What we need is a computer whiz who can turn the Mark II economy into a scintillating computer game complete with fancy graphical user interface, animation, etc. In short, make it fun and easy to use and understand.
I hope that a person or persons younger and more talented than the author will produce a simplified model economy that looks much more like a real economy with many more sectors than four and sub-sectors and banking and profit-taking and government and perpetual war etc. Then, we would have an idea what is required of a primary energy source, e. g., alcohol from switch grass or bio-diesel from algae in aquaculture, if the entire economy (including perpetual war and everything else useful or not) ran on that one primary energy source. We would be able to tell if the energy produced could power the entire economy. All the energy costs whether they contributed to producing energy or not must not exceed the energy produced by the energy technology under investigation. See, for example, http://www.dematerialism.net/remarks.htm.
Then, we could cut out a few of the frivolous expenses, then more frivolous expenses, and eventually get rid of parasitical businessmen and see if that results in a sustainable economy. When we were done with that stage of the experiment, we would have a good idea about what sort of economy is sustainable with that primary energy source and what sort is not. We might then repeat the same exercise with a second primary energy technology. Etc.
Finally, we would introduce multiple energy sources and solve the matching problem for a realistic economy. This would all be based on the kinds of experiments I did with the Mark II Economy. I nearly ruined my health with the Mark II Economy, and this is a simple economy. Clearly, I need help. Unfortunately, I can’t be certain that anyone will take the work seriously for all the reasons people find NOT to do the right thing.
If we do this experiment, we will see that it is impossible to produce enough sustainable energy to support monetary systems and markets. Also, in a sustainable eco-community, who wants to waste valuable time accounting for who spent what on what? The members of the community will be pretty busy with gardens and other things they need to live. The butcher, baker, and candlestick maker will be busy enough without collecting bills, keeping books, or maintaining a cash register. (How many times have you found what you wanted in a store in five minutes but took a half hour to pay for it? Only yesterday, I walked into Home Depot knowing that I wanted 10 sheets of plywood for hurricane shutters but spent nearly an hour paying. Or, consider my separate medical files: one for actual medical considerations like referrals, prescription information, copies of physicians’ notes, etc. and a second for medical billing. The file for billing must outweigh the other file by a factor of ten at least.)
Even if we don’t do the above experiment, my conclusion that the economy cannot afford markets and monetary systems has been validated by the numerical experiments in http://www.dematerialism.net/CwC.html that were summarized in http://www.dematerialism.net/demise.htm.
Thomas L Wayburn
Houston, Texas
July 16, 2006
Revised August 4, 2006
Revised October 16, 2006