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Re: The Limits To Growth



Alastair McKinstry <alastair@kbhr.ilo.dec.com> wrote for all to see:

>jmc@Steam.stanford.edu (John McCarthy) writes:

[edited]
>>  What counts is
>> the labor efficiency that permits two percent of the American
>> population to grow food for all of us and then some for export.
>
>Does this labor efficiency include those working in energy creation
>(oil extraction, fertilizer manufacture) or just those directly
>involved in agriculture ?
>
An excellent question!  Of course not.  We can get a good ballpark
figure for this, however, from the portion of US income the average
family spends on food, since the inputs you mentioned (fuel,
fertilizer) would be encompassed by that, I believe.  Last I looked,
this was less than 20%.  Of course, that included restaurants, where
most of the charge goes to the labor of preparation and serving.  But
that is a reasonable upper bound, don't you think?

Regards, Harold
----
"Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions.  Trade loves 
moderation, delights in compromise, and is most careful to avoid anger.  
....  Trade makes men independent of one another and gives them a high 
idea of their personal importance: it leads them to want to manage their 
own affairs and teaches them to succeed therein.  Hence it makes them 
inclined to liberty but disinclined to revolution."
	---Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 2, pt. 3, 
	ch. 21 (1840).



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