I'm skeptical that this is accurate for energy resources...
I am too, but I include labor in the mix of "resources consumed" as well. I'm doing graduate work in plasma physics, so of course I'm a fusion optimist. :P More seriously, I think that I have a greater amount of control over the type of labor a given amount of my money invokes than I do over the amount of energy that expenditure consumes, and I would rather invoke a more worthwhile form of labor (both for the worker and for myself) than restaurant service. As a concrete example: last year around this time I was at an emotional low, so I permitted myself to eat out frequently, and ended up without much spare money. This year I've strictly controlled that habit, which meant that when an artist I was following on FA needed emergency cash, I was able to make a hefty commission without significant harm to my finances. For the same amount of money I could eat out twice, getting some working class people to spend a collective total of maybe thirty minutes of their lives babying me; or else, I could get the art, which supports the artist, makes me feel good for that support, brings pleasure to the person I made the commission for, and brings another art object into the world. Energy and material go into this price criterion, yes, but the labor aspect is the most important one to me. My money (scarce as it is, on a graduate student's budget) sets people to moving -- may it set them to moving in worthwhile ways.
(I said earlier that I didn't mean to moralize, but the reason I said it is because I often go off like this when it comes to matters Thoreauvian. Sorry!)
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-12 08:23 pm (UTC)I am too, but I include labor in the mix of "resources consumed" as well. I'm doing graduate work in plasma physics, so of course I'm a fusion optimist. :P More seriously, I think that I have a greater amount of control over the type of labor a given amount of my money invokes than I do over the amount of energy that expenditure consumes, and I would rather invoke a more worthwhile form of labor (both for the worker and for myself) than restaurant service. As a concrete example: last year around this time I was at an emotional low, so I permitted myself to eat out frequently, and ended up without much spare money. This year I've strictly controlled that habit, which meant that when an artist I was following on FA needed emergency cash, I was able to make a hefty commission without significant harm to my finances. For the same amount of money I could eat out twice, getting some working class people to spend a collective total of maybe thirty minutes of their lives babying me; or else, I could get the art, which supports the artist, makes me feel good for that support, brings pleasure to the person I made the commission for, and brings another art object into the world. Energy and material go into this price criterion, yes, but the labor aspect is the most important one to me. My money (scarce as it is, on a graduate student's budget) sets people to moving -- may it set them to moving in worthwhile ways.
(I said earlier that I didn't mean to moralize, but the reason I said it is because I often go off like this when it comes to matters Thoreauvian. Sorry!)