. . . is small and visually unimpressive. At the moment, it's in my living room. On an end table beside my favorite chair. It's table 3.1 in Chapter 3 of Ecological Economics: An Introduction by Michael Common and Sigrid Stagl. (It's written as a college-level textbook. Greenback's library didn't have it, but the Backboro public library did. Go figure.)
G. Rendell
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August 27, 2012
Yesterday, I posed (and pointed to an answer for) the question I've used to stop many an economist dead in his/her tracks. But I shouldn't pick on economists (at least not on this count). Most people in most professional concentrations are readily stymied if asked to justify or explain what they do in terms of first principles. Sustainability folk are no different. Ask "what's sustainability for?" or some variant thereon. Then prepare to ignore a certain amount of stammering and nervous weight-shifting.
August 26, 2012
When students arrive on campus (as they are currently), it's impossible to know where each is eventually headed. Some will go into the arts (although most won't). Some will go into politics (ditto). Many will to into business or the professions, although more won't. But the one thing of which we can be sure is that each student -- whether (s)he graduates or not, regardless of major or degree -- will become part of the economy.
August 21, 2012
Over the weekend, my watch strap broke. So on Monday, on the way home from campus, I went to the store to get a replacement. More precisely, I went to the stores.
August 15, 2012
OK, this is just a little thing. But sometimes, good thinks come in small packages.
August 14, 2012
It made the news here, but not for long -- ten percent of the world's population lost electric power in a single event.
August 9, 2012
Sometimes you can learn things by watching "reality TV", so long as you keep in mind that it's not ... you know ... real.
August 7, 2012
So I'm struggling with the process of getting my mind around all the aspects of socio-economic sustainability. Lots of good reading, resulting in lots of references to lots more books and articles, some of which will doubtless soon appear in these ramblings.
August 2, 2012
Any time I indicate that a market-based solution to any given problem might be less than optimal, I get beaten over the head with Adam Smith's "invisible hand". A lot of folks (including a lot of folks on Greenback's campus) seem to think that Smith's classic Wealth of Nations defined, once and for all, the innate superiority of "free markets" in all goods, all services, all circumstances.
August 1, 2012
It's probably a little bit (but only a little bit) unfair of me to lay blame for the cultural immaturity that is consumerism at the door of American higher education. After all, most of the behaviors and expectations that prevent children (consumers) from becoming adults (citizens) are established well before entry to college or university.
