RE: energy entropy + capitalist crisis

[sawicky@xxxxxxxxxx (Max Sawicky)]

Several quick comments . . .

MJ:
. . . The argument that energy supply is 'infinite' derives from the
neo-classical economics concept of substitutability. . . .

I don't think this is true of neo-classical econ, namely
there is no doctrine of infinite resources that I recall
from the course in resources that I took.  (I was doing
well in it, until the finals, which coincided with the
baseball playoffs).  There are theorems about the optimal
rate of exhaustion of (exhaustible) resources.  Certainly
prices are held to inspire investment in substitutes, but
there is no guarantee that such substitutes will be found
or be feasible in the long run.  There are technical and
natural limits in play.

I suppose it is possible that in some professorial treatments,
simple optimism not unlike the sort I reflected is offered as
some kind of scientific certainty.

I wonder if anyone is familiar with Nicholas Georgescu-Rogin (sp?).
He was brought to my dept to give a seminar way back in '81 or
so and seemed to have a similar take on all this, albeit at a
very high level of mathematical abstraction.  He was of Romanian
extraction, I think, and flipped everyone out by talking about
constant, fixed, and variable capital.

mbs