Dear Thomas,
TL:
> Your argument about "natural/material" value, rather than token value has
> some merit. I would appreciate your comments in the context of Galbraith
> (not in quote) who gives these figures. 10% are employed in the knowledge
> sector, 10% in the manufacturing of goods and 80% in the providing of
> services.
A 'cradle to grave' analysis of many service occupations may surprise
you. Fast food is called a 'service' industry. Think about the calories
used to serve a hamburger: pump and transport water for irrigating
fields, manufacture & transport petro-based fertilizers, pesticides &
fungicides, run harvest machines, transport workers to & from fields,
transport grain, process grains into cattle feed(incl transp. of
employees), transport the feed to feedlots. Cowboys drive trucks now,
the calves must be transported & have water pumped to them, waste
removed...Then cattle shipped to slaughterhouses, electricity used to
butcher, run conveyors, deliver via refrigerated trucks, warehouses,
grinding & shaping patties, lighting and climate control at all
processing stages, transporting patties to food outlets, transporting
workers to food outlets, climate control, refrigeration, dishwasher
machines, disposable napkins, mimipacks of salt/pepper/ketchup/relish,
waste removal in restaurants...
How would JG classify the above? What % "manufacturing of goods"?
> Yes their may be limits on the amount of phospate or oil but in truth, it
> seems that when it comes to employment most of us are exchanging human
> energy for other humans satisfactions rather than hard manufactured goods.
Waste sinks don't differentiate the human purpose or classification of
the behavior producing the overload of pollutants! The electricity
running our computers is made by converting resources into usuable
energy and waste products, incl heat. And all we're producing is hot
air. :-)
> What does a lawyer, accountant, dance instructor
Think of their locomotion, on job energy requirements, and
infrastructure manufacture, maintenance, deterioration... required for
their work. No element escapes as pure; to think requires calories!
>, janitor or lawn service
cleaning/fertilizing/pesticide/herbicide/fungicide chemicals, energy to
run the waxing machine, vacuum, lawn mowers, leaf blowers..
> employee create in terms of the limits of "natural/material" goods, other
> than some small amount of supplies in paper or fuel or use of a building.
It's not what the workers "create", it's what is utilized in the total
process of existing as the most consumptive species on earth, no matter
what the occupation.
Not small. Huge. Include the manufacture of the buildings, transport &
manufacture of all furniture, decor, plumbing, wiring, ducts, furnaces,
air conditioners, continual energy usage, depreciation and replacement
if every item involved.
> In fact, if we went to a durable model of goods rather than a planned
> obsolence model of goods, we could extend the life considerably of the
> "natural/material" world.
Yes, we could improve the situation somewhat. Have you heard of "Factor
Four", or "Factor 10" These refer to improvement via clean technology of
conservation and waste reduction. I wish it were as easy as you imply.
Regards,
Steve
