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: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.2. Corporations pursue growth because investors demand it.3. Investors demand growth because they want a certain minimum return on investment.4. Investors need to invest money in instruments with a certain minimum ROI because if they don't, inflation will erode their savings.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.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.7. We know that the more extreme a competition becomes, the more ruthless the participants become, often to the point of acting immorally.8. Therefore, we should focus on curbing inflation to curb the pace of overwhelming growth, and thereby restore some measure of social justice.