M A Jones wrote:
> > Doug Henwood wrote:
>> > Speaking of neoclassicals, didn't Jevons worry about Britain running
>> > out of coal?
>> >
>And Jevons was right.
>
>Today the British coal industry has all-but disappeared
>and can never again, under any circumstances, be the energetics-base for
>large-scale capitalist production. The coal did indeed run out,
>entropically-speaking. N Sea oil is now running out too (peaked several
>years ago). Capitalism is like a man running deeper into quicksand but not
>sinking all at once because he finds occasional tussocks to cling onto.
The point wasn't whether Britain would literally run out of coal -
the point is really what the result of this would be. Jevons thought
that running out of coal meant that "We cannot long rise as we are
now doing." Lower standards of living were inevitable - like Ricardo
on the effects of the rising price of corn. Britain may have lost its
industrial dominance, and fallen relative to Germany and the US, but
British per capita incomes are over nine times higher than what they
were in 1870. But perhaps that ninefold increase is just the last
burst of brightness before the lights really go out.
Doug
