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The modern world will change anyway. Maybe we need to rethink whether we actually need to be a 24/7, full time work society. Do social media sites need to be av

The modern world will change anyway. Maybe we need to rethink whether we actually need to be a 24/7, full time work society. Do social media sites need to be available at all times? I think many of us would agree that they would be much improved if they turned off sometimes. In the 1970s, Britain limited the hours almost all industries operated for in response to a fuel shortage. Television stopped at 10:30pm in the evening - is that really a catastrophe? Probably not if you look at it with any real perspective. The three day week is remembered negatively in the media, but maybe this is actually the sort of thing we need to look at as a precedent for a more sustainable world. Maybe the real root of our problems is not in the fuels we use or the way we consume, but in the fact that society is just too busy and does too much, and this uses too much energy. This is what drives us to burn so many fossil fuels and destroy our planet. Maybe a slower society is a more sustainable one.

deepsun 4y ago
But we are already down timing 30% of the time, doing nothing useful!
ianai 4y ago
Do we then close emergency rooms? If no, then where are there people who work in the ER overnight going to to shop or get lunch? What about the poor saps who really can’t sleep and be wakeful at the same daylight hours as the rest of us? How about officers and fire departments? Lots of things that need to be managed don’t conform to timeframes. I sort of agree on your premise, but it’s not a clear cut path.
- captainbland 4y ago
  I sure hope not. I'm not going to be able to come up with specific policy prescriptions that satisfy every outcome personally. I think it's a case of setting the goal, evaluating individual policies that move towards it, assessing the risks and then trialling them - rolling out the ones that seem to work and discarding those that have unacceptable issues. You can't necessarily do everything that satisfies an aim but you can make big moves in that direction and still get most of the benefit.
imtringued 4y ago
If resource usage was taxed appropriately we wouldn't waste so many resources for a quick buck. It's actually a very basic problem. Income is heavily taxed so companies avoid it in favor of resource extraction which is taxed much less. Plastic feed stock is basically free, recycling requires a lot of labor (directly or indirectly) so the system favors disposable plastic. Using energy for automation also lets companies avoid income taxation so there is this constant push to automate more and more.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  I'd love to see those taxes imposed. Problems appear twofold: - This would probably create a very large, and very motivated, black market. - The same dynamics that make these efforts so profitable also make them politically powerful. "Wealth, as Mr Hobbes says, is power." Adam Smith, 1776.
usrn 4y ago
A lot of the capacity for Western countries to accept immigrants comes from our burning of fossil fuels. It's weird that the Left is so pro-immigration and anti-energy.
hulitu 4y ago
It was a catastrophe. When you turn off the TV (or social media), people begin to think.

deepsun 4y ago

But we are already down timing 30% of the time, doing nothing useful!

ianai 4y ago

Do we then close emergency rooms? If no, then where are there people who work in the ER overnight going to to shop or get lunch? What about the poor saps who really can’t sleep and be wakeful at the same daylight hours as the rest of us? How about officers and fire departments? Lots of things that need to be managed don’t conform to timeframes. I sort of agree on your premise, but it’s not a clear cut path.

captainbland 4y ago
I sure hope not. I'm not going to be able to come up with specific policy prescriptions that satisfy every outcome personally. I think it's a case of setting the goal, evaluating individual policies that move towards it, assessing the risks and then trialling them - rolling out the ones that seem to work and discarding those that have unacceptable issues. You can't necessarily do everything that satisfies an aim but you can make big moves in that direction and still get most of the benefit.

imtringued 4y ago

If resource usage was taxed appropriately we wouldn't waste so many resources for a quick buck. It's actually a very basic problem. Income is heavily taxed so companies avoid it in favor of resource extraction which is taxed much less. Plastic feed stock is basically free, recycling requires a lot of labor (directly or indirectly) so the system favors disposable plastic. Using energy for automation also lets companies avoid income taxation so there is this constant push to automate more and more.

dredmorbius 4y ago
I'd love to see those taxes imposed. Problems appear twofold: - This would probably create a very large, and very motivated, black market. - The same dynamics that make these efforts so profitable also make them politically powerful. "Wealth, as Mr Hobbes says, is power." Adam Smith, 1776.

usrn 4y ago

A lot of the capacity for Western countries to accept immigrants comes from our burning of fossil fuels. It's weird that the Left is so pro-immigration and anti-energy.

hulitu 4y ago

It was a catastrophe. When you turn off the TV (or social media), people begin to think.