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Comment by Ericson2314 | Hacker News Reader

> Let us not submit to the vile doctrine of the nineteenth century that every enterprise must justify itself in pounds, shillings and pence of cash income … Why should we not add in every substantial city the dignity of an ancient university or a European capital … an ample theater, a concert hall, a dance hall, a gallery, cafes, and so forth. Assuredly we can afford this and so much more. Anything we can actually do, we can afford. … We are immeasurably richer than our predecessors. Is it not evident that some sophistry, some fallacy, governs our collective action if we are forced to be so much meaner than they in the embellishments of life? …

-- John Maynard Keynes

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A nuclear power station is not exactly a university or an art gallery.

The larger point still stands.

Investments look more bad than they should when:

- We ignore externalities

- We ignore that demand changes too, whether in response to monetary magic, or simply do to elasticity (it was always there, we just didn't know it).

This applies to both Keynes's examples and nuclear.

It does benefit society by creating a baseline energy source that is cleaner than coal or natural gas.

Which ignorants can - and will - proceed to piss away on terrace heaters to have drinks while having a smoke outside on the street

So what is your proposed solution? Outlaw non-renewable energy sources and simply let energy prices to go up by any amount?

Carbon Tax + "Carbon Dividend" (UBI) so that the vast majority of poeple's CoL does not go up at first but if they can reduce their car usage they can rake in the dough, is a nice first step.

See https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/decarbonizing-us...

Are you saying we should ignore the economic aspect of everything?

Considering this came from an economist, obviously not. Just that we've been doing it wrong.

(Consider this year's Nobel, awarded to people who demonstrated....we were doing it wrong.)

> Let us not submit to the vile doctrine of the nineteenth century that every enterprise must justify itself in pounds

The key word in that text above is "every" - as part of the whole statement it indicates they're suggesting there should be some exceptions, not that the economic aspect of everything should be ignored.

Assuredly we can afford this and so much more. Anything we can actually do, we can afford. … Little did John know the future would bring such wonders as HS2, lockdowns, the Ethiopian spice girls, NHS, a fake property market, ... a very different world.

holy hell that's a great quote

Thanks :)

It's a mission of mine to make (Post-)Keynesianism an essential part of Engineering from a holistic perspective.

The economy won't run at "full speed" left to its own devices, and new technology will have a harder time making it out of the research phase without full speed. VCs, being strictly supply-side, are not equipped to solve the problem. (Trying to do everything from the supply side is like trying to "push a string".)

And from a more personal angle, the "inventor distraught about being misunderstand by the world" is well-ingrained meme now. Better we have the science to understand what's really going on than not.

Thank you for this quote, it's a great one, saving it.

Thank you! Very glad to spread the word, as the I said in the other reply.

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