Jevon's Paradox by Dardozzi

What is Jevon's Paradox? Created by William Stanley Jevons, it states the belief that increasing the efficiency of a product will briefly reduce demand of that product before, paradoxically, sharply increasing the demand, thus negating any positive effects that the increased efficiency may have had. This is the 'rebound effect'-basically the demand will go down and go up again as the product is made available cheaply to many people. Hence, increasing the efficiency of any product does not reduce consumption of that product but inadvertently increases demand instead. For example, before the 1970s air travel was relatively expensive and uncomfortable. With the arrival of large transcontinental jet aircraft, however, coupled with and the deregulation of the industry, air travel became affordable to the middle class and comfortable (relatively speaking). In the last twenty years a global boom has occurred in the international business and tourism industries thanks to cheap air travel, air travel increased from 200 million passengers in 1975 (in the US) to over 700 million by 2005. Another example of this effect is the internet. Before the internet existed Arpanet, which was basically a military-university network for testing communication and information transmission. As soon as this network expanded to include private households, and those households had cheap personal computers, everyone demanded internet access. It is often said that, "Its the 21st century. You have rights to food access and an internet connection." The growth of internet users around the world for business, social networking, and gaming showcases just how powerful the Jevon's paradox is. Instant communication didn't decrease people's demands for computers and internet but rather increased it.

In our society today we emphasize consumer spending as The way to keep our economy rolling. Economists and politicians are stuck in a tunnel-vision of what ideal economics are- in their eyes, only continual growth and spending, regardless of how many resources are depleted and how much pollution is created. See, if consumers were to stop spending in our economy, then there would be no money flowing around to the producers/manufacturers, who need it to feed their families which eventually comes right back around to the consumers. Bascially, we would have an economic collapse since the money would not be flowing in the "great circle of cash". Manufacturing is necessary for life, but in our consumeristic society we overdo it simply to put 'stuffs' on our market shelves. We can't shift entirely to a service oriented economy either- once that basically consumes less "stuff" like new toys and clothes and more on consuming "services", such as vacations, hotels, food/ restaurants and so forth. Also, if we drop manufacturing other countries will merely step in to take the plate.

We are now a "sea of selves" according to filmmaker Adam Curtis. We are not conditioned to think what may be to the benefit of others, only what is beneficial to ourselves. Our individual oriented society demands that we think of the good of the "self" before we think of the good of the collective society, and he believes that this is a fundamental flaw in our society. Although it should be pointed out, is this a question of nature vs. nurture? Whether we are biologically inclined to be like this or whether this is a product of our capitalistic and materialistic society is not fully answered.

Bailey hypothesizes that humans have two categories of social aspects, which he labels the civic and the divine. The civic are those which bind the collective to the individual, namely rights, obligations, laws and responsibilities. The divine refers to the idea that there exists something greater and more important than oneself, and that what humans do as a collective is important to the world.

I think that the Jevon's paradox is true and that anytime something is offered more cheaply and efficiently than before humans will demand more of it instead of less. Dardozzi does a good job of putting Jevon's paradox into modern perspective. He uses examples such as the Tata and housing sizes to illustrate his point. Dardozzi also points to the reasons behind the Paradox, primarily unrestrained capitalism and our tunnel-visioned culture of the "self". I think there is much to be learned by the reader of Dardozzi work. The only problem is that Dardozzi doesn't offer any real solution to the problem, concrete or hypothetical. I think that he wants us to think about the problems inherent in our society that have lead to the reality of the paradox, and that he wants us to find the solutions by ourselves as a whole / collective.

Veterans' day is an appropriate time to reflect upon Jevon's paradox and Dardozzi's work since it is a day when we remember those who gave their time, health, and lives for their country; a greater good than themselves. They sacrificed everything they held dear, sometimes their own lives, so that we may live in peace (theoretically). The point is that it is a sacrifice for the collective good, and that is I believe what Dardozzi is trying to remind us about. We cannot be so selfish all the time, we must make sacrifices for the collective good if we are to survive.