January 27, 2023
Food, fertilizer, and climate change
Fuct Fact Friday:
Thirty per cent of greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and food.
Much of the rest of our emissions comes from distributing food around the planet in plastic containers moved by burning oil.
Europe burns natural gas to produce fertilizer, just in case you were wondering why Russia's war in Ukraine is causing an increase in food costs next year.
China burns coal to produce fertilizer. Which is not exactly better.
> Electrifying fertiliser production by using water electrolysis to produce the hydrogen. This requires averagely 25 times as much energy as today's production method using natural gas, so it would take huge amounts of electricity from carbon-neutral sources.
This just one of the myriad of reasons the math of capitalism means it cannot stop or deal with climate change.
Macron's attack on older workers
There are two reasons that the government in France is attacking older people. One is that they want to increase tax revenue without increasing the tax rate on capital.
The other reason that the French (and others) are trying to increase the retirement age is that they think younger and older people are inflationary. That is, they use resources, but do not produce things, thus creating more "pull" on limited resource production.
This is only partly true, but the part that is true is irrelevant to the discussion of any solution to inflation. And, it is more evidence that neoclassical economists are sociopaths.
Granted, having people who are not working is inflationary. But, people who are retired or people who are still babies are not really a problem to solve to deal with inflation.
However, that is exactly what economists are trying to do when attacking pensions (gideally invested in value production, so counter productive), demand unpaid labour (childcare and eldercare at home), all the while trying to make people work longer.
The analysis of the Federal Reserve is that people are just machines to maximize output from.
This is not the economy most of use would choose if given a vote. Which makes me ask, why is it the economy that we have?
Inflation is not caused by wages, more anecdotal evidence
This from FT's Unheadged:
Not a surprise, but fun to see written down.
Not all industrial policy is created equal—Angella MacEwen
Responding to the poly-crisis will require coherent and coordinated planning. Whether or not we're successful will depend on our assumptions about how the economy works.
socialeconomics.substack.com