Herman Daly on how economics borrows from ecology, physics, and mathematics

[@juliavirgolino4714]

That was an amazing lecture. Thanks for that! So happy to have so much knowledge available for anyone for free over here. ☺️

[@AcademicInfluence]

Glad you liked it! Dr. Daly is pretty amazing!

[@williamneil8862]

Very interesting career and commentary. Did Daly support the Green New Deal? Steve Keen, an Aussie, is considered one of the leading Modern Monetary Theorists in the world, along with L. Randall Wray, Stephanie Kelton...but no mention of that despite the discussion of money creation powers by banks "out of nothing" violating the laws of physics, thermodynamics. On the whole I support Daly's directions, after all, he was a founding member of the World Economics Association, which I also belong to and which has published some of my work - despite not being a professional economist. Yet let's remember that the origins of the economics profession in the late 18th and early 19th century began with the term "political economy," yet we hear almost nothing of the political setting for economics over the past two centuries. Daly would have been in Brazil around the time the military dictatorship took over; he was a development economist who saw population as a problem, yet it seems to me from my readings about Mexico and more broadly Latin America, that it never has had a liberal-social democratic successful land reform movement: briefly in Mexico around the time of the Revolution in 1910...but constrained, mightily after that by the US siding with the oligarchs under the rational of keeping communism out of the hemisphere. Yet land re-distribution was aimed as small scale indigenous agriculture would seem to be more in keeping with Daly's direction than export led growth, specialization and the attempt by all to climb the industrial ladder starting with cotton and clothing manufacturing...and so on... I also wonder if Daly knows, or what he thinks of the work of another ecological historian who writes a lot about economics, Donald Worster? His Bancroft winning book, "Dustbowl," gets right at the root of farming practices pushing up against and over natural water limits (rainfall shortages and aquifers) in regions which probably should only have invested in light to medium grazing, but which went all in on capitalist cattle grazing in the late 19th century, and on grain crops, fencerow to fencerow in the run up to the 1930's. What does Daly call himself: liberal, social democrat, democratic socialist...maybe none of the above.

[@AcademicInfluence]

Hello, William Neil! I don't know what Daly calls himself. But you raise a lot of interesting points. I will say that Daly knows Steve Keen and said in my interview with Daly that Keen helped him think about the role of money, and for that Daly said he was very grateful to Keen. Thanks for your helpful comment!

[@mariafernandamorenosalas6939]

Han

[@life42theuniverse]

Planned obsolescence seems even more irrational to me now. Some things could be produced with a quality that would survive multiple lifetimes... is that a sustainable labour market?

[@AcademicInfluence]

Yes, things like that can be seen in a whole new light after watching this interview! Thanks for the comment.

[@Tom.Livanos]

@@AcademicInfluence @life42theuniverse I first heard of Herman Daly in 2007 when I enrolled in an Environmental Economics post-graduate course. His name has resurfaced in the last couple of years. I, myself, have undertaken a similar 'u-turn' in my career (and indeed life). I'll nutshell my thoughts on Herman Daly as follows: I am sure glad that he is around and has done the work he has. From the etymology of the word economy (management of one's house), it is easy to see that the world economy (to go straight to the big one) is bound to planet Earth. This, as I see it, leads to solving the unemployment problem i.e. once and for all. Locals, all around the world, learn about nature in their locality. Furthermore it is only then that anyone (inside or outside mainstream economics) could even begin to speak/write of operating a healthy economy. It is first principles. One must know what is here, how it operates, what linkages exist among various elements in nature. Instead we have a runaway financial system (i.e. even without the corruptions) and a runaway corporate sector which goes around ravaging 'the house' one place after another. Back in 1720, the British parliament banned corporations. Banned. Pfft. Gone. Vamouse. Deleted. One cannot imagine United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson or the British Parliament or society in general doing the same thing in 2021. Yet corporations are entirely artificial constructions. Therein lies the problem. Humanity has been enslaved by its own constructions. And it is so pervasive that it is hiding in plain sight. Now I, too, make sure that my financial inflows exceed my financial outflows. If I reverse that equation then nasty things begin to happen to me. That stated, I will be damned (here on Earth!) if I let 'the big end of town' tell me that we are on the verge of going bankrupt or running out of money. The money supply is increasing by the microsecond nowadays. It has been increasing since 1657, if not earlier. This goes to the fractional reserve banking system which Herman Daly mentioned in this interview. We have more money today than we have ever had. Ever. In all human history. If humanity has problems - and it really does - then a lack of money is not one of them. It never was. I do not quite know how to word it. There is this imprisonment which has overtaken human minds on a mass scale. We either see our own hubris for what it is i.e. hubris or, as Herman Daly says, we are cooked. Have a look at the world and the trajectory it is on. Is there any check on corporate operations i.e. on a global level? People, yes including myself, need a place to live. Banks take this need and use it to govern the direction countless lives take all around the world. How educated one becomes, which job one takes, what one is prepared to do to keep that job... if or when one gets married, who one marries, if one has children and, if so, how many, which school those children attend. The banks influence all these decisions for a vast number of people. That, in turn, shapes society in which all live. Banks are, by far, a more insidious form of government than all the governments put together. They just sit back and literally collect the money. Farmers are far more important to the world than what bankers are. How is it then that bankers can remove - and have removed - farmers from their land. Bank employees and executives do not take over. No-one actually put the land there.. especially no banker. I am yet to hear/read of a farmer kicking a bank executive out of their home. Yet, at least to me, that would make far more sense than the other way round which happens constantly. The world has lost its sense. The landmasses of the world emerged long long before we humans ever did. Or, to put it another way: no-one and no-one's ancestors laid down the continents. How in blazes can anyone then say that we humans own land? Any land? Whatever one's religious or philosophical beliefs are... okay one may put this this way: if the history of the planet was compacted into a 24 hour period then we humans first *appeared* at 2-3 seconds to midnight. Something to ponder the next time you are awake at 11:59:57pm. As sure as night follows day, bankers of all people, cannot lay claim to it. I welcome any response I receive. I guarantee that I will read it. It would be the least that I could do. All the best, Tom Livanos Time: 1:33am Australian Eastern Standard Time Day and date: Monday 5 July 2021 My location: Sydney, Australia

[@psikeyhackr6914]

Increasing GDP is not increasing Wealth it is only increasing Cash Flow. What is Net Domestic Product, NDP. Economists do not talk about that. Economists treat air conditioners like bananas. Both get added to GDP when purchased, but you know a banana won't last long. The air conditioner should take years to wear out. What happens to the depreciation? What happened to the depreciation of the 200,000,000 cars that were in the US in 1994? We are listening to economists who can't do algebra. NDP = GDP - Dcap [Western economic calculation] NDP = GDP - (Dcap + Dcon) [reality] Dcap: Depreciation of Capital Goods Dcon: Depreciation of Durable Consumer Goods GDP: Grossly Distorted Propaganda

[@AudioPervert1]

Daly's vision, which was largely ignored during the 90s and 2000s is now unfolding .. William Rees and company made sure that Daly's ideas proliferate into public knowledge and understanding. Biophysical Limits of Everything. Hence, one has started to gradually divest, boycott and move away from mainstream economics, industry and culture.

[@AcademicInfluence]

Thanks for writing A.P.! Moving from one pole to another rarely helps stabilize. Perhaps we can find a workable middle ground?

[@ajg942]

LSU treatment of Daly is a pretty bad look. Yikes.

[@AcademicInfluence]

RIP www.nytimes.com/2022/11/08/business/economy/herman-daly-dead.html