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Psychology Of Previous Investment
The "psychology of previous investment" was coined by James Howard Kunstler to describe the sunk costs of the modern urban/suburban lifestyle. It is the reluctance to abandon technologies and standards of urban infrastructure into which humans have already made substantial investments, and is seen as a major contributor to modern energy crises. See also *Abandonment cost Abandonment costs or Abandonment expenditure (ABEX) are costs associated with the abandonment of a business venture. Abandonment costs traditionally applied to the process of abandoning an under-producing or non-producing oil or gas well. In tha ... * Sunk cost fallacy References The Psychology of Previous Investment - Raise the Hammer - Remarks on the subject from Kunstler's website [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Howard Kunstler
James Howard Kunstler (born October 19, 1948) is an American author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger. He is best known for his books ''The Geography of Nowhere'' (1994), a history of American suburbia and urban development, ''The Long Emergency'' (2005), and ''Too Much Magic'' (2012). In ''The Long Emergency'' he imagines peak oil and oil depletion resulting in the end of industrialized society, forcing Americans to live in smaller-scale, localized, agrarian (or semi-agrarian) communities. In ''World Made by Hand'' he branches into a speculative fiction depiction of this future world. Background Kunstler was born in New York City to Jewish parents, who divorced when he was eight. His family then moved to the suburbs on Long Island. His biological father was a middleman in the diamond trade. Kunstler spent most of his childhood with his mother and stepfather, a publicist for Broadway shows. While spending summers at a boys' camp in New Hampshire, he became acquainted w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunk Costs
In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Sunk costs are contrasted with '' prospective costs'', which are future costs that may be avoided if action is taken. In other words, a sunk cost is a sum paid in the past that is no longer relevant to decisions about the future. Even though economists argue that sunk costs are no longer relevant to future rational decision-making, people in everyday life often take previous expenditures in situations, such as repairing a car or house, into their future decisions regarding those properties. Bygones principle According to classical economics and standard microeconomic theory, only prospective (future) costs are relevant to a rational decision. At any moment in time, the best thing to do depends only on ''current'' alternatives. The only things that matter are the ''future'' consequences. Past mistakes are irrelevant. Any cost ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lifestyle (sociology)
Lifestyle is the interests, opinions, behaviours, and behavioural orientations of an individual, group, or culture. The term was introduced by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in his 1929 book, ''The Case of Miss R.'', with the meaning of "a person's basic character as established early in childhood". The broader sense of lifestyle as a "way or style of living" has been documented since 1961. Lifestyle is a combination of determining intangible or tangible factors. Tangible factors relate specifically to demographic variables, i.e. an individual's demographic profile, whereas intangible factors concern the psychological aspects of an individual such as personal values, preferences, and outlooks. A rural environment has different lifestyles compared to an urban metropolis. Location is important even within an urban scope. The nature of the neighborhood in which a person resides affects the set of lifestyles available to that person due to differences between various neighborhoods ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, industry, communication, transportation, and daily life. Technologies include physical objects like utensils or machines and intangible tools such as software. Many technological advancements have led to societal changes. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used in the prehistoric era, followed by fire use, which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language in the Ice Age. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age enabled wider travel and the creation of more complex machines. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet have lowered communication barriers and ushered in the knowledge economy. While technology contributes to econom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and private physical structures such as roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewerage, sewers, electrical grids, and telecommunications (including Internet access, Internet connectivity and Broadband, broadband access). In general, infrastructure has been defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems providing Commodity, commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal quality of life, living conditions" and maintain the surrounding environment. Especially in light of the massive societal transformations needed to Climate change mitigation, mitigate and Climate change adaptation, adapt to climate change, contemporary infrastructure conversations frequently focus on sustainable development and gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Crisis
An energy crisis or energy shortage is any significant bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In literature, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, in particular, those that supply national electricity grids or those used as fuel in industrial development and population growth have led to a surge in the global demand for energy in recent years. In the 2000s, this new demand – together with Middle East tension, the falling value of the US dollar, dwindling oil reserves, concerns over peak oil, and oil price speculation – triggered the 2000s energy crisis, which saw the price of oil reach an all-time high of in 2008. Causes Most energy crises have been caused by localized shortages, wars and market manipulation. Some have argued that government actions like tax hikes, nationalisation of energy companies, and regulation of the energy sector, shift supply and demand of energy away from its economic equilibrium. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abandonment Cost
Abandonment costs or Abandonment expenditure (ABEX) are costs associated with the abandonment of a business venture. Abandonment costs traditionally applied to the process of abandoning an under-producing or non-producing oil or gas well. In that context, it means the removal of equipment, plugging of the well with cement, any environmental clean-up, etc. necessary to shut the well down. It is occasionally referred to as "Removal and Abandonment" or R & A. The objective of well abandonment is to ensure that no hydrocarbons leak into surface water or into the atmosphere. The cost of a routine abandonment of a typical well in the United States is about $5,000 (~Texas average cost in year 2000). If a well has developed a leak that allows gas to flow up the outside of the well casing, finding and correcting the leak can push the cost of abandonment beyond $100,000. Wells that have been used as injectors or have been subject to fracking operation are more likely to develop leaks becau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunk Cost Fallacy
In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Sunk costs are contrasted with '' prospective costs'', which are future costs that may be avoided if action is taken. In other words, a sunk cost is a sum paid in the past that is no longer relevant to decisions about the future. Even though economists argue that sunk costs are no longer relevant to future rational decision-making, people in everyday life often take previous expenditures in situations, such as repairing a car or house, into their future decisions regarding those properties. Bygones principle According to classical economics and standard microeconomic theory, only prospective (future) costs are relevant to a rational decision. At any moment in time, the best thing to do depends only on ''current'' alternatives. The only things that matter are the ''future'' consequences. Past mistakes are irrelevant. Any cost ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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