The Entropy Law and the Economic Process

Rating:
Summary: A Law of Thermodynamics as it Applies to Economics...
Review: ...entropy is the idea that there is a growing disorder to all systems, living and otherwise. Roegen is the social philosopher who originally, successfully tied the no limit-growth of capitalism to our decreasing natural resources, our increasing endangered species lists, and our decreasing resistances to a bunch of ailments...

I remember having to study passages of this book in college and my instructor said that there's no scientific data to verify what he's saying had any merit. And, now, today, mosquitoes and terrorists and brown outs have everybody up in arms. I can't say Roegen is prophetic, but his argument, to me, always did make a whole lotta sense...and, you know, the artists and the poets seem to have always intuited the validity of this great man's message.

What has really put things in perspective for me is my further readings... I've read works from EF Schumacher ("Small is Beautiful"), Rene Dubos ("A God Within"), Jeremy Rifkin ("Entropy"), and more recently, Derrick Jensen. And they all seem to speak to needing a more humane way of capitalism which doesn't seem bent on destroying everything in it's path.

There are many other authors who may be easier to read than Roegen, but you will find, if you are in anyway interested in the fate of the world, they all refer to his seminal work here.

Rating:
Summary: Big Fun
Review: Believe it or not, this is one of the funniest, most high-spirited books I've ever seen. Demanding, but brilliant and rewarding. Like the part about Marx leaving the enjoyment of life out of his equations of use. And arithmomorphism and identity. This is real.

Rating:
Summary: One of Most Important Economics Works of the 20th Century
Review: Georgescu-Roegen argues that neo-classical economics(the dominant
form of economics at this time) is not consistent with
fundamental physical laws. The law that NC economics is most in
conflict with is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the entropy
law. NE Economics assumes that continuous economic growth is
both desirable and possible. According to Roegen any economy is
permanently physically limited by the supply of low-entropy
matter and energy as a source for raw materials and as a sink
for our wastes. The only possible long-term source for
low-entropy energy is the sun and even this is available at a limited rate of flow.

An attempt at steady-state economics (as espoused by Herman
Daley) would be a significant improvement over the present
situation, but would still not be possible in the very long
run because of limitations on the supply of low-entropy raw
materials such as metal ores.

Roegen's point of view is fundamentally in conflict with
current economics, but we ignore his arguments at our peril.
In the not terribly distant future we will run up against
the limits that Roegen warns of.

The book is dense and difficult, but the concepts are extremely
important...

More readable books on the subject are
"Beyond Growth" and "Steady-State Economics"
by Herman Daley.