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If those models are true, then most of economists' prescriptions (deregulation, taxation) are useless. It's population growth that dictates economic growth. Wo
by aredox 3y ago
If those models are true, then most of economists' prescriptions (deregulation, taxation) are useless. It's population growth that dictates economic growth.
Wonder if their models integrate the fact the Earth is finite...
- whatshisface 3y agoThere are a lot of metals in the asteroid belt.
- NortySpock 3y agoOr even the Moon
- A_D_E_P_T 3y agoNot terribly useful ones, though. The available metals on the moon are largely just silicon, aluminum, iron, magnesium, and titanium -- much like on Earth. https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/the-chemical-composition-of-lunar-soil/ https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/the-chemical-com... Asteroids are more interesting because they contain high concentrations of slightly denser metals of considerably more interest -- nickel, cobalt, etc. They can also contain much higher than normal concentrations of very heavy metals -- iridium, platinum, etc. -- that are rare in the Earth's crust because they're so heavy they tended to migrate to the core!
- cyberax 3y agoJust a note. They migrated to the core because they easily form alloys with iron ("siderophiles").
- kiba 3y agoThere's more metals in the Earth's crust and core. The metals in the asteroid belts are more accessible.
- aredox 3y agoI wonder if their models take into account the cost of mining asteroids.
- victorbjorklund 3y agoPeople have been saying that resources are gonna run out for 200 years... hasnt happened yet... the opposite... we have less people starving today than 200 years ago...
- chefkoch 3y agoRessources aren't our problem. We have enough fossil fuels to change our climate, destroy the soil with too much fertilizer and build fishing trawlers until the oceans are empty.
- paulddraper 3y agoThe oceans are huge
- Manuel_D 3y agoMore importantly, ~50% of fish we eat are harvested through aquaculture rather than wild caught.
- defrost 3y agoSo are deserts ... neither of which are especially relevant to whether or not the parts that produce most of the fish are being over taxed beyond replenishment rates or not. This casual "the world has infinite resources to sustain unlimited human growth" is a bit 19th century and hasn't dated well.
- paulddraper 3y agoLol Malthus was literally 19th century.
- defrost 3y ago> Malthus ... Name a century without contrary characters and governments. 'LoL' and 'But Wat About' aren't considered responses. Ocean resources are being depleted - it's simple enough to look up over fishing and a variety of reports on this from about the planet, not just direct overharvesting of fish, also reef destruction and other side effects from net dragging and industry that drive numbers down.