As I initially typed this, a week ago, it was raining outside, the outer remnants of the massive storm system that made its way through the center and south of the country the week before last—a reminder that in the midst of the cartoonish political events we’re living, severe climate change is only ramping up.
I guess the Technocrats were a bunch of right-wing cranks. Maybe a tolerable kind, if the one I met forty years ago was typical.
He made a living as a machinist, but it was more than that. He had a private machine shop that would have been the envy of any large company. It was an astounding collection of machine tools, some of them as old as Henry Ford, most of them massive, and he knew how to use every one.
He had just built a wind turbine. The local paper wrote about it, so I paid him a visit. I am glad I did. He was a real gear head, and not far removed from his central European roots. A genuine character, but not of the wild-eyed kind. He was quiet and earnest. Serious. I regret that I didn't spend enough time with him to learn what he thought about anything other than his wind turbine. It turned out to be a dud, but it sure looked cool. He gave me some Technocracy literature, and I hope to find it one of these days among the piles.
I agree with the Technocrats about one thing. They rejected the kind of money we have been using since it was invented. That kind of money is just a belief system. It isn't real. The technocrats said that energy is the only money. The purpose of money is to sustain life, and there is no life without energy. A credit default swap doesn't cut it.
Of course, life also requires that other natural resource, matter. The point is that the Technocrats dealt in reality. Economists deal in fantasy. They believe that the contract to deliver flour is the same as a loaf of bread. The unreality of it.
But since most of us deal in fantasy, economists will always have work.
I guess the Technocrats were a bunch of right-wing cranks. Maybe a tolerable kind, if the one I met forty years ago was typical.
He made a living as a machinist, but it was more than that. He had a private machine shop that would have been the envy of any large company. It was an astounding collection of machine tools, some of them as old as Henry Ford, most of them massive, and he knew how to use every one.
He had just built a wind turbine. The local paper wrote about it, so I paid him a visit. I am glad I did. He was a real gear head, and not far removed from his central European roots. A genuine character, but not of the wild-eyed kind. He was quiet and earnest. Serious. I regret that I didn't spend enough time with him to learn what he thought about anything other than his wind turbine. It turned out to be a dud, but it sure looked cool. He gave me some Technocracy literature, and I hope to find it one of these days among the piles.
I agree with the Technocrats about one thing. They rejected the kind of money we have been using since it was invented. That kind of money is just a belief system. It isn't real. The technocrats said that energy is the only money. The purpose of money is to sustain life, and there is no life without energy. A credit default swap doesn't cut it.
Of course, life also requires that other natural resource, matter. The point is that the Technocrats dealt in reality. Economists deal in fantasy. They believe that the contract to deliver flour is the same as a loaf of bread. The unreality of it.
But since most of us deal in fantasy, economists will always have work.