Isaiah Kuhle
Isaiah Kuhle
Karma: 2
Duly noted, thank you
“I don’t think these assumptions will ever let you create a theory that genuinely “ties physics and economics together at the fundamental level”, with anywhere close to the precision and reliability of true physical laws...”
Do you know of any true physical laws that connect physics and economics?
@Erin @Jackson Wagner @ChristianKleineidam @Arturo Macias
All of this being said, do you think that more often than not that the assumptions would hold?
Regarding use in practice—in a database accessible from one source linked to the product via the label, or on the product page.
Something like:
Product A
Production Cycle:
T34, E45, M23, S15
Externality Watchlist:
CO2 = 300kg
P = 150kg
Utility
T3, E22, M4, S4
EOL Cycle:
T15, E25, M35, S10
Alerts:
Company B of product production line implicated in Ohio train wreck with (TEMS) externality outputs.
///
Then maybe you could click on the individual letter-number pairs to get more info on the underlying values. Something along those lines.
There are few ideas I think I would really like to explore:
One is the detailed production representation becoming available to the public with a statutory requirement for all companies of a certain size (public and private) to quantify their TEMS inputs and outputs, similar to the way public companies are required to publish financial reports to the SEC. It would include info such as raw materials purchased, labor hours, and outputs including externalities. That would make the analysis part, much more doable, right? Because you wouldn’t have single economists trying to figure this stuff out by researching companies one at a time—it would just be available—and to everyone.
Two is the representation of TEMS EOL made more readily available in an organized format (ie per product at a single source) that doesn’t require so much time and effort to extract.
Three is studying the utility of objects in terms of their TEMS costs. So, how much TE does this new invention save the customer per unit output? My theory is that there would be a definite correlation between dollar returns, or some other measure of demand, and the provision of products with high TE utility, which would show that the assumptions hold—something I would like to work on in the near future, and something I could definitely use help with if you are available.
Regarding subjectivity, yes, I agree that a portion of value is subjective, but I also think that it is objective. It seems that many people try to fit things into neat categories of one or the other, but it seems in many cases that doesn’t hold up. There is a portion of value that is embedded in physical reality. My thinking is that it is important to understand that part and quantify it for easy analysis, otherwise the consequences of the physical reality are ignored and you have environmental disasters.
One of the core ideas is to quantify these externalities for ease of analysis. Many of these things would be quantified as TEMS values.
For example, bottles in the ocean is an M value in the EOL cycle.
Health effects would be T utility of the body in QALYs.
Many of things are already quantified as TEMS values in the existing economic environment, its just that the relationship between physics and economics, or physics and human behavior, is not officially recognized in the pedagogy. That is what I’m trying to address.
Regarding the second question, precisely because the social cost is prone to dollar value distortions.
Regarding steel, I think there is also some additional utility that you are leaving out. One would be that it is more flexible, whereas aluminum is prone to breaking or snapping when under a lot of force. I imagine that would be important as automobiles are much more prone to accidents and the flexibility adds an additional layer of safety for the driver. In general, I think that heavy industries are much less prone to subjective utilities than individuals.
As you stated, calculating TEMS values for things like human capital and subjective utilities does seem like it would involve a lot of complexity, but I still think it would be worthwhile to figure out eventually. But that isn’t necessarily what I’d focus on. It would be what investments create the best TEMS outcomes. When you compare the TEMS costs, how does that compare with the utilities?
I’m not sure I’m catching your meaning, but if you’re talking about people making decisions regarding personal TEMS expenditure, then yes, I think many of the biases would still be present.
But here’s an example of what I’m thinking:
We want a reliable quantification of the underlying TEMS costs of production and processing, that way economic decisions, such as investing in plastics can be compared to their TEMS utility at the consumer level.
For example, how much TEMS is this plastic bottle saving the consumer and how many people are using it would be a measurement of TEMS utility. How does that compare to the TEMS cost to produce it? What are the TEMS costs of its end-of-life (EOL) cycle? I’d bet that the TEMS utility is lower than the aggregate TEMS costs, especially if you account for TEMS EOL costs in novel ways.
The theory is that the consumer demand is high for these products because of the TEMS utility at that level and that most consumers ignore the TEMS costs of production and processing. The EOL information in particular is not available in the price that they pay—it is abstracted away into taxes. I think the lack of information causes irrationality in decision-making. The idea is to reduce irrationality by improving the quality of the information—in part by making per unit TEMS values available to the consumer.
Sure, I’d say the main difference is that traditional economic theory has no official connection to physics. It is based primarily on monetary prices and those may or may not reflect underlying physical conditions. Monetary prices are subject to distortions such as various biases of perception, power, etc whereas TEMS values are hard-coded into the underlying framework of reality.
Please let me know if that doesn’t answer your question.
Hello all 👋
Location: Miami, Florida Remote: Yes, and previous experience working remotely. Willing to relocate: Recently signed a lease agreement. Will have to stay at current location until end of July, 2023. Skills: Data Analytics, Financial Analysis, Excel, R, Tableau, RapidMiner, Regression Analysis, Time Series Analysis, Economics, Writing, Management, Music Composition Résumé/CV/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaiah-k-725922224/ Email: ikuhle@yahoo.com Notes: My background prior to finance and economics is mostly as an artist. I was a musician and lighting engineer in local theaters and night clubs. I loved my job, but decided to look for something with more stability that was altruistic in character. My primary interest is in economics and research. I recently applied and was accepted for a volunteer analyst role at SoGive. I am considering pursuing a PhD and doing research tying physics to economics at a fundamental level. My dream job is to be on a team creating a new school of economics that promotes long term stability, is integral with natural ecological systems, defeats corruption, and ameliorates poverty (Dream big, right?). A second dream job is to be on a team that creates an online platform for direct democracy and political accountability. Send me a message, I’d be happy to hear from you :)
This is a very helpful post, thank you. I especially appreciate the names and the resources.
I think where I would disagree is that price is a sufficient statistic, especially for externalities.
Your assessment would be that those need to be taxed into price?