Methodological Overview - Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World - page 13

virtually all processes of production. As a result, the American economy
went on a monumental, energy-consumption binge. Of course, we did not
fully recognize it as the binge that it was until the retrospection of the energy
crisis brought it to the fore.
In addition to the extremely wasteful use of energy, there was a tremendous
amount of technological change during that postwar period. The innova-
tion process could afford to be anchored on and take for granted the readily
available energy. Therefore, new technologies were incessantly steered in an
energy-intensive direction, wherein they invariably expended more energy
per unit of output than did the previous processes.
Further, since increased use of energy and the adoption of new, capital-
based technology became almost synonymous, the low and falling real cost
of energy stimulated many substitutions of fossil-fuel based machinery and
processes for human labor (in economic theory terms, capital/labor substi-
tutions). Indeed, the search for new ways to mechanize remains the favorite
sport of American business today, although now the defining characteris-
tic of that search also normally includes the involvement of computers and
information technology.
The new, nagging problem during the hectic 1970s, and one that is only
getting worse today, was unemployment. Without cheap energy to lavish on
the job market, it has gotten increasingly difficult to maintain acceptable lev-
els of employment. Accompanying that has been an unhealthy drift toward
widening disparity in income and wealth. Increasing economic inequality,
in our opinion, ranks as the primary problem threatening the well-being
not only of our economy but also of our democracy. Considerable additional
attention is given to this premise in Section II of this topic, in conjunction
with a more in-depth critique of the discipline of economics.
Of course, a rosy picture was painted for the employed labor force, even in
light of nagging unemployment and growing income disparity. The increas-
ing availability of capital led to empirically measurable increases in produc-
tivity, or, in economic terms, output per hour per worker. The articulation of
the American Dream was again a setup, as it has been throughout history,
to place the winners on a visible pedestal for public adoration, while either
ignoring the losers or, even in some contorted manner, blaming them for the
nagging problems that were arising and due to get even worse.
Understanding the Crisis
Even then, many wanted to ignore that message. Blame for the crisis was
extended in virtually every direction: undemocratic oil “sheikdoms,” profit-
hungry oil monopolies, inept government energy regulations and policies,
and so on. Little credence—but much informed denial—was placed either on
our wasteful habits or on the possibility that we were beginning to run out
of an important, finite resource and that the planet was sounding an early
warning bell—however much or little time we might have left.