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You're making the mistake of thinking money means anything. Economics is a thin veneer we put over thermodynamics to make accounting easier. Whenever the ther

You're making the mistake of thinking money means anything. Economics is a thin veneer we put over thermodynamics to make accounting easier. Whenever the thermodynamics doesn't work economics stops working either. The 1970s were a short period were thermodynamics were sub-optimal. The dark ages were a longer period. Money is ink on paper or bits in a computer. Neither of those things runs a tractor or lets water flow.

andsoitis 4y ago
> Economics is a thin veneer we put over thermodynamics to make accounting easier. Shouldn't it be "Economics is a thin veneer we put over thermodynamics to make trade / exchange easier"?
soco 4y ago
You're right, money don't run tractors or flow waters. But they build serious incentives for either - people won't run a tractor if the incentive is missing, or a too strong incentive might stop a water flow.
- thrown_22 4y ago
  People don't run tractors. Fossil fuels do. And we've been told that we're phasing out fossil fuels some time between 2030 and 2050. How do we run tractors then? Probably with horses. Welcome to 1500. Please mind the plague.
  - kwhitefoot 4y ago
    Electricity?
yunohn 4y ago
> Economics is a thin veneer we put over thermodynamics to make accounting easier. Maybe you could link a source explaining this correlation with some examples? Otherwise, it just sounds like “higher salaries for more effort”, which is obviously false.
- sam_lowry_ 4y ago
  - yunohn 4y ago
rcarr 4y ago
“Money is ink on paper or bits in a computer. Neither of those things runs a tractor or lets water flow.” Yes but they tell the people who have the fuel and the water where they should send it: the highest bidder. The person who is willing to spend the most money has: a) acquired more money than competitors through smart decisions that have added value to people who have in turn given them their money b) decided they have a more pressing need for those resources that they will outbid the other buyers rather than wait for a drop in prices or to seek an alternative. If the buyer does not make good use of his newly acquired resources he will soon lose money and will not be able to compete with the other buyers. This is how the economic system is meant to allocate resources. To people who have a proven track record of making decisions with successful outcomes. If you start bailing out failures as happened in 2007-2009 you break this fundamental allocation of resources to where they will be most appropriately used based on the historical precedent of success. And when that happens you get what we have now, which is a breakdown of the entire system.

andsoitis 4y ago

> Economics is a thin veneer we put over thermodynamics to make accounting easier. Shouldn't it be "Economics is a thin veneer we put over thermodynamics to make trade / exchange easier"?

soco 4y ago

You're right, money don't run tractors or flow waters. But they build serious incentives for either - people won't run a tractor if the incentive is missing, or a too strong incentive might stop a water flow.

thrown_22 4y ago
People don't run tractors. Fossil fuels do. And we've been told that we're phasing out fossil fuels some time between 2030 and 2050. How do we run tractors then? Probably with horses. Welcome to 1500. Please mind the plague.
- kwhitefoot 4y ago
  Electricity?

yunohn 4y ago

> Economics is a thin veneer we put over thermodynamics to make accounting easier. Maybe you could link a source explaining this correlation with some examples? Otherwise, it just sounds like “higher salaries for more effort”, which is obviously false.

sam_lowry_ 4y ago
- yunohn 4y ago

rcarr 4y ago

“Money is ink on paper or bits in a computer. Neither of those things runs a tractor or lets water flow.” Yes but they tell the people who have the fuel and the water where they should send it: the highest bidder. The person who is willing to spend the most money has: a) acquired more money than competitors through smart decisions that have added value to people who have in turn given them their money b) decided they have a more pressing need for those resources that they will outbid the other buyers rather than wait for a drop in prices or to seek an alternative. If the buyer does not make good use of his newly acquired resources he will soon lose money and will not be able to compete with the other buyers. This is how the economic system is meant to allocate resources. To people who have a proven track record of making decisions with successful outcomes. If you start bailing out failures as happened in 2007-2009 you break this fundamental allocation of resources to where they will be most appropriately used based on the historical precedent of success. And when that happens you get what we have now, which is a breakdown of the entire system.