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Monthly Archives: May 2008

Epicurus

Epicurus’ Principle Doctrines, decoded badly

It is blessed to not cause trouble for yourself or others. This lets you be free from anger and partiality. These are signs of weakness.
Death is nothing to us. Once we become dissolved atoms, we don’t experience anything. We’re gone. What’s there to worry about?
Maximum pleasure is having no pain.
Even the [...]

Pearce and Atkinson, Capital theory and sustainable development

Pearce and Atkinson take up Victor’s challenge and make a indicator of sustainability. They say that if the savings rate exceeds the combined depreciation of physical and natural capital, that the economy is ‘weakly’ sustainable.
Of course, they assume that natural capital and physical capital are interchangeable. This is a big assumption, and one with which [...]

Indicators of sustainable development

Peter Victor was my thesis supervisor, so it’s delightful to read his influential paper.
In it, Victor examines several theories of capital to determine how they might deal with sustainability. The first is
The neoclassical school, as expressed by Herfindahl and Kneese. Capital, according the the H-K theory, “yields a flow of productive services over time and… [...]