Free-Market Ecology
Originally published on Botsfordism Substack on June 29, 2023.
J.W. Sher proposes “Free-Market Ecology,” an economic system designed to enable permanent ecological sustainability without central planning. The concept emerged while developing his novel “The Undeserving Future.”
Core Components
Three-Part Structure:
- State role: determining maximum sustainable resource extraction
- Consumer/laborer role: managing limited resource consumption
- Ecological capitalist role: incentivizing efficiency improvements
State Functions:
The system would track resource extraction through blockchain technology, allocate individualized daily rations (carbon emissions, nitrogen), and maintain balance sheets for resource ownership. Sunlight and recycled materials would be free; depleting resources would face caps.
Market Incentives:
Rather than eliminating profit motives, the design channels entrepreneurial ambition toward ecological efficiency. Capitalists gain competitive advantage by reducing resource consumption per unit of production, addressing what economists call Jevons Paradox—where efficiency typically increases consumption.
Key Arguments
Sher critiques centrally planned economies as “cornucopian,” assuming endless resource availability. He also identifies failures in current capitalism: overexploitation (fisheries depletion), lifecycle blindness (single-use plastics), and AI safety risks (unconstrained optimization).
Scalability: The framework theoretically works for resource-limited environments like submarines, space stations, or Mars colonies—contexts already requiring rationing.
Implementation Path
Existing command economies could adopt this via provenance tracking. Capitalist systems might introduce it through cryptocurrency-based resource monitoring or bottom-up adoption in communities like the Amish.
The proposal remains preliminary, positioning itself as a starting point for economists skeptical of both current capitalism and inefficient totalitarianism.