Wealth has a very simple foundation: it comes from human labour, and the amount of wealth you can keep is determined by security. The cheaper security is, the wealthier the society. Wealth is important because a lot of cool, glorious shit is expensive to do. E.g. Egyptians could afford Pyramids, Americans cannot.
You don't make anything if it's just going to be stolen. It's dose-response. If some of it is going to be stolen, you don't make as much. There is less total stuff, and your society is poorer, weaker, and shabbier.
Even if you're going to keep it all, if the security is expensive, then you're spending labour on security instead of on creation. The more inexpensive the security, the more total stuff you have.
If EROEI goes below 1, you stop getting energy from that source. Security isn't like this: every living creature must at minimum force the world to let it go on living. If you give up on security you starve to death. With a suitably foolish society, security costs can be many multiples of the secured value.
On the plus side, random death aside, an insecure society is very relaxed. You can't compete because there isn't anything around to compete for, and you can't secure any future against another, so there's no point in worrying about it. You can safely sit around doing nothing except waiting for something to happen. Just chill bro. Maybe rape a girl if you're horny.
A wise society first spends tremendously on accumulating and perpetuating wisdom.
Secondly, it spends tremendously on finding and perpetuating everything which makes security cheaper. E.g. tax rates zero. The more total stuff there is, the easier it is to accumulate the price for whatever it is you value and wish to buy. You want the absolutely most inexpensive way to secure all property, and you want very high-status researchers devoted to finding new ways to secure the previously insecurable.
This always involves mighty fences to keep out anyone with less-wise tendencies. You must first secure yourself against lies and the deluded.
2 comments:
I thought you said efficiency is a sin? To make security cheap people outsource it and lose autonomy.
I did say efficiency is a sin. I then also said that it's necessary in pursuit of non-sin goals. Be as efficient as possible about being efficient, because efficiency a sin that needs to be minimized. Just like security.
Foolish morons will outsource security unnecessarily, yes.
Or: peasants can't responsibility because they already don't have autonomy, and therefore hand 100% of their security to the nearest lord without a fight. Subconsciously at the very least, they acknowledge they would lose the fight anyway and don't fuck around.
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