252 karma · joined December 23, 2015
There's a limit of how far you can transport electricity, the majority of methane gas burnt and wasted.
Mining gold could be used on other things, energy going into dropping bombs could be used for other things... sadly it's just idealism.
Say the price of potatoes is $100 per pound today, but my potatoes aren't ready until next week. Well, I can take out a short contract to lock in the price and when my potatoes are ready I sell the potatoes and close the short.
I'm covered in both cases. If the price goes down I will make profit on my short contract but less price on the potatoes. If the price goes up then my short will lose some value but the increase in my potatoes will cover the losses. In either case I will have gain the $100 I was expecting.