Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I am analyzing the relationship between unprocessed (or minimally processed) resources and their use in the global economy. This post is aimed at aggregating existing informational resources attempting to organize these relations into useful models. Ideally, these information resources would be up to date with current economic conditions and/or connect these models with historical examples. I am looking for detailed analyses that go beyond what I can easily infer from Wikipedia.

Resources: metals, minerals, oil/gas, biomass, etc.

Industries: utilities, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, retail, transportation, information, real estate, education, health care, entertainment, research, waste management etc.

Examples of highly coupled combinations: water and food, wood and real estate, aluminum and aerospace, silicon and information, oil and transportation, micro-organisms and drug research, complex organisms and robotics research, etc.

Any related thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

titanium & aerospace, medical
copper & electrical, electronics, bldg construction

Some information on useful material properties:
https://www.gold-traders.co.uk/gold-inf ... erals.html

Any information on the properties of industrial materials is also useful.

I may start posting some stuff here as a way to document my research/analysis. This topic always pops up in my mind. Here is a model that links jobs to what they maintain/construct. This model is easier to work with than trying to classify whole industries.

carpenters maintain/construct container systems
plumbers maintain/construct water and sewage systems
farmers maintain/construct food systems
electricians maintain/construct electron systems
programmers maintain/construct information/bit systems
medical professionals maintain life systems
financial professionals maintain/construct credit systems
managers/entrepreneurs maintain/construct labor systems
politicians/lawyers maintain/construct policy systems
teachers/researchers maintain/construct knowledge/attention systems
artists/entertainers maintain/construct morale systems

I will also note that these jobs work with end products (in a vague sense). The extraction and intermediate economies process resources and/or manufacturer tools when there is a demand upstream.

Some general observations:

• Life creates the conditions for life.

• Human life is dependent on other life.

• Dominance of one life form can lead to catastrophic extinction of all life forms.

• Growth is stimulated by a steep hierarchy of life that provides food and mechanical inspiration.

• Human life is correlated with labor.

• Labor per unit of life varies based on policy systems that reduce violence and medical systems that prolong life.

• Engineers are a hybrid of several jobs.

• Cooks and the like could be considered artists.

• Electromagnetic waves (or photons) can be used for wireless communication or as an energy source from sun.

• Bits can be analog or digital. Analog bits are more durable with paper or stone.

• Digital bits are dependent on electron systems.

• Electron systems are dependent on metal.

• Metal is dependent on cheap/efficient energy sources to mine and shape.

• Container systems include everything from mobile boxes to skyscrapers.

• Container systems have some flexibility in material used. Wood is the easiest to work with.

• Trees are distributed more evenly than metal.

• Water is highly dependent on climate.

• Climate is highly dependent on atmosphere and ocean.

• Oil usage heavily influences atmosphere and ocean.

• All jobs/systems are highly coupled with oil in their current complicated form.

• On the flip side, all jobs/systems can be done without oil in a simplified form. Without oil many jobs would cluster together or may not be in demand. Example of clustering: engineer, architect, carpenter, plumber, electrician -> builder

• Intermediate jobs, financial professionals, managers, politicians, researchers, and entertainers seem to be more dependent on growth and a steep specialization hierarchy.

An infographic on what elements renewable energy sources are reliant on and some supply chain details. This site has some other interesting graphics, but I am unsure about their validity.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/bull-c ... etal-2019/

Here is another one measuring the competition for minerals.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/measur ... -minerals/

If you want to take a deep dive on particular products, look up the literature on Life Cycle Assessment. It's notoriously difficult to do completely accurately, but there is a lot of good information and ideas there.

Thanks! I knew there had to be a key phrase for that type of analysis.