"What's wrong with money being a representation of human labor, or energy expended?"
Because the value of human labor isnt tangible. Sure you can trade labor for goods, but that's just a barter system, and a gold backed currency has a clear advantage over a barter system. We trade our personal energy for a tangible currency to avoid the cumbersomeness of bartering. How would you transfer energy in a transaction?
"Work over time = power."
I'm not sure how that's actually true? There are plenty of people who have barely worked their entire lives, but have immense power. Yet construction workers have no power. And once again, how would we transact "power" in normal commerce?
I'm always down to discuss finances lol
I'm not sure how that's actually true?
That's how you measure watts, and horsepower.
Horsepower(power rating) = Torque(energy/force) x rpm(rate of work)/5252(time).
What is energy? We measure energy as how long it takes a heat source to raise the temperature of water by a certain amount.
Power is a measure of the capacity to do work over a certain amount of time. If you give some power to others in exchange for goods and services, then you are using power. If you use your own energy and use it over time for some end, you are producing power for yourself. If you can't make something work then you have no power, only energy at your disposal. You can make a monkey use up all its energy, but if that monkey can't do any useful work it literally has no power.
The process of transforming heat energy into mechanical power is not perfect, there are always losses and inefficiencies, thus having a large source of energy is no guarantee of having power. Plenty of people who get gifted lots of money can't do shit with it and end up wasting it.
Well we aren't cars...I'm not sure how horsepower is relevant.
In your scenario....how do you "give some powers to others in exchange for goods and services? Describe the transaction for someone who wants to buy an acre of land.
Well for one, my means of exchange is energy, not power. And although we aren't cars we are bio-machines, we are subject to the same laws of energy conversion.
The money is an analogue of energy, power is a function of energy and work over time.
Describe the transaction for someone who wants to buy an acre of land.
You buy it with currency. You can barter for land, just as easily as you can purchase it. I'm not arguing whether we should use money or not. I'm arguing we should keep money tied to energy, not power, energy. You can have all the money in the world, but if you don't allocate it correctly you cannot accomplish anything with it. That is, if you cannot convert your energy to useful work, you have essentially no power.
Petroleum has a fixed energy quantity, the distillates of petroleum have a known and immutable quantity of energy. So too does the fat in your body, and the carbohydrates and proteins also have a fixed and immutable energy content. One kilogram of dietary fat contains roughly 40 Mega Joules of energy. One KG of gasoline, has roughly the same amount, diesel fuel has slightly more. When you buy a barrel of petroleum, you are buying the potential energy stored in that 55 gallon drum. That energy powers your machines, produces your food, and maintains the infrastructure around you. That energy you buy in dollars, and converting that energy into work over time is power.
I hope that clarifies things a bit.
The value of land is tied to what that land can produce. Crops and things you grow on land are basically energy stores. The energy from the sun is absorbed by the plants and the fruits and things that grow from the plants are basically the result of energy harvesting. Those same crops degrade and can produce fuels and alcohols. The crops have potential energy as well. The food you eat has potential energy, your body breaks down the food and releases the energy which you live on.
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