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To Alter or to AbolishChapter 2Energy FlowsWritten by Darrell Anderson. Water, water, every where, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner No human cannot not act.[1] As long as any human thinks, breathes, and desires to survive, that individual is compelled to do something. Survival at any level requires all living entities to sustain their energy flows. Life is a physical process of sustaining energy flows and understanding human interaction is impossible without understanding that process. Whether or not humans or other animals understand or can articulate such ideas, that process would nonetheless continue. Without energy all life stops. Energy is the capacity to perform work. That capacity exists in the form of atomic, light, mechanical, electrical, magnetic, chemical, and heat energy. Work is the process of applying physical force to move objects.[2] Power is the rate at which work is performed.[3] Measuring power is a way to monitor the flow of energy. Every living entity occupies space in the physical world and requires sustenance. Sustenance requires energy. Just sitting around and doing nothing never will provide any human with basics needs, let alone wants. Every individual must use personal energy to provide the additional energy they need to satisfy those needs and wants. All human existence is concerned with sustaining energy flows — no individual or collection of humans can exist otherwise.[4] Unlike plants, all animals — including humans — are incapable of directly metabolizing inanimate energy.[5] Humans therefore depend primarily upon plants to convert energy into initial usable forms. Additionally, the Second Law of Thermodynamics teaches the principle of inefficiency. Efficiency is a process of controlling energy flows as close as possible to the source of the energy.[6] The Second Law often is defined in many ways but can be summarized:[7] Energy tends to flow and scatter. In any closed system the amount of usable energy tends to decrease. Entropy — the amount of unusable energy — tends to increase. All closed systems eventually reach temperature equilibrium — heat death. There is no such thing as a perfectly efficient heat engine. Perpetual motion is impossible. Perpetual motion is a process of maintaining energy flows without additional input. Closed systems “wind down” and reach a state of equilibrium because the amount of usable energy continually decreases. Without continual sustenance the human body would be considered a closed system, but fortunately humans can act to replenish themselves and sustain their energy flows. The human body, therefore, is an open system. Because every human requires continued sustenance to maintain life, that effort to survive is transformed into inevitable human action. Breathing and eating are acts of survival and sustaining energy flows. To survive, all living entities must use more energy than they generate internally because the Second Law teaches that no energy conversion process is 100 percent efficient. That same law teaches that all physical substances are subject to decay. Therefore, all humans must continually replenish their energy flows and possess no other choice — the alternative is death. This naturally occurring inefficiency often motivates humans to become more efficient, that is, become more economical.[8] Economy refers to utility — the efficient provision of needs and wants, not the study of commercial exchange of goods and services. The latter is more correctly labeled chrematistics. The field of study traditionally called economics specializes in the study of that part of the total social system which is organized through exchange and which deals with exchangeables.[9] From an energy perspective seeking economy is seeking efficiency. In short, many human decisions are economic decisions, a continual quest of becoming more efficient in sustaining energy flows and satisfying needs and wants.[10] For humans, the process of converting energy into work is called labor.[11] All labor is the conversion of energy into work but is recognized in two broad forms — productive and creative labor. Productive labor satisfies the need and desire for directly sustaining energy flows and physical life. Creative labor satisfies the joy of expression and intellectual curiosity. Humans provide productive labor to plant and harvest beans for supper, and creative labor to plant flowers for interpreted pleasure. Creative labor uses energy resources but often for no reason than to provide mental satisfaction. Creative labor is sometimes called recreation or leisure. Many human activities include both types of labor. The desire for efficient production does not result in a continuous focused pursuit of efficiency. Efficiency is merely a means through which humans satisfy needs and wants, but efficient productive labor allows more opportunities to pursue creative labor. Human efficiency is always based upon perception. Humans live in a world where they are engaged daily in the process of expending their energies and time in order to satisfy their needs and wants because no energy conversion process is perfectly efficient. Humans cannot change this fundamental process of the universe. To survive — to sustain energy flows — humans must combine their labor and knowledge with existing resources. At a fundamental level individuals combine their labor with natural resources. Everything humans need or might want does not immediately exist, or at least is not within easy grasp. In the Garden of Eden individuals would have to expend a minimal amount of energy and time to sustain their lives. If nothing else, they at least would have to walk to the fruit trees and streams for their daily food and water, and they still would need to exercise their bodies or else experience muscle atrophy. This is how the early hunter-gatherers and herders survived. These observations reveal the principle of scarcity. That is, the physical things humans need or want do not exist abundantly or immediately. Scarcity does not always mean unavailable or nonexistent, only that supply is limited or restricted in some fashion with respect to a specific moment in time.[12] If something does exist that will satisfy needs or wants, individuals must expend some labor and time in order to obtain those things. A fruit tree in the Garden of Eden is a scarce resource if the fruit is not immediately available within hand’s reach. Even if within hand’s reach the fruit remains scarce until harvested and eaten. By definition, that fruit is a good, and the act of expending labor to harvest that fruit is a service. The principle of scarcity teaches that anything people need or want becomes a good or service. If people do not need or want those things, then those things are not scarce. By definition, only those things that humans do not possess and concurrently need or want can become scarce; and only when a thing becomes scarce does the item become a good or service. When any thing is considered scarce and becomes a good or service, people assign some sort of perceived value to that object. People determine value through subjective desires and the ability to acquire. Human desire is both interpretive and virtually unlimited and is part of the unconditional realm of existence, but the ability to acquire is limited and part of the conditional realm. Both desire and value are subjective interpretive processes. The concept of value does not necessarily imply something is beneficial, but only the opinion that something is beneficial. Value is a measure of intensity and how much energy one exerts.[13] When individuals apply perceived value to goods or services they then seek ways to obtain those goods and services. Conversely, if nobody wants the thing, the thing no longer has value. Some objects also possess negative value. Goods that individuals no longer want might cost individuals to dispose of those items.[14] Daily household trash or a ruined loaf of bread are examples. Value is a function of many elements. Being subjective, only an individual can define value.[15] Thus, there is no such thing as intrinsic value. Intrinsic means belonging to the real nature of a thing, not being dependent upon external circumstances.[16] Only each individual can decide whether a good or service has value. In the Garden of Eden, the desire for apples today might be a desire for oranges tomorrow. Because all human energy is expended toward satisfying needs and wants, each individual determines how much labor to provide to sustain energy flows. If an individual determines that the amount of labor and time exceeds perceived value, then an individual likely will not pursue obtaining that thing.[17] Just as beauty is subjectively in the eye of the beholder, so too is value in the eye of the beholder. Distinguishing between needs and wants is an individual exercise.[18] In addition to the inescapable natural inefficiency described by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, living within the constraints of the time domain teaches that humans never immediately satisfy their needs and wants. People must continually expend time while satisfying needs and wants. The fruit that grows today might quickly spoil tomorrow. This observation teaches that the dimension of time is itself a scarce resource.[19] Unlike many natural resources and with respect to the relatively short life spans of humans, time is a nonrenewable resource. That humans never immediately satisfy their needs and wants does not mean humans are always discontented, but only that there are natural limits to satisfying those desires. Observing that time is a scarce resource also teaches that our bodies are scarce resources. Not only is there only one of each human, but no individual can perform more than one act at any one time.[20] Combined with the element of time, humans can act only in a sequential, linear manner. Performing one act necessarily means not performing other acts. Decisions must be made regarding what acts to perform and what requirements are involved.[21] Every human action possesses opportunity costs. Opportunity costs are the highest valued benefit that must be restrained or limited as the result of choosing an alternate action.[22] In a world of scarcity, opportunity costs describes the process humans encounter when deciding how to value various options in satisfying energy flows. The dimension of time always moves forward and never can be replaced. How each individual uses time is a function of interpreted values and preferences.[23] Observing human action affirms that people generally seek efficient ways of satisfying needs and wants. Observing human action teaches that humans are continually expending and using time, energy, and resources to sustain their energy flows and satisfy their needs and wants. These behaviors are part of the natural existence of humans, and can be called physical or natural laws. Physical laws arise from observing nature or the effects of nature and are fixed and unchangeable. Physical laws exist whether or not humans observe them or are aware of the effects. Humans can react to or apply these naturally occurring laws but remain forever incapable to change such laws. Humans merely are another component of nature and the pre-existing laws of nature limit human actions. For example, notice the law of gravity exhibits a repeatable behavior, is unchangeable, and if defied results in expected consequences. The law of gravity exists regardless of whether humans recognize or understand that physical law. Jump off a cliff if you truly want to test that physical law. Likewise, there are expected consequences when humans cannot sustain their energy flows. Finis. Next: Chapter 3 — The Pursuit of Happiness Endnotes [1] Hoppe, A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism, p. 10, footnote 3. [2] Asimov, Understanding Physics, pp. 84–100. [3] Asimov, Understanding Physics, pp. 92–93. [4] Toffler, The Third Wave, p. 25. [5] Soddy, Wealth, Virtual wealth and Debt, p. 48. [6] Soddy, Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt, pp. 47–48. [7] Asimov, Understanding Physics, pp. 226–234. [8] Soddy, Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt, pp. 73, 97. [9] Boulding, “Economics As A Moral Science,” p. 4. [10] Gwartney and Stroup, Economics, Private and Public Choice, p. 7. [11] Sumner, What Social Classes Owe, p. 71. [12] Gwartney and Stroup, Economics, Private and Public Choice, pp. 4–5. [13] Hall and Lindzey, Theories of Personality, p. 129. [14] Barnard, Draining the Swamp, pp. 29–30. [15] Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, p. 66. [16] Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, second edition, 1983. [17] Lane, The Discovery of Freedom, p. 44. [18] Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom, p. 67. [19] Hoppe, Democracy, p. 1. [20] Hoppe, A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism, p. 10. [21] Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom, p. 137. [22] Gwartney and Stroup, Economics, Private and Public Choice, p. 19. [23] Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions, pp. 93–94. |
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