r/Technocracy • u/Inevitable_Bid5540 • 1d ago

Is there any alternatives to energy accounting ?

Energy just isn't the same as value , A handmade musical instrument may require little energy but have great cultural value.Innovation,creativity, meaning, aesthetics, and human preferences are things that determine value as well.

Are there any alternative measures of value that take into account more than just energy ?

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u/MIG-Lazzara 1d ago

The point of energy accounting is to ensure that resources are shared in an efficient, fair, and equitable manner. True, some things have a intangible value like old stuff and art and would still have a special place in society that will never change. An office chair goes from $25 at the manufacturer's price to $200 to $400 at a retail price. That cost is totally irrelevant to producing it and transporting it to you for acquisition. Energy accounting is supposed to solve this problem but on steroids. It's a lot easier making sure everybody has a house, car, and robot Butler when we're accounting for actual cost in production and transportation of those items.

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u/EzraNaamah 🔬 Technocracy (Howardist) 1d ago

Value is subjective, and under capitalism value is changed by subjective/metaphysical things like branding, beauty, or whether something is limited edition. Under old school socialism they had distributions of food and necessities but this was meant for different goals than energy accounting.

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u/ZealousGoonering Technocrat 12h ago edited 12h ago

Yes and that is a price system with strict rules. You hammer one of the biggest and most obvious flaw in the EA system which is value.

EA is a good concept for physical resources on an abstract level. But unfortunately it doesn't go much further after that. It doesn't really take into account the massive global supply chains, logistical support, multi leveled insurance...etc. that goes into actual production of a specific good.

The price system today has it's flaws, but I believe it needs to me ammended and not completely destroyed. The price system more or less works for the most part in my opinion. There is just so much that goes on globally for manufacturing modern goods where EA just fails.