Growth, Economy, and its Effects

The rebound effect can be defined as "the behavioral or other systemic responses to the introduction of new technologies, or other measures taken to reduce resource use". The Jevon's paradox states that when technology advances, it increases the efficiency of a certain resource that is used, wich leads to an increase in the consumption rate of that resource. One example that helps us simply understand Jevon's paradox; lets say a woman decides to find an alternative to getting to work because gas prices have risen. She decides to car pool and charge people. She ends up spending a total of $20 in gas now that she has found a way to be efficient versus $100 when she commuted a week. She decided that because this was so convienent then she wasn't going to go back, even if gas prices fell because she enjoyed the company of the other people, she felt that her alternative was better for the environment, and last but not least she saved money so she could have more to spend on her wants versus her needs. This goes to show that in result, even though the woman has reduced her fuel cost by more than 50%, she has more money to buy things of her wants with higher gas prices then she did with the low gas prices. Someone who believed in this paradox would then ask why she is conserving the gas because they would think the conservation in gas would lead to a increase in the amount of consumption.To conserve oil would only lead to other spending on products that she wanted that just might be made from oil that she is trying to conserve, therefore you don't save anything at all
Another example of this would be "Household appliances provide the best example that efficiency gains really do stick. Take refrigerators (which can use as much as 14 percent of a household's total energy). Until the late 1970s, the average size of our refrigerators increased steadily and then began leveling off. But, during the same period, the energy those refrigerators used started to decline rapidly. Today's Energy Star refrigerators are 40 percent more efficient than those sold even seven years ago. After all, there is a maximum size to the refrigerator you can easily put in a kitchen and a limit to the number of refrigerators you need in your house. In short, improvements in efficiency have greatly outpaced our need for more and larger storage spaces."
This leads into the why there is so much emphasis on consumer spending. Consumer spending runs the economy, and is the biggest part of the big picture of our economy, therefore it is very crucial. Without it, the values of businesses would decrease, especially small businesses would suffer. If nothing is being bought the economy would be put on old and would stop industrializing and there would be an excess of inventory due to production decreasing; as well as the stock market would go down and crash.
The sea of selves just states how we fear the harms that the economy can give to us, finacially and health wise although we don'd tend to do much to care. We care about ourselves and isolate ourselves and feel that we are "saving" ourselves, but in reality it is making things worse because other important aspects are being ignored.
Bailey's notion of the civic and the divine, according to Jevon, is "Bailey's analysis, any successful and dynamic community, organization or collective human endeavor must place the elements of the civic and the divine at the center of its social life, its reason to be. These are the social aspects of our personalities. The civic alludes to the set of rights, obligations and responsibilities that bind the collective to the individual and vice versa. The divine alludes to the notion of something greater than one's self and that the activities of the collective are significant in relation to the world."
I really thought this essay by Jeff Dardozzi was interesting because it had many good view points. It showed me that it really depends on the situation and brought up good and bad points about how we behave as both consumers and conservers as well as producers.
This was due by Veteran's Day because it shows us that the veterans are fighting for our rights, and for us..and goes with the whole aspect of society and whether they're concerns are within oneself or the actual economy.