Is there enough energy for the credit-bank model?

[Tom Wayburn]

Richard,

Every economic act has energy consequences; moreover, the cost of every economic act can be evaluated in energy terms.  When proposing a new social institution such as the credit bank, it makes sense to determine if there is enough energy in a sustainable energy budget to support it.  I believe that at this juncture you need to provide an energy balance for a community that employs the credit bank model; i. e., you need to do a little serious modeling such as I did in “Energy in a Mark II Economy”.  You can simplify the economy a great deal in the model without destroying the validity of the results if you employ maximum or minimum bounds, whichever is appropriate, on important economic quantities, chief among which is the total energy available from sustainable energy technologies.

Tom Wayburn, Houston, Texas
http://dematerialism.net/

P.S.  The reason that energy, or rather Gibbs availability, is the best scientific choice upon which to base economic values depends upon the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics.  If this is not clear to you, you need to study the appropriate literature.  Odum and I have provided reasonably good material on the subject*; however, the study of thermodynamics is usually painful and time consuming.  This is a study that is necessary to understand sustainability.  It is no wonder that so many people with business backgrounds talk and write so much nonsense on the subject.

*See the energy articles on my website and/or google Howard T. Odum.  In particular, see the development of the crucial combined first and second law to define availability.  http://dematerialism.net/Chapter%202.html#_Definition_of_Emergy_%28with_an_M%29