Reply #4: Dr. M. King Hubbert Had Some Good Ideas

[Tace]

He wasn't an economist, but a geophysicist best known for his Peak Oil theory.

He also had some ideas about an energy-based economy that address what you mention:

http://www.oilcrisis.com/hubbert/hubecon.htm

snip

Hubbert's ideas about work are even more heretical. Work is becoming, he says, increasingly unimportant. He thinks it is conceivable that the future work week might be on the order of 10 hours. Indeed, because production will have to be limited by increasingly limited mineral resources, that might be inevitable. And that, Hubbert stresses, could be the foundation of an earthly paradise.

"Most employment now is merely pushing paper around," he says. "The actual work needed to keep a stable society running is a very small fraction of available manpower."

The key to making this cultural alteration is to come up with a limitless supply of cheap energy. Hubbert feels the answer is obvious--solar power...

more

http://www.oilcrisis.com/hubbert/hubecon.htm