I think people have been misled by the easy ability to print paper. When a country runs a trillion dollar deficit..well, 800 billion doesn't look so big.
But we can't print molecules the way we print paper money.
The supposed miracles of the "could" grid (the grid we "could" have if we only had the "willpower") has been one of the ways we have fooled ourselves.
This all comes back to the idea that money is just a call on energy. Printing money makes us use it faster but stores up problems for later when energy is less abundant. Every time I see comments that effectively say "the cost doesn't matter, we can just find the money" I die a little.
I think people have been misled by the easy ability to print paper. When a country runs a trillion dollar deficit..well, 800 billion doesn't look so big.
But we can't print molecules the way we print paper money.
The supposed miracles of the "could" grid (the grid we "could" have if we only had the "willpower") has been one of the ways we have fooled ourselves.
love that.. the "could grid".
This all comes back to the idea that money is just a call on energy. Printing money makes us use it faster but stores up problems for later when energy is less abundant. Every time I see comments that effectively say "the cost doesn't matter, we can just find the money" I die a little.
Very good, despite the frightening implications of the content.