Needs Based Allocation (with work)?

How might a "Needs Based Allocation" system function in practice? With:

• rewards, and
• the requirement to work, or create virtue.
• prices (for frugality).

Morals and Markets: readings and thoughts on economics

NOTES ON CATHOLIC ECONOMIC TEACHINGS

Dear Friend,

Thank you, most gratefully, for this very thoughtful and interesting compilation of readings (in Catholic Economic Teaching, below).

It seems to me that there is still dispute about fundamental requirements in:

- family & virtue
- redistribution
- needs

And, how the state can do, in these, is disputed. Acton (along with the Koran) argue it should be left to charity. And there is on the other side much, naive, talk of prosocial (read, in my view, "in-group" and "virtue-signalling" or "warm-glow") community action. Which, as far as I have been able to tell, evaporates utterly and completely once family or personal habits are threatened. (In any change..?: but "the cows will stop milking", "I HAVE to drive my child to the swimming pool..", etc)

But, there is little argument or disagreement about wealth creation (or the incentives - in the market system - for frugality and productivity).

While muddling along, with slogans daubed on walls, has got us by up to now, it would appear to me that there are forces who are determined to see a return to regressive models. Both on the so-called "libertarian" side and among the "socialists" also. Principally so as to foster civil strife and impoverishment (or civil war, preferably) in the Empire and among the Colonists.

Also, there is no mention of limits. And the, excruciating (but PC'ly unpublishable), statistics on inequity in consumption: 17 kilograms of OilEq / Capita / day in the USA and Australia (or the 11 kgOilEq/p/d in Europe) - versus 1.4 kgOeq/Cap/Day in Kerala and Sri Lanka with very good (/comparable?) health and wellbeing.

Or any conception of the future that beckons - to me #Walkable + #NoOneLeftBehind. Or the Scorched Earth (climate war) #EdenIsBurning, actually, Eden HasBurnt (!??), that seems inevitable. Given the failure to look into the consequences of the AutoMobile (FreeWays and the AeroPlane) as the pinnacle of human civilisation.

Which is, notably, left out of all of these readings. As is the possibility, or objective, to TEST which theories work, and what their practical consequences are.

READINGS

Economics in the Catholic World | Acton Institute | Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
https://acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-4-number-4/economics-catholic-world
- wealth creation is all important/ trickle down works/ but "morally motivated unions can be a pillar".

Catholic social teaching must confront the regulatory state | Acton Institute | Philip Booth
https://acton.org/publications/transatlantic/2017/10/24/catholic-social-teaching-must-confront-regulatory-state
- the importance of "unintended consequences" and "dead weight" (both of which can be huge) of regulations and "institutions" ( a la Douglass North).

Who are the Catholic economists? | Marginal REVOLUTION
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/05/who-are-the-catholic-economists.html
- Catholic thinking, in Economics, down the ages. (Pretty limited, but a few more helpful readings).

A Catholic Framework for Economic Life
http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/economic-justice-economy/catholic-framework-for-economic-life.cfm
- US Convention of Catholic Bishops: Official statement (waffley and unfocused), but "many people are being forced to choose between basic necessities like food, shelter, and health care. How can you - and how can our society as a whole - help to provide for [their] needs?" (doesn't answer this question).

Why the wealth gap is bad for everyone | USCatholic.org
https://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201306/economics-inequality-why-wealth-gap-bad-everyone-27421
- community action + status quo will solve all the problems.

Catholic Economics: Alternatives to the Jungle | by Angus Sibley
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Catholic-Economics-by-Angus-Sibley-author/9780814648681

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Redeeming Capitalism | by Kenneth J. Barnes
https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7557/redeeming-capitalism.aspx
- a "call to reform capitalism as a moral enterprise so it can become a morally steered servant rather than a cruel, amoral master" - very valuable, grounded, and insightful (imho) - not a polemic.

Smart Louvres - Solar Heating and Convective Cooling

Smart louvres / Glass cladding / Shutters

Greenhouse effect: for passive heating, and cooling

Currently, buildings are sometimes clad with 3 to 5 inches of polyurethane panels. (Or polystyrene, in the case of the UK Grenfell Tower/s). As a measure to combat climate change. While insulation panels do help retain more heat (in winter) and postpone excessive heat gain (in summer), they do not of themselves add to any natural heating or cooling.

This project - in further development - will explore the feasibility, heating savings, and costs, of some kind of "smart louvres" or "mini-glasshouse cladding", and "shutters". To achieve:

• passive heating in winter (with no condensation)
• passive cooling in summer
• with convective ventilation
• (?) for modular installation (?)
• in retrofit / new construction
• with application to Cambridge / UK buildings

Like http://www.sonnenschutz.com.au

Or the principles at the Centre for Alternative Technology (Wales) http://info.cat.org.uk/questions/wise/how-was-natural-passive-stack-and-mechanical-ventilation-used-wise/

Do you know of any firms working on this?

Or what the (theoretical) maximum heating (and cooling) that might be possible with such a system, and (realistic) specified thermal mass?

Do oil majors have a business, if they are sustainable?

Consumption and Oil Stocks

"In 2017, almost ¾ of the uptick in energy consumption came from fossil fuels, not renewables." According to Bill Rees (UBC).

10% of the Prudential Plc's "Ethical" Fund is invested in Royal Dutch Shell, alone.

Why achieving the Paris Agreement requires reduced overall consumption and production

The recent paper ​of Philip Vergragt is extremely timely and helpful, in my view.

===
2018-05-10 1:44 PM (2 hours ago) to SCORAI
===
We are proud to present a new paper, written by members of the KAN SSCP Working group on Political Economy, criticizing the dominant message that technology and renewable energy will be sufficient to resolve the climate crisis:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2018.1458815

"Why achieving the Paris Agreement requires reduced overall consumption and production"

Philip
===

The need is pretty clear?

===
Global production =
===
224 kg of steel/capita/year,​
and
13 imp. cwt. (>650kg) of farm produce /capita/year (ex livestock)
and
580 kg of cement/capita/year
...
===

The most fundamental problem today?

The most fundamental problem today seems to be in making sure that everyone has a way to earn a living.

Which the poor of the world do not have. Mainly because they, by definition, command almost no resources (to work with, or that they can offer). And the economies of whole countries, like Spain, France or Italy, and the Maghreb, have not found a way to provide jobs for many of their youth and minority groups. In rich countries of the economic North, we engineer full employment only via massive over-consumption and gross waste of resources.

Will the new leaders, of the Labour Party or in the second Tory government, find the radical ideas that are indeed needed? To address a world bedevilled with climate change, hollowing of jobs and inequality.

One such radical idea could be giving substantial unearned income, from trading what some like to call the "licences, that they can buy and sell" that are so disparaged.

Like permits, granted to every person for sustainable quantities. Of things such as transport congestion, overcrowded parking, CO2 and greenhouse gases, air pollution, airport capacity as well as flight and traffic noise - which disrupt people's lives - and, in the case of cars, kill tens of thousands and maim half a million yearly in Europe. Or even for social goods, like housing vouchers. And possibly, more contentiously, education vouchers.

The same incentives could also be made to work to dis-incentivise abuse of animals (via taxes - which are after all negative permits). Which would be a lot more effective, and humane, than today's free for all.

Unearned income, from the sale of permits, is in many ways like the "Basic Income". Which is a grant of income to everyone - with which people are experimenting in Utrecht, Finland and formerly in Canada. But permits will not worsen, as do basic incomes, existing inequalities in wealth. Because they recycle money from the wealthy to the poorly resourced.

And such granting of tradeable permits retain motivations to be frugal and productive. So, to flourish, skill and virtue would still be needed. And the market economy will continue to offer its great strengths - of opportunity, innovation and productivity.

Permit traders, it's my guess - along with sports and the arts - will be a big part of the next economy.

[383 words]

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[GRAPHIC??: EU denizen and Kerala/Sri Lanka peasant, respectively next to their allotted: tonnes of oil equivalent; sacks of grain; small barrels of veg oil; and sides of meat, poultry and fish; fractions of a car (requires research)]

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Mark Reader is an economist in Cambridge, and community worker.

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What is going on with Electric Vehicles?

Could there be an, exceedingly unhealthy, distraction with batteries and electric vehicles? Sponsored perhaps by the Ford's, Pieche's and the GM / Toyota unions.

Current battery capacity compared to oil, is negligible (see below). And Lithium is not an especially abundant element. So cells are likely to remain a very scarce resource for a long time to come.

What path are we sinking huge costs into, and committing to for decades to come? Could cell capacity be allocated better? What is your view?

committeeonclimatechange.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/it-drives-like-a-dream-david-kennedy-goes-electric/