Elon Musk vs. Bill Gates: The Race for Clean Energy Domination

Ever since Elon Musk defied the oil giants with Tesla, a silent battle has been brewing. [View In Browser]( |  Sep 28, 2024 [FinTech Insider Hub]( Ever since Elon Musk defied the oil giants with Tesla, a silent battle has been brewing. Now, Bill Gates throws his hat in the ring with a revolutionary clean energy project codenamed "Project Terra." [Click Here To See This.]( Money and value Simmel believed people created value by making objects, then separating themselves from those objects and then trying to overcome that distance. He found that objects that were too close were not considered valuable and objects that were too far away for people to obtain were also not considered valuable. What was also considered in determining value was the scarcity, time, sacrifice, and difficulties involved in getting objects. In the pre-modern era, beginning with bartering, different systems of exchange for goods and services allowed for the existence of incomparable systems of value (land, food, honor, love, etc.). With the advent of a universal currency as an intermediary, these systems became reconcilable, as everything tended to become expressible in a single quantifiable metric: its monetary cost. Money and freedom A fundamental point of The Philosophy of Money is that money brings about personal freedom. The effect of freedom can be appreciated by considering the evolution of economic obligations. When someone is a slave, their whole person is subject to the master. The peasant has more freedom, but if they are to provide the lord with payments in kind, such as wheat or cattle, they must produce exactly the item required, or barter it at a great loss or inconvenience. But when the obligation takes a monetary form, the peasant is free as to whether to grow wheat, or keep cattle, or engage in other activities, as long as they pay the required tax. Freedom also arises because money enables an economic system of increasing complexity in which any single relation becomes less important and thus more impersonal. As a result, the individual experiences a sense of independence and self-sufficiency. There is another sense in which money is conducive to freedom, and it originates from the observation that the owner is truly entitled to its possessions only if he takes care of its upkeep and of making it bear fruits. Money is more flexible than land or other assets, and thus it frees the owner from those activities that are specific to real entities. Since monetary possessions no longer ties the owner to a specific type of work, money leads to increased freedom. Consequently, monetary ownership enables the position of a purely intellectual worker and, by the same line of reasoning, it also implies that a wealthy man can lead a modest life. As for workers and managers, they only contribute work for wages and only deal with an impersonal market, and thus their personality is separated from specific work activities. In the case of civil servants, they are paid a fixed salary that is largely independent of any specific work performance, and see their personality freed from work activities. The same hold for artists, such as a musician who is paid the same fee regardless of how well he plays. Although the monetary system enhances individual freedom, it can also lead to consequences that are questionable. An employee does not necessarily have better living conditions than a slave does, as a precise amount of money corresponds imprecisely to its effective purchasing power. In a money economy, individuals will tend to put their financial interests above the goals of society or of the state. If a peasant sells his land even for a fair price, monetary freedom differs from the personal activity afforded by possession of the land. More generally, freedom from something does not necessarily equate with the freedom to do something else because money is "empty" and flexible, and does not direct the owner toward any specific activity. Although monetary payments can free from the obligations of specific in-kind contributions, it has also the effect of removing the involvement of the individual from a broader context. For example, when the Athenian vassal states had to contribute with ships and troops, the tributaries were directly involved in Athens's foreign and military policy, at least to the extent that drafted soldiers could not effectively be deployed against their home states. Once the military contribution was replaced by a monetary tribute, no such constraint could be placed on Athens's policy. The natural evolution of this state of affairs is that despotic regimes tend to favor a monetary economy. Personal values Personal values can be quantified in terms of equivalent money amounts. An example is the weregild, the monetary value that must be paid to a family if one of his members is killed. The weregild was truly a reflection of personal values, in this case of a lost life, rather than the compensation for the income stream that the deceased would have provided to the family. Similarly, personal values are also quantified by the practice of marriage by purchase and of prostitution. However, the historical trend has been toward an increased awareness of individual distinctions whereas money is intrinsically fungible. As a result, money has been progressively considered as an inappropriate equivalent to personal values, and most of these practices have fallen into disuse. When these practices survive, the amount of money is so large that it introduces an affective element in the transaction. A wife purchased for an exorbitant amount is especially dear to the heart. Money is fungible and, as such, it stands in sharp contrast with the idea of distinction, according to which an entity is set apart from and incomparable with a majority. Distinction is a property of nobility, or of some works of art, for example. Simmel takes as a case in point the House of Lords, which functions as the sole judge of its members and at the same time refuses to sit in judgment of any other individual. In this sense, the Lords value distinction to the extent that even the exercise of authority on other people would be seen as a degradation. The quantitative aspects of money has the potential to threaten and debase the qualitative notion of distinction. Style of life As values can be quantified in monetary terms, our relationship with objects has lost most of its emotional character and has become more intellectual. On the one hand, our rational attitude can lead us to become individualistic, to an atomization of society, and even to disregard respect and kindness. On the other hand, there are often clear advantages in relying on intellect rather than on emotions. At any rate, Simmel maintains that intellect is a tool and, as such, it lacks an intrinsic sense of direction and can be put to use for different purposes. Rationality originates from the objective, purely arithmetic nature of money, and is mirrored by the tenet that law is equal for everyone and that in a democracy all votes are equal. The ability of fitting in an increasingly intellectual environment is reinforced by education, which in turn is mostly accessible to those who can afford it. As a result, money can lead to the creation of a de facto aristocracy of the affluent. The converse is that egalitarian tendencies typically reject the money system. The objective nature of money ultimately arises from the division of labor, in which the product is divorced from the worker's personality and work is treated as a commodity. Similarly, products are no longer tailored to the specific customer and do not reflect his personality, production tools are specialized to the point that the worker has little leeway in the way he operates the machines, and fashion changes so rapidly that nobody gets personally or socially attached to it. This state of affairs stands in contrast with the arts, which reflects the individuality of the author. Money can increase the distance between individuals to the point that it allows them to fit in crowded cities and to liberate individuals from the yoke of working on a family business. (Incidentally, financial activities are concentrated in major cities, and the concentration of money increases the pace and variety of life.) Humankind has become progressively more independent of the rhythms of nature and more dependent on the business cycle. "Objects and people have become separated from one another" declares Simmel, and was to compare this phenomenon with Marx's theory of alienation.[3] Money rises above individual conflicts while being an essential participant of the conflict. It has transcended its characteristics of a tool when it has become the center around which the economic system rotates, at which point it also takes the role of an all-encompassing teleological circle. Simmel was to compare this phenomenon with Marx's commodity fetishism.[3] Yet, division of labor makes it possible to construct intellectual and scientific contents that surpass the ability of the individual mind. Even in these cases, though, it may be essential that a synthesis be accomplished by a single mind. Similarly, as material concerns become impersonal, what is left can become more personal. For example, as the typewriter has relieved the writer from the cumbersome mechanics of writing, he can devote more attention to the original contents of his work. It really depends on humankind whether money will lead to increased distinctiveness and refinement or not. Social effects of money Simmel's outlook, while gloomy, is not wholly negative. As money and transactions increase, the independence of an individual decreases as he is drawn into a holistic network of exchange governed by quantifiable monetary value. Paradoxically, this results in greater potential freedom of choice for the individual, as money can be deployed toward any possible goal, even if most people's sheer lack of money renders that potential quite low much of the time. Money's homogenizing nature encourages greater liberty and equality and melts away forms of feudalism and patronage, even as it minimizes exceptional, incommensurable achievements in art and love. A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation expected, required, or given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, especially when the product is a service rather than a physical good, the price for the service may be called something else such as "rent" or "tuition".[1] Prices are influenced by production costs, supply of the desired product, and demand for the product. A price may be determined by a monopolist or may be imposed on the firm by market conditions. Price can be quoted in currency, quantities of goods or vouchers. In modern economies, prices are generally expressed in units of some form of currency. (More specifically, for raw materials they are expressed as currency per unit weight, e.g. euros per kilogram or Rands per KG.) Although prices could be quoted as quantities of other goods or services, this sort of barter exchange is rarely seen. Prices are sometimes quoted in terms of vouchers such as trading stamps and air miles. In some circumstances, cigarettes have been used as currency, for example in prisons, in times of hyperinflation, and in some places during World War II. In a black market economy, barter is also relatively common. In many financial transactions, it is customary to quote prices in other ways. The most obvious example is in pricing a loan, when the cost will be expressed as the percentage rate of interest. The total amount of interest payable depends upon credit risk, the loan amount and the period of the loan. Other examples can be found in pricing financial derivatives and other financial assets. For instance the price of inflation-linked government securities in several countries is quoted as the actual price divided by a factor representing inflation since the security was issued. "Price" sometimes refers to the quantity of payment requested by a seller of goods or services, rather than the eventual payment amount. In business this requested amount is often referred to as the offer price or selling price, while the actual payment may be called transaction price or traded price. Economic price theory asserts that in a free market economy the market price reflects the interaction between supply and demand:[2] the price is set so as to equate the quantity being supplied and that being demanded. In turn, these quantities are determined by the marginal utility of the asset to different buyers and to different sellers. Supply and demand, and hence price, may be influenced by other factors, such as government subsidy or manipulation through industry collusion. When a raw material or a similar economic good is for sale at multiple locations, the law of one price is generally believed to hold. This essentially states that the cost difference between the locations cannot be greater than that representing shipping, taxes, other distribution costs and more. Functions of prices According to Milton Friedman, price has five functions in a free-enterprise exchange economy which is characterized by private ownership of the means of production:[3] Transmitting information about changes in the relative importance of different end-products and factors of production. Providing an incentive for enterprise (a) to produce those products valued most highly by the market, and (b) to use methods of production that economize relatively scarce factors of production. Providing an incentive to owners of resources to direct them into the most highly remunerated uses Distributing output among the owners of resources Rationing fixed supplies of goods among consumers. Price and value The paradox of value was observed and debated by classical economists. Adam Smith described what is now called the diamond – water paradox: diamonds command a higher price than water, yet water is essential for life and diamonds are merely ornamentation. Use value was supposed to give some measure of usefulness, later refined as marginal benefit while exchange value was the measure of how much one good was in terms of another, namely what is now called relative price.[dubious – discuss] Negative prices Main article: Negative pricing See also: 2020 Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war Negative prices are very unusual but possible under certain circumstances. Effectively, the owner or producer of an item pays the "buyer" to take it off their hands. In April 2020, for the first time in history, due to the global health/economic crisis situation, the price of West Texas Intermediate benchmark crude oil for May delivery contracts turned negative, with a barrel of oil at -$37.63 a barrel, a one-day drop of $55.90, or 306%, according to Dow Jones Market Data. "Negative prices means someone with a long position in oil would have to pay someone to take that oil off of their hands. Why would they do that? The main reason is a fear that if forced to take delivery of crude on the expiration of the May oil contract, there would be nowhere to put it as a glut of crude fills up available storage."[4] In a sense the price is still positive, just the direction of payment reverses, i.e. in this case you are paid to take some goods. Negative interest rates are a similar concept. Austrian School theory One solution offered to the paradox of the value is through the theory of marginal utility proposed by Carl Menger, one of the founders of the Austrian School of economics. As William Barber put it, human volition, the human subject, was "brought to the centre of the stage" by marginalist economics, as a bargaining tool. Neoclassical economists sought to clarify choices open to producers and consumers in market situations, and thus "fears that cleavages in the economic structure might be unbridgeable could be suppressed".[5] Without denying the applicability of the Austrian theory of value as subjective only, within certain contexts of price behavior, the Polish economist Oskar Lange felt it was necessary to attempt a serious integration of the insights of classical political economy with neo-classical economics. This would then result in a much more realistic theory of price and of real behavior in response to prices. Marginalist theory lacked anything like a theory of the social framework of real market functioning, and criticism sparked off by the capital controversy initiated by Piero Sraffa revealed that most of the foundational tenets of the marginalist theory of value either reduced to tautologies, or that the theory was true only if counter-factual conditions applied.[citation needed] One insight often ignored in the debates about price theory is something that businessmen are keenly aware of: in different markets, prices may not function according to the same principles except in some very abstract (and therefore not very useful) sense. From the classical political economists to Michał Kalecki it was known that prices for industrial goods behaved differently from prices for agricultural goods, but this idea could be extended further to other broad classes of goods and services.[citation needed] Price as productive human labour time Marxists assert that value derives from the volume of socially necessary labour time exerted in the creation of an object. This value does not relate to price in a simple manner, and the difficulty of the conversion of the mass of values into the actual prices is known as the transformation problem. However, many recent Marxists deny that any problem exists. Marx was not concerned with proving that prices derive from values. In fact, he admonished the other classical political economists (like Ricardo and Smith) for trying to make this proof. Rather, for Marx, price equals the cost of production (capital-cost and labor-costs) plus the average rate of profit. So if the average rate of profit (return on capital investment) is 22% then prices would reflect cost-of-production plus 22%. The perception that there is a transformation problem in Marx stems from the injection of Walrasian equilibrium theory into Marxism where there is no such thing as equilibrium.[citation needed] Confusion between prices and costs of production Price is commonly confused with the notion of cost of production, as in "I paid a high cost for buying my new plasma television"; but technically these are different concepts. Price is what a buyer pays to acquire products from a seller. Cost of production concerns the seller's expenses (e.g., manufacturing expense) in producing the product being exchanged with a buyer. For marketing organizations seeking to make a profit, the hope is that price will exceed cost of production so that the organization can see financial gain from the transaction. Finally, while pricing is a topic central to a company's profitability, pricing decisions are not limited to for-profit companies. The behavior of non-profit organizations, such as charities, educational institutions and industry trade groups, also involves setting prices.[6]: 160–65  For instance, charities seeking to raise money may set different "target" levels for donations that reward donors with increases in status (e.g., name in newsletter), gifts or other benefits; likewise educational and cultural nonprofits often price seats for events in theatres, auditoriums and stadiums. Furthermore, while nonprofit organizations may not earn a "profit", by definition, it is the case that many nonprofits may desire to maximize net revenue—total revenue less total cost—for various programs and activities, such as selling seats to theatrical and cultural performances.[6]: 183–94  Price point The price of an item is also called the "price point", especially if it refers to stores that set a limited number of price points. For example, Dollar General is a general store or "five and dime" store that sets price points only at even amounts, such as exactly one, two, three, five, or ten dollars (among others). Other stores have a policy of setting most of their prices ending in 99 cents or pence. Other stores (such as dollar stores, pound stores, euro stores, 100-yen stores, and so forth) only have a single price point ($1, £1, €1, ¥100), but in some cases, that price may purchase more than one of some very small items. [7] The term "price point" is also used to describe non-linear areas of the price curve. Market price In economics, the market price is the economic price for which a good or service is offered in the marketplace. It is of interest mainly in the study of microeconomics. Market value and market price are equal only under conditions of market efficiency, equilibrium, and rational expectations. Market price is measured during a specific period of time and is greatly affected by the supply and demand for a good or service. For example, if demand for a good increases and supply of the good is held constant, the price for the good will rise in a marketplace with open competition.[8] Under the UK's Sale of Goods Act 1979, damages for non-delivery of contracted goods take account of the market price for the goods where there is an available market.[9] On restaurant menus, the market price (often abbreviated to m.p. or mp) is written instead of a specific price, meaning "price of dish depends on market price of ingredients, and price is available upon request", and is particularly used for seafood, notably lobsters and oysters.[10] Other terms Basic Price: It is the amount that producer receive from buyer for a unit of good or service produced minus any taxes payable and plus subsidies payable on that unit as the result of its production or sales. It does not include any producer transport charges which are involved separately.[11] Producer Price Index: It measures the average change in the selling price of domestic producers' products over time.[12] Purchase Price: It refers to the amount paid by the purchaser for receiving a unit of goods or services at the time and place required by the purchaser and any deductible taxes will not be included. The purchase price also include any transport charge for purchase to pick up the goods to a specific location in the required time.[13] Price optimization is the use of mathematical techniques by a company to determine how customers will respond to different prices for its products and services through different channels. Money and value Simmel believed people created value by making objects, then separating themselves from those objects and then trying to overcome that distance. He found that objects that were too close were not considered valuable and objects that were too far away for people to obtain were also not considered valuable. What was also considered in determining value was the scarcity, time, sacrifice, and difficulties involved in getting objects. In the pre-modern era, beginning with bartering, different systems of exchange for goods and services allowed for the existence of incomparable systems of value (land, food, honor, love, etc.). With the advent of a universal currency as an intermediary, these systems became reconcilable, as everything tended to become expressible in a single quantifiable metric: its monetary cost. Money and freedom A fundamental point of The Philosophy of Money is that money brings about personal freedom. The effect of freedom can be appreciated by considering the evolution of economic obligations. When someone is a slave, their whole person is subject to the master. The peasant has more freedom, but if they are to provide the lord with payments in kind, such as wheat or cattle, they must produce exactly the item required, or barter it at a great loss or inconvenience. But when the obligation takes a monetary form, the peasant is free as to whether to grow wheat, or keep cattle, or engage in other activities, as long as they pay the required tax. Freedom also arises because money enables an economic system of increasing complexity in which any single relation becomes less important and thus more impersonal. As a result, the individual experiences a sense of independence and self-sufficiency. There is another sense in which money is conducive to freedom, and it originates from the observation that the owner is truly entitled to its possessions only if he takes care of its upkeep and of making it bear fruits. Money is more flexible than land or other assets, and thus it frees the owner from those activities that are specific to real entities. Since monetary possessions no longer ties the owner to a specific type of work, money leads to increased freedom. Consequently, monetary ownership enables the position of a purely intellectual worker and, by the same line of reasoning, it also implies that a wealthy man can lead a modest life. As for workers and managers, they only contribute work for wages and only deal with an impersonal market, and thus their personality is separated from specific work activities. In the case of civil servants, they are paid a fixed salary that is largely independent of any specific work performance, and see their personality freed from work activities. The same hold for artists, such as a musician who is paid the same fee regardless of how well he plays. Although the monetary system enhances individual freedom, it can also lead to consequences that are questionable. An employee does not necessarily have better living conditions than a slave does, as a precise amount of money corresponds imprecisely to its effective purchasing power. In a money economy, individuals will tend to put their financial interests above the goals of society or of the state. If a peasant sells his land even for a fair price, monetary freedom differs from the personal activity afforded by possession of the land. More generally, freedom from something does not necessarily equate with the freedom to do something else because money is "empty" and flexible, and does not direct the owner toward any specific activity. Although monetary payments can free from the obligations of specific in-kind contributions, it has also the effect of removing the involvement of the individual from a broader context. For example, when the Athenian vassal states had to contribute with ships and troops, the tributaries were directly involved in Athens's foreign and military policy, at least to the extent that drafted soldiers could not effectively be deployed against their home states. Once the military contribution was replaced by a monetary tribute, no such constraint could be placed on Athens's policy. The natural evolution of this state of affairs is that despotic regimes tend to favor a monetary economy. Personal values Personal values can be quantified in terms of equivalent money amounts. An example is the weregild, the monetary value that must be paid to a family if one of his members is killed. The weregild was truly a reflection of personal values, in this case of a lost life, rather than the compensation for the income stream that the deceased would have provided to the family. Similarly, personal values are also quantified by the practice of marriage by purchase and of prostitution. However, the historical trend has been toward an increased awareness of individual distinctions whereas money is intrinsically fungible. As a result, money has been progressively considered as an inappropriate equivalent to personal values, and most of these practices have fallen into disuse. When these practices survive, the amount of money is so large that it introduces an affective element in the transaction. A wife purchased for an exorbitant amount is especially dear to the heart. Money is fungible and, as such, it stands in sharp contrast with the idea of distinction, according to which an entity is set apart from and incomparable with a majority. Distinction is a property of nobility, or of some works of art, for example. Simmel takes as a case in point the House of Lords, which functions as the sole judge of its members and at the same time refuses to sit in judgment of any other individual. In this sense, the Lords value distinction to the extent that even the exercise of authority on other people would be seen as a degradation. The quantitative aspects of money has the potential to threaten and debase the qualitative notion of distinction. Style of life As values can be quantified in monetary terms, our relationship with objects has lost most of its emotional character and has become more intellectual. On the one hand, our rational attitude can lead us to become individualistic, to an atomization of society, and even to disregard respect and kindness. On the other hand, there are often clear advantages in relying on intellect rather than on emotions. At any rate, Simmel maintains that intellect is a tool and, as such, it lacks an intrinsic sense of direction and can be put to use for different purposes. Rationality originates from the objective, purely arithmetic nature of money, and is mirrored by the tenet that law is equal for everyone and that in a democracy all votes are equal. The ability of fitting in an increasingly intellectual environment is reinforced by education, which in turn is mostly accessible to those who can afford it. As a result, money can lead to the creation of a de facto aristocracy of the affluent. The converse is that egalitarian tendencies typically reject the money system. The objective nature of money ultimately arises from the division of labor, in which the product is divorced from the worker's personality and work is treated as a commodity. Similarly, products are no longer tailored to the specific customer and do not reflect his personality, production tools are specialized to the point that the worker has little leeway in the way he operates the machines, and fashion changes so rapidly that nobody gets personally or socially attached to it. This state of affairs stands in contrast with the arts, which reflects the individuality of the author. Money can increase the distance between individuals to the point that it allows them to fit in crowded cities and to liberate individuals from the yoke of working on a family business. (Incidentally, financial activities are concentrated in major cities, and the concentration of money increases the pace and variety of life.) Humankind has become progressively more independent of the rhythms of nature and more dependent on the business cycle. "Objects and people have become separated from one another" declares Simmel, and was to compare this phenomenon with Marx's theory of alienation.[3] Money rises above individual conflicts while being an essential participant of the conflict. It has transcended its characteristics of a tool when it has become the center around which the economic system rotates, at which point it also takes the role of an all-encompassing teleological circle. Simmel was to compare this phenomenon with Marx's commodity fetishism.[3] Yet, division of labor makes it possible to construct intellectual and scientific contents that surpass the ability of the individual mind. Even in these cases, though, it may be essential that a synthesis be accomplished by a single mind. Similarly, as material concerns become impersonal, what is left can become more personal. For example, as the typewriter has relieved the writer from the cumbersome mechanics of writing, he can devote more attention to the original contents of his work. It really depends on humankind whether money will lead to increased distinctiveness and refinement or not. Social effects of money Simmel's outlook, while gloomy, is not wholly negative. As money and transactions increase, the independence of an individual decreases as he is drawn into a holistic network of exchange governed by quantifiable monetary value. Paradoxically, this results in greater potential freedom of choice for the individual, as money can be deployed toward any possible goal, even if most people's sheer lack of money renders that potential quite low much of the time. Money's homogenizing nature encourages greater liberty and equality and melts away forms of feudalism and patronage, even as it minimizes exceptional, incommensurable achievements in art and love. This editorial email containing advertisements was sent to you because you subscribed to this service. To stop receiving these emails, click [unsubscribe]( To ensure our emails continue reaching your inbox, please add our email address to your address book. 222 Delaware St, Ste 2071 New Castle, DE 19720 © 2024 Stark Media LLC. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution of our content, in whole or in part, is prohibited without written permission from Stark Media LLC. Stark Media LLC welcomes your feedback and questions. 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