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Comment by gintas | Hacker News Reader

"Why should economics be a social science, because it's about stuff?" Yeah, right. For example, and I build "stuff" (from something like "bit substance", I take it?) for a living...

Economics is not related much to physics. On the contrary, it's pretty much metaphysics as its quant is money, which is socially constructed.

It is fallacious to assume that economic growth will lead to growth in energy use. Quality, not only quantity generates value. In other words, if a baker keeps baking better-tasting bread, and a piano maker keeps making better-sounding pianos, the economy will grow. Improving quality does not necessarily need extra energy.

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In other words, if a baker keeps baking better-tasting bread, and a piano maker keeps making better-sounding pianos, the economy will grow.

This is true, but only to a point. Market saturation also plays a role, plus the theoretical and practical limits to quality in both of those cases. Costs do not scale linearly with quality increases. There is a limit to the quality differences people can differentiate, so at some point people will stop paying for better bread and pianos because a) they better versions are too expensive, and/or b) they can't tell the difference between that and what they already have.

How many people do you know who wish they had a piano but they can't find one that's of high enough quality?

Quite so. Here's an article about a long-running strike that recently ended at an american factory specializing in trumpets, which has been unable to compete with those made in China: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/25/...

I have no doubt that years of experience can lead to a superior instrument, but the market for such a device is limited to the few musicians who are able to play at a superior level. you can also see this closer to our home in the commodification of computer hardware; the resolution ability audio technology (as used in soundcards) passed beyond the threshold of human hearing ability some time ago, so competition has shifted towards features, design and branding.

I do agree with the article's suggestion that economics should adjust to the idea of energy as the fundamental quantum of value, but given the general public's poor understanding of economics it might be argued that there's insufficient demand to drive such innovation in the shot term.

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