's another side to that, though, because those 'activities' subsidise and finance the most destructive 'other' activities, whose additions to the GDP are rife with profits that will have to be paid for later, and steal from the commons.
obviously the tool of finance is not inherently the problem, ot Jerome would not have pulled off such a mighty achievement recently, but this tool is being so seriously misused right now, it has become such an accomplice to so much of what is wrong around us, and case like Jerome's are the exception.
great diary, Jake, very clear, organised, and accessible writing, thanks. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
service sector etc.there's another side to that, though, because those 'activities' subsidise and finance the most destructive 'other' activities
service sector etc.
hit a nerve there, teach me to be more discrete about my clients...
besides you know quite well i rob from rub the rich to feed the poor, so there!
seriously tho', i do feel bad thinking how maybe i'm helping evil people feel good, so they can go forth and destroy better the next day, and yes it bothers me, as it should.
i guess for purity's sake i should establish a person's eco-credentials before selling my services, lol.
i did say a couple of things i probably shouldn't have though! (i generally don't attract clients like that, i was subbing in for a friend.)
those 'escort girls' of berlu are fully culpable in that they are selling energy to him. without those hits he he would have crumpled a long time ago.
information is expensive, because server farms use huge amounts of energy, banking is expensive because of dishonesty and bad faith.
massage? a renewable resource, an ever-expanding market, (though many unable to afford last year's prices), and i just heard from a friend who worked at a private villa in Nice (€180,000 a week rental), that the going rate fro a live-in massage therapist there in season is €2,000 euros a week!
still peanuts next to the bar bill, i bet. the cook bought one fish for €500 from his source.
funny old world... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
banking is expensive because of dishonesty and bad faith.
case like Jerome's are the exception
I'm not sure that's true. Most of the employees in the banking sector - even of the minority engaged in front office activities of wholesale banking (as opposed to overwhelmingly boring retail banking) are engaged in mundane and necessary tasks. The number of people engaged in trading and speculative investment activities is not that large - it's just that they are the most idolised, "sexy" and talked about, and of course that they capture disproportionate fractions of bank income. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
As usual, there has to be - and there isn't - a distinction between intangible value creation, and intangible thievery and mendacious accounting.
And even the service sector has significant infrastructure costs. It would be interesting to compare the energy and raw material costs needed to produce and run a server and a car.
I suspect the total resource bill would be closer than many people realise.
