Jevon's Law and A Steady State Economy

A Steady State Economy

In his essay, Herman Daly suggests we try and make the switch from a growth economy to a steady-state economy. He feels we cannot grow anymore, and it is in fact hurting us. He discusses stopping aggregate growth because it is uneconomical, but we should start redistribution. If we stop aggregate growth, we will not need to advertise, saving billions of dollars. Daly says, "Adjustment requires either higher taxes, older retirement age, or reduced retirement pensions." Knowledge has an opportunity cost of zero, so that should be used for this new economic idea. Taxes should be put on things we don't want (depletion and pollution), rather than things we do. Some banking problems would be solved by only lending money that has actually been saved by someone. At the end of this article, he sums up how an SSE economy could be accomplished with 10 things.

Jevon's Law: Enforcing the Age of Energy Decline- Part 1

When Jevons published his paper, he was witnessing the beginning of the fossil fuel eruption. At this time, coal was the main source of fuel, and he was afraid they'd run out. He realized that it would become "too expensive to be profitable." Jevon's law states: "As the utility provided by an energy source increases or decreases in comparison to the amount of utility expended to obtain it, so does the overall usage and utility provided by that energy source, over time." We have become addicted to oil and fossil fuels, and it will ultimately lead to our demise.

xenophobe- one unduly fearful of what is foreign and especially of people of foreign origin

Questions

1. Jevons was not worried about running out of coal, rather he was worried that we would consume so much of it that it would result in the "exhaustion of economically viable sources of coal."

2.Economically, Daly's comparison between an airplane and a helicopter basically means that an airplane cannot do what a helicopter can and nor should it, just like a growth economy cannot do what a steady-state economy can.

My Questions

1. This isn't really a question, but after reading the Daly article, I'm still not exactly sure what he means.

2. Do you think a SSE could actually work?

3. Is there anything we can do about this oil overshoot as described in the Jevon's Law article?