3 ms·

Jevons Paradox

8 points by 1cvmask 5y ago

antasvara 5y ago
I wonder why this is considered a paradox. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that people have a set budget for laundry/food/other resources; by increasing efficiency, the money set aside can purchase more goods. I think that for most goods, the limiting factor is cost. I would certainly eat more filet mignon if the price were lower, and I'd definitely run the air conditioner more if the power cost was lower. Increased air conditioner efficiency doesn't change the amount of money I have to spend on air conditioning.
- daniel-cussen 5y ago
  This is different. This is if the price of filet mignon drops, you end up spending more money on filet in absolute terms.
readonthegoapp 5y ago
I think this video is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTfwhbfMnNc&t=202s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTfwhbfMnNc&t=202s To me, electrifying cars just makes it possible for us to continue destroying the world as quickly as we've been destroying it -- possibly even faster. and it seems it probably has at least something to do with the jevons paradox/hypothesis. one part you could call the paradox is, when people get e-cars, they drive _more_ -- which is not what we want, in theory. i thought some Prius study said that. but when i think of how people actually drive e-cars, i would think they still have range anxiety, so prob end up driving them less. and the people who drive them drive less. If, on the other hand, we just let gas prices rise, then people and industries would naturally start shifting to more cost-efficient modes of transport -- cities would start being redesigned around walking and biking, etc. I've seen the analyses about e-cars being good on an individual cradle-to-grave swap-out basis, and maybe even read something addressing cars from an epidemiological persepctive, but i'm not buying at least the epi perspective -- i'm unconvinced. maybe every city will be like Paris and get a socialist mayor and start allowing people to walk and bike, in spite of cars going electric, but is that going to be the norm? i doubt it. we'll see. ...adding, the best short, medium, and long-term option is a simple carbon tax. but it's not clear how we would implement that and have the non-rich bear most of the burden. if/when we figure that out, the carbon tax will be implemented.

8 points by 1cvmask 5y ago

I wonder why this is considered a paradox. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that people have a set budget for laundry/food/other resources; by increasing efficiency, the money set aside can purchase more goods. I think that for most goods, the limiting factor is cost. I would certainly eat more filet mignon if the price were lower, and I'd definitely run the air conditioner more if the power cost was lower. Increased air conditioner efficiency doesn't change the amount of money I have to spend on air conditioning.

daniel-cussen 5y ago
This is different. This is if the price of filet mignon drops, you end up spending more money on filet in absolute terms.

readonthegoapp 5y ago

I think this video is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTfwhbfMnNc&t=202s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTfwhbfMnNc&t=202s To me, electrifying cars just makes it possible for us to continue destroying the world as quickly as we've been destroying it -- possibly even faster. and it seems it probably has at least something to do with the jevons paradox/hypothesis. one part you could call the paradox is, when people get e-cars, they drive _more_ -- which is not what we want, in theory. i thought some Prius study said that. but when i think of how people actually drive e-cars, i would think they still have range anxiety, so prob end up driving them less. and the people who drive them drive less. If, on the other hand, we just let gas prices rise, then people and industries would naturally start shifting to more cost-efficient modes of transport -- cities would start being redesigned around walking and biking, etc. I've seen the analyses about e-cars being good on an individual cradle-to-grave swap-out basis, and maybe even read something addressing cars from an epidemiological persepctive, but i'm not buying at least the epi perspective -- i'm unconvinced. maybe every city will be like Paris and get a socialist mayor and start allowing people to walk and bike, in spite of cars going electric, but is that going to be the norm? i doubt it. we'll see. ...adding, the best short, medium, and long-term option is a simple carbon tax. but it's not clear how we would implement that and have the non-rich bear most of the burden. if/when we figure that out, the carbon tax will be implemented.