What is energy, actually? (2011)
Somewhat tangentially related: I wrote this in a private note to a friend last year. I don't believe this 100%, but the idea is worth exploring in my opinion:<p>1. Corporations desperately pursue continuous growth, even when they're already profitable, and do so at the expense of the environment, employee welfare and sometimes, the rule of law.<p>2. Corporations pursue growth because investors demand it.<p>3. Investors demand growth because they want a certain minimum return on investment.<p>4. Investors need to invest money in instruments with a certain minimum ROI because if they don't, inflation will erode their savings.<p>5. This continuous growth requirement forces companies to compete for larger and larger portions of market share, which in turn forces their competitors to compete harder in response.<p>6. The end result is a sort of "Red Queen" effect where everyone is forced to compete harder and harder just to maintain his/her existing standard of living.<p>7. We know that the more extreme a competition becomes, the more ruthless the participants become, often to the point of acting immorally.<p>8. Therefore, we should focus on curbing inflation to curb the pace of overwhelming growth, and thereby restore some measure of social justice.