Conservation (was Criticizing the Extropian Principles)

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@uui.com)
Date: Fri Jun 07 2002 - 14:07:48 MDT


I wrote

> Yes, let's please criticize the Extropian Principles! For newbies, by the
> way, who know nothing about PCR (Pan Critical Rationalism), criticism
> is a *good* thing. It helps something to be criticized. We see the phrase
> "constructive criticism" as redundant, because it is in the nature of criticism
> that some sticks and some doesn't. But alas: ....

> I cannot find a single phrase---even a single word that bothers me.
> Please, can't you? Isn't there some little tiny thing that rubs you
> the wrong way? Well, let's hear about it!

Okay, so maybe I don't have anything that I can find in the principles
per se, but I can move on to Max's exegesis of those principles:

"An effective economic system encourages conservation, substitution,
and innovation, preventing any need for a brake on growth and progress."

Whew! Finally after 18 sentences which I could not fault at all,
there is that. Where is evidence that conservation has accomplished
anything? (Anything beyond making certain kinds of people feel
virtuous, that is.) Efforts to conserve are usually expensive,
and I'd like to hear about cases where the money couldn't have
been better invested elsewhere (e.g., leaving it in the hands
of the people who earned it). Even in cases where it's not
expensive, isn't it a waste of time?

Lee



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