Monthly Archive: May 2009

Lower GDP, but Higher Quality of Life?

Lower GDP, but Higher Quality of Life?

It is time to put aside, explicitly and decisively, the objective of higher GDP. GDP measures quantity, not quality of production. GDP presumes that a growth in production is a growth in quality of life, when in fact we have reached a point that the opposite is true. Not even our current level of goods production can be sustained, much less continual increases.

Are we Human, or are we Tweep?

In classical economics, humans engage in value transactions with an eye towards their own advantage.  A plausible and useful hypothesis.  Somehow presupposed is a value calculation, even if often based on fuzzy logic. Modern...

Prelude: Knowledge

We learn and invent signs and sounds to refer to patterns, and use them to facilitate and communicate thought and intention.

Human Population through the Ages

From 1700 to 2000 CE, a period of only 300 years, world population increased 10-fold to over 6,000 Million people – a compound annual growth rate of .75 %, ten times higher than in the previous era. More amazing, from 1900 to 2000, the growth rate was over 1.3 %, doubling twice in just 100 years. World population will have increased by almost as many people in the twelve years from 2000 to 2012 as it did in the 6000 years from the invention of the wheel to the invention of the steam engine!