Posted by: FringeElements
« on: October 15, 2012, 11:49:57 pm »Όχι. Συνάνθρωπος πελάτης είναι όταν πηγαίνεις στην wind να πληρώσεις το πάγιο. Σου χαμογελάει η γκόμενα σου λέει τι θέλεις, της χαμογελάς κτλ. Δεν σε τρώει κανείς και έχεις τις ανέσεις που δεν είχαν οι βασιλιάδες σε άλλες εποχές.
Επίσης κανένας πλανήτης δεν καταστρέφεται. Αυτός ο παραπληγισμός φτάνει τα όρια του Λιακόπουλου που λέει το 2014 το τέλος του κόσμου και τέτοια. Είναι ένα παραμύθι που πλασάρουν οι κρατιστές. Λένε "ο καπιταλισμός θα καταστρέψει τον κόσμο, για αυτό Στάλιν". Είναι το ίδιο παραμύθι... Ο Reisman τα εξηγεί καλά.. η Γη δεν γίνεται να καταστραφεί γιατί οι πεπερασμένοι πόροι δεν καταστρέφονται!
Θα πας στο ποτάμι θα χέσεις. Ωραία. Θα εξατμιστεί. Θα γίνει σύννεφα. Θα βρέξει. Να το ποτάμι ξανά!
1. The Limitless Potential of Natural Resources
The potential for economic progress is in no way
limited by any fundamental lack of natural resources.
Despite the claims so often made that we are in
danger of running out of natural resources, the fact is that
the world is made out of natural resources—out of
solidly packed natural resources, extending from the
upper limits of its atmosphere to its very center, four
thousand miles down. This is so because the entire mass
of the earth is made of nothing but chemical elements,
all of which are natural resources. For example, the
earth’s core is composed mainly of iron and nickel—millions
of cubic miles of iron and nickel. Its oceans and
atmosphere are composed of millions of cubic miles of
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, and of lesser,
but still enormous, quantities of practically every other
element. Even the sands of the Sahara desert are composed
of nothing but various compounds of silicon,
carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, aluminum, iron, and so on,
all of them having who knows what potential uses that
science may someday unlock. Nor is there a single element
that does not exist in the earth in millions of times
larger quantities than has ever been mined. Aluminum is
found in some quantity practically everywhere. There are
immense quantities even of the very rarest elements,
such as gold and platinum, to be found floating in trace
amounts throughout the oceans, for example.
What is true of the earth is equally true of every other
planetary body in the universe. Insofar as the universe
consists of matter, it consists of nothing but chemical
elements, and thus of nothing but natural resources.
Nor is there any fundamental scarcity of energy in the
world. More energy is discharged in a single hurricane
than mankind produces in an entire year. Nor is the
supply of energy in the world reduced in any way by
virtue of the energy man captures from nature. Heat from
the sun provides a constantly renewed supply that is
many millions of times greater than the energy consumed
by man. The total quantity of energy in the world remains
a constant, for all practical purposes incalculably in
excess of what mankind consumes, and will remain so
until the sun begins to cool.
The problem of natural resources is in no sense one of
intrinsic scarcity. From a strictly physical-chemical point
of view, natural resources are one and the same with the
supply of matter and energy that exists in the world and,
indeed, in the universe. Technically, this supply may be
described as finite, but for all practical purposes it is
infinite. It does not constitute the slightest obstacle to
economic activity—there is nothing we are prevented
from doing because the earth (let alone the universe) is
in danger of running out of some chemical element or
other, or of energy.
The problem of natural resources is strictly one of
useability, accessibility, and economy. That is, man needs
to know what the different elements and combinations of
elements nature provides are good for, and then to be able
actually to get at them and direct them to the satisfaction
of his needs without having to expend an inordinate
amount of labor to do so. Clearly, the only effective limit
on the supply of such economically useable natural resources—
that is, natural resources in the sense in which
they constitute wealth—is the state of scientific and
technological knowledge and the quantity and quality of
capital equipment available.
Because the supply of resources provided by nature is
one and the same with the supply of matter and energy,
the supply of economically useable natural resources is
capable of virtually limitless increase. It increases as
man expands his knowledge of and physical power over
the world and universe.
For example, petroleum, which had been present in
the ground for millions of years, did not become an
economically useable natural resource until the second
half of the nineteenth century, when uses for it were
discovered. Aluminum, radium, and uranium also became
economically useable natural resources only within
the last century or so. The economic useability of coal
and, more recently, silicon, has been enormously increased
by the discovery of new and additional uses for
them.
The supply of economically useable natural resources
is increased not only by the discovery of uses for things
previously thought to have no uses, or new and additional
uses for things already known to have uses, but also by
advances that enable man to improve his access to things—
for example, to mine at greater depths with less effort, to
move greater masses of earth with less effort, to break
down compounds previously beyond his power, or to do
so with less effort, to gain access to regions of the earth
previously inaccessible or to improve his access to regions
already accessible. All of these increase the supply
of economically useable natural resources. All of them,
of course, at the same time bestow the character of goods
and wealth on what had before been mere things.1
Today, as the result of such advances, the supply of
economically useable natural resources is enormously
greater than it was at the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution, or even just one or two generations ago.
Today, man can more easily mine at a depth of a thousand
feet than he could in the past at a depth of ten feet, thanks
to such advances as mechanical-powered drilling equipment,
high explosives, steel structural supports for mine
shafts, and modern pumps and engines. Today, a single
worker operating a bulldozer or steam shovel can move
far more earth than hundreds of workers in the past using
hand shovels. Advances in reduction methods have made
it possible to obtain pure ores from compounds previously
either altogether impossible to work with or at
least too costly to work with. Improvements in shipping,
railroad building, and highway construction have made
possible low-cost access to high-grade mineral deposits
in regions previously inaccessible or too costly to exploit.
In the light of such facts, one should consider how
foolish it is to complain, for example, that today copper
ores are being mined which contain only 1 percent pure
copper, whereas at the beginning of the twentieth century
the ores mined often contained 10 percent pure copper.
With a worker in the cab of a steam shovel able to move
hundreds or thousands of times more earth in the same
time as a worker with a hand shovel, the volume of pure
copper moved in the same time is now enormously
greater, even with ores only one-tenth as pure. The resort
to such ores is evidence not that we are running out of
supplies, but that we have been able to create vastly
greater sources of supply than ever before. The very fact
that we exploit such deposits is evidence of the advances
that have been made. For we would not exploit them in
the absence of vast improvements in the productivity of
labor.
Similarly, the development of chemical fertilizers and
low-cost methods of irrigation have enabled man not
only radically to improve the productivity of arable land,
but actually to make more arable land. Today, land
previously desert or semidesert has been made vastly
more productive than the very best lands available to
previous generations. Israel and California provide leading
examples.
There is no limit to the further advances that are
possible. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the
universe, may turn out to be an economical source of fuel
in the future. Atomic and hydrogen explosives, lasers,
satellite detection systems, and, indeed, even space travel
itself, open up limitless new possibilities for increasing
the supply of economically useable mineral supplies.
Advances in mining technology that would make it possible
to mine economically at a depth of, say, ten thousand
feet, instead of the present much more limited
depths, or to mine beneath the oceans, would so increase
the portion of the earth’s mass accessible to man that all
previous supplies of accessible minerals would appear
insignificant in comparison. And even at ten thousand
feet, man would still, quite literally, just be scratching the
surface, because the radius of the earth extends to a depth
of four thousand miles.
As just indicated, equally dramatic advances are possible
in the field of energy. These may occur through the
use of atomic energy, hydrogen fusion, solar power, tidal
power, or thermal power from the earth’s core, or still
other processes as yet unknown. Reductions in the cost
of extracting petroleum from shale and tar sands have the
potential for expanding the supply of economically useable
petroleum by a vast multiple of what it is today. The
physical volume of petroleum present in such formations
in our own Rocky Mountain states and in Canada far
exceeds the liquid petroleum deposits of the Arab countries.
All that is required is ways to reduce the costs of
extraction.2 Similarly, there are also vast known coal
fields in the United States containing enough coal to
supply present rates of coal consumption for many centuries,
and already capable of doing so economically.
Since most petroleum products can be made from coal,
reductions in the cost of using coal for this purpose would
represent the equivalent of a further enormous increase
in the supply of economically useable petroleum deposits.
Μέρος 1, κεφάλαιο 3, κομμάτι A
Επίσης κανένας πλανήτης δεν καταστρέφεται. Αυτός ο παραπληγισμός φτάνει τα όρια του Λιακόπουλου που λέει το 2014 το τέλος του κόσμου και τέτοια. Είναι ένα παραμύθι που πλασάρουν οι κρατιστές. Λένε "ο καπιταλισμός θα καταστρέψει τον κόσμο, για αυτό Στάλιν". Είναι το ίδιο παραμύθι... Ο Reisman τα εξηγεί καλά.. η Γη δεν γίνεται να καταστραφεί γιατί οι πεπερασμένοι πόροι δεν καταστρέφονται!
Θα πας στο ποτάμι θα χέσεις. Ωραία. Θα εξατμιστεί. Θα γίνει σύννεφα. Θα βρέξει. Να το ποτάμι ξανά!
1. The Limitless Potential of Natural Resources
The potential for economic progress is in no way
limited by any fundamental lack of natural resources.
Despite the claims so often made that we are in
danger of running out of natural resources, the fact is that
the world is made out of natural resources—out of
solidly packed natural resources, extending from the
upper limits of its atmosphere to its very center, four
thousand miles down. This is so because the entire mass
of the earth is made of nothing but chemical elements,
all of which are natural resources. For example, the
earth’s core is composed mainly of iron and nickel—millions
of cubic miles of iron and nickel. Its oceans and
atmosphere are composed of millions of cubic miles of
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, and of lesser,
but still enormous, quantities of practically every other
element. Even the sands of the Sahara desert are composed
of nothing but various compounds of silicon,
carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, aluminum, iron, and so on,
all of them having who knows what potential uses that
science may someday unlock. Nor is there a single element
that does not exist in the earth in millions of times
larger quantities than has ever been mined. Aluminum is
found in some quantity practically everywhere. There are
immense quantities even of the very rarest elements,
such as gold and platinum, to be found floating in trace
amounts throughout the oceans, for example.
What is true of the earth is equally true of every other
planetary body in the universe. Insofar as the universe
consists of matter, it consists of nothing but chemical
elements, and thus of nothing but natural resources.
Nor is there any fundamental scarcity of energy in the
world. More energy is discharged in a single hurricane
than mankind produces in an entire year. Nor is the
supply of energy in the world reduced in any way by
virtue of the energy man captures from nature. Heat from
the sun provides a constantly renewed supply that is
many millions of times greater than the energy consumed
by man. The total quantity of energy in the world remains
a constant, for all practical purposes incalculably in
excess of what mankind consumes, and will remain so
until the sun begins to cool.
The problem of natural resources is in no sense one of
intrinsic scarcity. From a strictly physical-chemical point
of view, natural resources are one and the same with the
supply of matter and energy that exists in the world and,
indeed, in the universe. Technically, this supply may be
described as finite, but for all practical purposes it is
infinite. It does not constitute the slightest obstacle to
economic activity—there is nothing we are prevented
from doing because the earth (let alone the universe) is
in danger of running out of some chemical element or
other, or of energy.
The problem of natural resources is strictly one of
useability, accessibility, and economy. That is, man needs
to know what the different elements and combinations of
elements nature provides are good for, and then to be able
actually to get at them and direct them to the satisfaction
of his needs without having to expend an inordinate
amount of labor to do so. Clearly, the only effective limit
on the supply of such economically useable natural resources—
that is, natural resources in the sense in which
they constitute wealth—is the state of scientific and
technological knowledge and the quantity and quality of
capital equipment available.
Because the supply of resources provided by nature is
one and the same with the supply of matter and energy,
the supply of economically useable natural resources is
capable of virtually limitless increase. It increases as
man expands his knowledge of and physical power over
the world and universe.
For example, petroleum, which had been present in
the ground for millions of years, did not become an
economically useable natural resource until the second
half of the nineteenth century, when uses for it were
discovered. Aluminum, radium, and uranium also became
economically useable natural resources only within
the last century or so. The economic useability of coal
and, more recently, silicon, has been enormously increased
by the discovery of new and additional uses for
them.
The supply of economically useable natural resources
is increased not only by the discovery of uses for things
previously thought to have no uses, or new and additional
uses for things already known to have uses, but also by
advances that enable man to improve his access to things—
for example, to mine at greater depths with less effort, to
move greater masses of earth with less effort, to break
down compounds previously beyond his power, or to do
so with less effort, to gain access to regions of the earth
previously inaccessible or to improve his access to regions
already accessible. All of these increase the supply
of economically useable natural resources. All of them,
of course, at the same time bestow the character of goods
and wealth on what had before been mere things.1
Today, as the result of such advances, the supply of
economically useable natural resources is enormously
greater than it was at the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution, or even just one or two generations ago.
Today, man can more easily mine at a depth of a thousand
feet than he could in the past at a depth of ten feet, thanks
to such advances as mechanical-powered drilling equipment,
high explosives, steel structural supports for mine
shafts, and modern pumps and engines. Today, a single
worker operating a bulldozer or steam shovel can move
far more earth than hundreds of workers in the past using
hand shovels. Advances in reduction methods have made
it possible to obtain pure ores from compounds previously
either altogether impossible to work with or at
least too costly to work with. Improvements in shipping,
railroad building, and highway construction have made
possible low-cost access to high-grade mineral deposits
in regions previously inaccessible or too costly to exploit.
In the light of such facts, one should consider how
foolish it is to complain, for example, that today copper
ores are being mined which contain only 1 percent pure
copper, whereas at the beginning of the twentieth century
the ores mined often contained 10 percent pure copper.
With a worker in the cab of a steam shovel able to move
hundreds or thousands of times more earth in the same
time as a worker with a hand shovel, the volume of pure
copper moved in the same time is now enormously
greater, even with ores only one-tenth as pure. The resort
to such ores is evidence not that we are running out of
supplies, but that we have been able to create vastly
greater sources of supply than ever before. The very fact
that we exploit such deposits is evidence of the advances
that have been made. For we would not exploit them in
the absence of vast improvements in the productivity of
labor.
Similarly, the development of chemical fertilizers and
low-cost methods of irrigation have enabled man not
only radically to improve the productivity of arable land,
but actually to make more arable land. Today, land
previously desert or semidesert has been made vastly
more productive than the very best lands available to
previous generations. Israel and California provide leading
examples.
There is no limit to the further advances that are
possible. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the
universe, may turn out to be an economical source of fuel
in the future. Atomic and hydrogen explosives, lasers,
satellite detection systems, and, indeed, even space travel
itself, open up limitless new possibilities for increasing
the supply of economically useable mineral supplies.
Advances in mining technology that would make it possible
to mine economically at a depth of, say, ten thousand
feet, instead of the present much more limited
depths, or to mine beneath the oceans, would so increase
the portion of the earth’s mass accessible to man that all
previous supplies of accessible minerals would appear
insignificant in comparison. And even at ten thousand
feet, man would still, quite literally, just be scratching the
surface, because the radius of the earth extends to a depth
of four thousand miles.
As just indicated, equally dramatic advances are possible
in the field of energy. These may occur through the
use of atomic energy, hydrogen fusion, solar power, tidal
power, or thermal power from the earth’s core, or still
other processes as yet unknown. Reductions in the cost
of extracting petroleum from shale and tar sands have the
potential for expanding the supply of economically useable
petroleum by a vast multiple of what it is today. The
physical volume of petroleum present in such formations
in our own Rocky Mountain states and in Canada far
exceeds the liquid petroleum deposits of the Arab countries.
All that is required is ways to reduce the costs of
extraction.2 Similarly, there are also vast known coal
fields in the United States containing enough coal to
supply present rates of coal consumption for many centuries,
and already capable of doing so economically.
Since most petroleum products can be made from coal,
reductions in the cost of using coal for this purpose would
represent the equivalent of a further enormous increase
in the supply of economically useable petroleum deposits.
Μέρος 1, κεφάλαιο 3, κομμάτι A
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http://www.capitalism.net/Capitalism/CAPITALISM_Internet.pdf