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Plants are cheaper. Check out the book Meatonomics which explains all the hidden costs and how meat industries are just pushing the costs on the consumer through healthcare, subsidies, and environmental costs.
Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows is good https://www.amazon.se/Thinking-Systems-International-Donella-Meadows/dp/1603580557
This is really great to hear, regardless of big wig politicians involved, this is a big step in preserving biodiversity and our continually dwindling natural resources.
If any of you are gardeners or interested in the environment like me, I highly recommend this book- https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Best-Hope-Approach-Conservation/dp/1604699000/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=natures+best+hope&qid=1625456540&sr=8-1
Which talks about wildlife corridors and how more private land owners(Even folks in the city or suburbia, as long as you have a plot with dirt... Or sand...) can get involved by replacing some of their lawn with native, regenerative plantings.
If you haven't read it already and would like to be depressed about the sketchy details on studies like this - the book, Meatonomics goes into a lot of detail about the funding and shortcomings of various studies the meat industry relies on to influence consumer opinions.
Thats not how efficiency increases work.
When we made aluminum cans that use 80% less aluminum than they did 30 years ago, we didn't start ALSO mining more aluminum as a result.
Fact is, when we make the production of something more efficient, we make less of it.
There are entire books about this effect that break down this result for every single material you can think of from aluminum to gas to rubber to argon. https://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Surprising-Learned-Resources_and/dp/1982103574
I literally don't feel like I'm human. Not in a cool way where I'm special or unique. More like maybe my original destiny was to be a nonphysical systems planner for a planetary organism but something went wrong and now I have to live in a body.
I also find it much easier to understand myself and other people if I back off until I can see what's happening as a whole system. When I'm zoomed in, I see things as "behavior" or "personality traits" and they're confusing. When I stand back far enough that the system is holistically viewable, I can see that these "traits" or "behaviors" are simply emergent properties of the system as it currently functions.
INFJs, you would all love the work of Donella Meadows: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557
>Unless I'm mistaken that's exactly the definition of growth.
For practical reasons, it's how growth is calculated, but a growth in GDP isn't quite the same as economic growth. For example, when the US had a 9% contraction in their Q2 of 2020, it would be a mistake to assume this means that the US economy suddenly lost 9% of its capacity to produce goods and services.
>But once again : what good is it to be rich if you have destroyed the environment in the process (destructive growth). You're not going to be able to buy anything when the ecological crisis comes. You're still using money as a proxy for quality of life which is true to some extend... but isn't once you reach a certain physical limit (the limits of earth and natural resources).
This is certainly an argument against the relentless pursuit of growth. But it's a normative statement, not an economic one. Also consider for a minute the fact that the US is using fewer resources now than it was 30 years ago despite huge increase in productivity:https://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Surprising-Learned-Resources_and/dp/1982103574
>Sorry, but I'm really not convinced by your answer.
Not really trying to convince you of anything. Just letting you know about the alternative arguments out there for growth-based policy.
Yep. A lack of basic systems thinking is why we are all fucked. The term "feedback loop" came from this discipline. The more I learn about systems thinking and complexity theory the more I understand about the world and how deeply hopeless our plight is.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603580557/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_N.a9FbRM79XRR
Here is a classic on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Beautiful-Economics-Mattered-Perennial/dp/0061997765/
What? Agriculture IS factory farms that are a businesses. Individuals didn’t choose which agricultural sectors to develop. animal agriculture artificially creates demand through massive subsidies (Billions just in the US). Animal agriculture feed producers also receive massive subsidies.
https://www.amazon.com/Meatonomics-Economics-Consume-Much-Smarter/dp/1573246204
>There is so much technological change, representing room for optimism, that was absent from my childhood.
Indeed - here is a good start:
https://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Surprising-Learned-Resources\_and/dp/1982103574
Pretty good book on the subject too: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Meatonomics-Economics-Industries-Encouraging-Shouldand/dp/1573246204
Spoilers: it's far worse than you can imagine.
> Non-renewable goods must be used only if they are indispensable, and then only with the greatest care and the most meticulous concern for conservation. To use them heedlessly or extravagantly is an act of violence, and while complete non-violence may not be attainable on this earth, there is nonetheless an ineluctable duty on man to aim at the ideal of non-violence in all he does.
> ...As the world's resources of non-renewable fuels - coal, oil, and natural gas - are exceedingly unevenly distributed over the globe and undoubtedly limited in quantity, it is clear that their exploitation at an ever-increasing rate is an act of violence against nature which must almost inevitably lead to violence between men. (64-65)
For sure! idk how big your yard is, but start with your trees, then shrubs, then perennials and annuals. So you can layer the plantings.
If you can pick up the book Natures Best Hope. I would highly recommend it, it’s a great read!
First, profits are almost never more than about 5% of total revenue.
Second, corporate taxation is a double tax (since capital gains are already taxes). This reduces the incentive to invest and thus limits economic growth. Economic growth is a moral imperative
You sound like someone who would really benefit from reading the limits to growth: https://www.amazon.com/Limits-Growth-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/193149858X/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=ed0901b0-2340-4915-8b8e-91c91995c6f4
You're not wrong about their being a lot of sensationalism but resources are going to dry up and humanity is going to go into full on global collapse in probably the next 20-30 years. Even more likely because people just want to keep brushing off the problems. Just a matter of time before mass societal collapse and wars of water.
we are stuck to this earth, we will never be able to leave our solar system. There are finite resources on this earth, and we deplete them at unprecedented speed. In fact, we are already in an ecological overshoot
https://www.amazon.com/Limits-Growth-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/193149858X
I'm not sure if this particular business is a good deal, but if you're contemplating whether to buy or start a business I recommend reading Buy Then Build, it's a great book on buying businesses.
I’m majoring in environmental science also with the hopes of becoming a wildlife biologist! I book that I absolutely love is Natures Best Hope. Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard https://www.amazon.com/dp/1604699000/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_S4AFJRD312AMMFTXMZ27
I just finished reading this book. It guides you through the process of acquiring an existing business.
Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JKM2F5Q/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_7K91HW3DK3VD1DBV131Q
No, but this book is a great resource. I am reading for the second time, and actively looking for another business to buy myself. https://www.amazon.com/Buy-Then-Build-Acquisition-Entrepreneurs-ebook/dp/B07JKM2F5Q
Here are two quotes that I remember when college students talk about not having any meaning. They're from Small is Beautiful:
> When people ask for education...they are really looking for...ideas that would make the world, and their own lives, intelligible to them.
Education is (or, I suppose, should be) about trying to find your place in the world. To feel like you don't have all the answers is the entire point of getting educated.
> The truly educated man...will not be in doubt about his basic convictions, about his view on the meaning and purpose of his life. He may not be able to explain these matters in words, but the conduct of his life will show a certain sureness of touch which stems from his inner clarity
And this inner clarity is what you're trying to develop. Depending on your major, those answers may not come from what you're learning. Without going off on a tangent about the qualitative abyss of STEM degrees, I'll just say that knowing how to do something says nothing about what to do. So, your education may have to happen outside of what you're learning in university...or at least in parallel.
First question, do you have experience running an online business in the niche that you're looking? I've owned an online retail business for over 21 years and still sometimes feel like I don't know what I'm doing... but at least I have my experience to fall back on. I can't imagine buying a business in a completely different industry.
As for due diligence, you should know what reasonable multiples for the industry/niche you're in... e-commerce sites are currently selling for around 3-4x SDE for medium sized (six figure SDE), 2-3x for <$100k SDE, and higher multiples for businesses with more than 7-figure SDE/EBITDAs.
You should verify everything... Ask for 3 years financial statements (profit & loss/income statement, cash flow, balance sheet), 3 years bank statements for all business accounts, and 3 years business tax returns. If you don't know how to read those, hire a CPA to review them and look for any anomolies.
And about "passive" income... no business is truly passive. If you buy a website that's generating "passive income" and don't do anything, it might continue earning the same revenue for a few months or a year, but things change and competition will encroach on your business. Whether it's a content site or an e-commerce site, they all require constant optimization to even stay at the same level. From organic SEO to PPC to social ads... they all need to be constantly optimized or you will be left in the dust. If you don't know how to do any of that or have the money to hire professionals, then it's probably not a good idea to jump into a business you know nothing about.
Also, read Buy Then Build it's a great book about buying an existing business to grow.
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This book is good at explaining my perspective of how the existing means of production are being more and more squeezed to pay a living wage without increasing margins. It is also used to macroeconomic exams for universitys.
Or how someone like Elon could make $300 billion with a business that has only ever yielded a couple billion in profit, and how his net worth is not based on the value of labour he exploited as he hasn't even had $100 billion in revenue..
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Its because the financial liquidity injection QE and mortgage backed security asset purchase program is effectively bidding up the valuations or PE ratios of the means of production without them becoming more productive, therefore increasing the net worth of shareholders substantially without the company having to make an equal profit growth.
There is this delusion that non-profit systems preserve the environment. This is nevertheless a delusion. There is literally nothing in the socialist idea that even implies better stewardship of the environment. If anything, many of the environmental problems of today are due to a tragedy of the commons problem where there are no rights to property (eg: oceans). This would be exacerbated, not reduced, in a socialist system.
And the track record of socialist experiments are clear. Go do a quick Google search of environmental damage in the USSR (eg: needlessly slaughtering whales just to hit production quotas).
There is so much evidence that as markets advance and capital investment leads to more sophisticated economies, their environmental impact goes down, not up. This is what has happened in the countries that industrialized in the 19th century. There is even a book about it.
Pricing will be what saves us, as long as we allow the market to function reasonably freely.
As the price of aluminum rose, manufacturers figured out how to redesign beverage cans to use 1/6th of the aluminum they originally used. There are many examples of increased prices driving efficiency without impacting quality of life (see book linked below).
On the flip side, we still grow almonds (it takes 15 gallons of water to produce 16 almonds) in dry areas of California because we charge farmers a different price for water than residential customers. China has similar subsidies, and they have to end.
Eliminating subsidies and price controls would let the market decide how to limit the use of scarce resources. For less scarce products with big negative externalities (fossil fuels), we can artificially increase the price via taxation (carbon tax, etc.).
https://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Surprising-Learned-Resources\_and/dp/1982103574
/u/The_Dude_of_Pala gave great insight, and points well to the idea that duality while is often not always a useless tool, so I give you the middle path of monistic riddles and dualistic finger pointing.
The teacher you’re looking for smiles in the mirror.
I have been a practicing secular Zen Buddhist/Taoist for long enough to realize, when dealing with dualistic thinkers, to give them a less dogmatic label: reality junkie.
We live in a world obsessed with empirical truth. Scientists and researchers galore. While the Dao teaches us that all things are transitory, some things are in a transition lasting eons. Some things transition in beautiful harmony, following similar ebbs and flows.
This is the insight of the world outside of the dichotomous boundary I see from other comments you’ve drawn as the “inner boundaries”. See the generalizations or abstractions, the “systems” if you will that govern the transitionary nature of the world, and the boundaries we invent to define these systems.
These abstractions of transitionary principles will help you become the leaf on the pond, the feather in the wind, the atom in the vacuum, following the ebbs, seeing the flows, and watching the cycles.
I don’t offer you a riddle, you can find your own map of the territory, or I can share one with you. This is up to you.
Once you do this, you will find the universe is speaking to you at all times, and you will be able to listen and learn from the greatest teacher.
I got it from my local website, but here is an Amazon link so it can be delivered to you worldwide: https://www.amazon.com/Meatonomics-Economics-Consume-Much-Smarter/dp/1573246204
And it Meatonomics, sorry ^^
First of all, the implication that socialism leads to a better environmental impact simply is not demonstrated by the evidence. Large scale socialist experiments have had abysmal environmental records. There isn't anything in the theory of socialism that leads one to believe it would lead to better environmental outcomes anyway.
Second, there is a lot of evidence that environmental impact follows the Kuznets Curve It isn't capitalism, but young capitalism that has the comparative disparate environmental impact. The solution being to encourage economic development faster while advising industrializing countries in the midst efficient, but sustainable, production techniques.
You should check out the recent book by Andrew McAfee called More From Less