Mike Maloney: This Is The Peak

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aggrivated-
I don't think money is a claim on energy at all.  As I said - its just a marker for foregone consumption, which could have happened at a given time and place, but you decided instead that you weren't going to consume.

As time passes you decide to cash in the marker, you may be able to consume more or you may be able to consume less, depending on the conditions of the system at that moment in time, and the item you want to consume.

If you forego consumption prior to peak oil, your implicit exchange rate includes an oil price of $3.00/bbl.  If you then cash the marker in 20 years later and you are looking for an energy product when oil is at $40/bbl, you won't get the same experience.

Exchange rates change depending on circumstance.  That's just how it is.  Expecting any monetary system to fix the exchange rates in stone for everything in perpetuity is just an exercise in fantasy.  Things are always changing.  Sometimes there is a glut, sometimes a shortage - for wheat, for energy, for money, for property - for everything.

Some stuff will get cheaper, some stuff more expensive.   Did anyone expect oil to drop to $27/bbl in 2015?  I sure didn't.  But it happened.  You just never know.

So what is money a claim on?  Whatever happens to be available, at the current exchange rate, which changes over time.  And the only way you can save money is to forego consumption.

Even if we had "sound money", 100% reserved, with everyone using little gold coins for every transaction, there is no guarantee that if you save a gold coin now, you'll be able to buy the same amount of oil in the future that you can buy today.  It might be more, it might be less.  (Didn't 2015-2016 teach us any humility at all about how energy prices can surprise us?)

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I would suggest the counter balance to entropy is not consciousness but action. The sage saying is that evil flourishes when good people do nothing.  While people like Dr Martenson and Joel Salatin may be aware of our predicament with respect to the three E's they they aren't just aware they, I suspect, work their butts off.  Only commitments followed by action will create change.  Just saying.
AKGrannyWGrit

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When was the last time you saw a bumper sticker that said:

I'd rather be working.
Leisure has sucked more people into a consumer lifestyle than just about any other life goal.
The one with the most toys, wins.
Even Otto Von Bismarck, in his welfare philosophy, targeted retirement age at a whopping 70! Most back then rarely made it that long. Reform theology of the 1600 - 1700's has been an undercurrent of the Protestant work ethic for quite some time. We are long overdue in embracing "meaningful" work as a life goal that is not dependent on a paycheck. Or do we have to wait for a JHK, World Made by Hand, scenario before we wake up and smell the clover? Agrivated, Pyranablade, Treebeard, Granny  -  keep the thread going. Its time we all picked up a shovel and got busy.
God made us gardeners; the fall made us farmers, greed made us moneychangers!
It can't be said enough times  -  money isn't everything. 
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The word consciousness may bring a lot of odd images for some, perhaps a bunch of stoned knuckle heads spouting nonsense theories about the nature of universe, while standing around on their tails, getting a whole lot of nothing done.  On the other hand, it is a fact that the boys down on wall street are working real hard, perhaps a lot harder than Martenson and Salitin.  Just sayin…
Without right awareness, there is no right action, and you don't get to right awareness without a whole lot of action.  But of course that action has to come with a whole lot of self awareness and reflection.

I don't consider myself an optimist or pessimist. Either leads to wrong action.  To be aware of the fact that we have potential is not to posit an opinion about whether we will ever effectively use or develop that potential.  If one comes to an awareness that nonviolence is a form of correct action, it is not practiced based on an opinion of whether or not such a behavior will be broadly adopted by others, if it is, then it is no longer a form of correct action, but a reaction which will only create more problems.

Everything must done in and of itself, then nothing is left unfinished, otherwise we continue to create disorder in the world regardless of our intentions…whether you are working for green peace, the federal reserve, or teaching inner city kids to grow vegetables.  Life on planet earth…

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Well said Treebeard.  Your responses give me pause to contemplate further thought.  You are, I suspect, an  old soul.
Find it hard to fathom the guys on a Wall Street working hard though.  My value meter measures work by its  capacity to help people or leave the planet a better place because our feet walked the earth.  Don't see the the definitive value of Wall Street work to the human race.  No doubt many would disagree.

 

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Yeah I have to agree with the awareness thing.  If you just work hard, or you get angry, you will put in a lot of effort to possibly no avail, and/or you may just become a tool for someone else to achieve their own ends.
Once you have understanding as to what is really going on, you will only expend energy on the right target, your timing will improve, and you will pick the right battles.

And sometimes it is not-acting that causes the greatest impact.

For instance, if everyone were to suddenly wake up and figure out how dangerous debt was, and how bad certain products were - simply refraining from taking on debt and buying said products would have an immediate, massive, dramatic effect.

Case in point: when people woke up one day and decided not to buy pink slime, companies started falling all over themselves to distance themselves from that product.  There was no violence required, no anger, no "action" required at all.  In fact, non-action was all it took.  "The master does nothing, and yet nothing is left undone."

See, I strongly feel that we do not need to "get people angry" to effect change.  Once people become truly aware of what is going on, they will sort out the right actions to take (for them) on their own.  Seriously.  Awareness is all that is required.  Once you see clearly, your actions change all on their own.  Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, depending on your personality.

A small example: my coke consumption has dropped way off since I became aware that they had successfully programmed me!

As for working hard: if you love what you do, is that "working hard"?  Perhaps I've just been fortunate, but I really do love my work.  If I suddenly got 100 million dollars, the only thing I'd change would be to hire a staff to help me do even more of what I'm already doing right now.  Its just that much fun.  :slight_smile:

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A lot of odd thoughts have built up around that word, work.  By definition, just about every human activity is work, even having fun:
"1.  activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result"

I have a feeling that the second definition is where the problems come in:

"2.  mental or physical activity as a means of earning income; employment"

Interesting that under the first definition a bunch of synonyms were offered up, "labor, toil, slog, drudgery", that had real negative connotations, while the second definition synonyms were neutral or positive, "employment, a job, a situation, a position, a post."

There was a time when selling your labor for money (a job) was seen as tantamount to slavery, and only better to the extent that it was temporary. The propaganda continues, its built into our language.  If you are doing something to achieve a purpose or a result, hey that is drudgery, but if its for money, well then its just a position or situation.  You may or may not be doing anything productive or anything at all, but you have status, a position!

We really do need to start from scratch, awareness not just of our physical actions, but of every word that casually slips out of our mouths. We must think anew of the very water in which we swim.

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"We really do need to start from scratch, awareness of not just our physical actions but every word that slips out of our mouths."
In Lois Lowrey's book "The Giver" every word people said was monitored and scrutinized. Be carful, governments would like nothing better than to control our speech.

In the highly-controlled society featured in The Giver, the rules govern a strict "precision of language." The irony comes in when the reader realizes that, in a world with no real depth of emotion, many words have become hollow and meaningless. "Love," for example, has no use in this world. Terms like "apology" and "feelings," as well as specific reactions of "anger" or "jealousy" are used daily, though in reality they don't reflect those actions or emotions.

In order for people to be aware of what they do, say and think they need to be allowed and taught to think for themselves.  That would be a terrifying challenge for our government.  I think the awareness gene was perhaps  not passed out equally in our species and understanding will not be sought after or encouraged  with the pervasiveness of entertainment and immediate gratification.  Many benefit from an unaware population.