Jevons Paradox
en.wikipedia.org
Jevons Paradox
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Re: Jevons Paradox
#2If you make it easy for someone to take an inch, they take a mile, even if they only took a foot before.
Re: Jevons Paradox
#3Processor speeds are probably a good example of this. Also developer efficiency. All kinds of biz can now afford developers, not just software houses.
Re: Jevons Paradox
#4Applying this paradox in reverse (which is paraphrasing the wiki article) - if introducing energy efficiency measures causes energy use to go down then someone needs to ask probing questions about what is going on. Increased efficiency should be linked, all else equal, to increased use of a resource.
Re: Jevons Paradox
#5Applying this paradox in reverse (which is paraphrasing the wiki article) - if introducing energy efficiency measures causes energy use to go down then someone needs to ask probing questions about what is going on. Increased efficiency should be linked, all else equal, to increased use of a resource.
It's not hard to find examples where this "rule" doesn't seem to hold. If you give me water heated for free, I may shower twice on some days, but I will not take infinite hot showers. If you gave me shoes that cause less ablation of the pavement I walk on, I wouldn't find other ways to remove the same amount of material, I would simply use up less resources wherever I go, being none the wiser.
Re: Jevons Paradox
#6Applying this paradox in reverse (which is paraphrasing the wiki article) - if introducing energy efficiency measures causes energy use to go down then someone needs to ask probing questions about what is going on. Increased efficiency should be linked, all else equal, to increased use of a resource.
It's not hard to find examples where this "rule" doesn't seem to hold. If you give me water heated for free, I may shower twice on some days, but I will not take infinite hot showers. If you gave me shoes that cause less ablation of the pavement I walk on, I wouldn't find other ways to remove the same amount of material, I would simply use up less resources wherever I go, being none the wiser.
The parent does miss the point of market saturation, but I think that's on purpose, since it makes the question more complicated.
For example, a reversal: nobody would drive their cars at all if the fuel prices would be the same for 5 seconds of driving as it is for a distance of 1000 miles now.
Re: Jevons Paradox
#7Applying this paradox in reverse (which is paraphrasing the wiki article) - if introducing energy efficiency measures causes energy use to go down then someone needs to ask probing questions about what is going on. Increased efficiency should be linked, all else equal, to increased use of a resource.
Introducing energy efficiency measures does cause usage to go down in the short term, but assuming demand is elastic, then it will go up over time as people consume more.
Where Jevons Paradox has most utility is showing the futility of unilateral individual action. Don't think you are doing anything to help the environment by turning off that light switch.
Re: Jevons Paradox
#8Applying this paradox in reverse (which is paraphrasing the wiki article) - if introducing energy efficiency measures causes energy use to go down then someone needs to ask probing questions about what is going on. Increased efficiency should be linked, all else equal, to increased use of a resource.
That’s not true, actually: it strictly depends on which is the effective constraint in play at that particular point in the configuration space.
Re: Jevons Paradox
#9Which is why you need an energy tax to actually reduce consumption.
Re: Jevons Paradox
#10I suppose a nice example would be city lights. There was an article lately about how electrical consumption for city lights increased despite the switch to LEDs.
Can't quite find the article though, but here is one about light pollution increasing (which does not necessarily correlate with electrical consumption, but still):
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/light-pollution-increasing-arou...