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Total money spent on card catalogs went down since 1980. Does that mean value was destroyed?

• morelisp 4y ago
  In a weird coincidence, I have been trying find a card catalogs or two for home storage for a couple months. These are often incredibly well-made solid wood furniture, and yet most libraries worldwide have just been scrapping them. (Their size and weight makes them extremely difficult to ship - buyers/sellers aren't well aligned.) So, in short, yes. We also got new value, but tons is being unnecessarily destroyed.
  • raldi 4y ago
    Imagine someone were to invent a miracle power source that could be produced easily and cheaply by anyone and allowed all vehicles to be powered for free, completely obliterating the fossil fuel industry. In this situation, would you say value was created or destroyed?
    • morelisp 4y ago
      If we just let the fossil fuel infrastructure rust/sink? Lots definitely destroyed. Perhaps material-neutral "value" is not a particular good measure of anything.