Benefits and costs

[Julian-Dumitrascu]

Benefit means a good deed, something that somebody does (or happens) and is an advantage for somebody (else): it helps somebody to stay alive or healthy, or to enjoy some psychological benefits. Benefactor is the Latin word for well-doer. It seems that we call “good” the actions or happenings that help a human being or their group to keep their balance, to live well, and that we call “bad” imbalances and their causes.
It is natural to avoid imbalances and their causes. In many cases, they seem difficult to avoid or unavoidable.
One might entertain such a view: some actions or events help maintain a state, and others change a state. Then one can try to avoid those that worsen one’s situation, try to minimise one’s maintenance costs, and hope for progress. How realistic is this view?
One could also state that maintenance is usual and that one must incur the costs of mishaps while trying to optimise their avoidance, as these are some main actions that make possible the moments that we enjoy the most.

1. What do we find beneficial?

One can say that one enjoys a good sleep, eating certain foods, etc. While I’ve felt very good after some nights or some meals, these are rather maintenance actions.
I’ve enjoyed spending time in forests. I’ve liked the time spent at alpine heights, too.
One can enjoy e.g. good relationships (moments during which they understand one another, they enjoy their interactions, etc.) and fun moments (during which they play games, tell jokes, etc.).
What do you want to do in your free time?

1.1 Food

Around one-quarter of the world’s labour force work in agriculture. This can mean some 860 million people or almost 11% of the population, so one farmer feeds themselves and 8 other people. They can be a child using a traditional tool or an adult using a machine connected to the Internet. (This seems the lowest percentage we can reach. It could increase.) Which of them are you? The one feeding us or one of the 8 fed?
Well, some farmers buy some food. It has become usual for a human to buy food instead of picking it or growing it, while in general people can pick berries and cultivate land.
What is the most useful method for most people? Examples:
a. Nobody buys food.
People have gathered food, have grown food, and have stolen food from barns. I think most people would choose to grow food. But even more people seem probable to choose to buy food.
b. Just about anyone trades just about any food.
This seems the method we’re used to.
While apes eat meat raw, people are also used to treating food thermally. This means that people started fires in many places when they wanted to eat. To the extent that the environment forces our species, we might get back to eating our food raw and being able to fight any detrimental microorganisms from the organisms we digest. Until then, we can think about how to manage thermal energy as efficiently as possible. It seems useful to maximise the output of nourishment per unit of energy produced.
The chemical energy in trees seems the most reliable one. Trees are so resilient that they can survive humans. Other plants burn less efficiently. Other fuels are running out. We don’t seem to have found any way in which we would use other materials so that we manage thermal energy with a higher benefit-cost ratio.
The costs of burning fuels to manage our food are huge.

1.1.1 What benefits do we seek when we eat?
It’s difficult to ask this question. One simply eats. It is natural for a human to take such actions in order to continue being. We want to stay healthy.
1.1.1.1 To foster health, we try to make sure that we eat healthy organisms and that we kill microorganisms within them. What is more costly? Killing these microorganisms with fire or with antibodies? Are we the only species unable to eat certain things? We can eat plants without boiling them. We’re more careful with animals.
You can order with Sol research meant to help you choose to what extent you’d base your diet on plants.
At the moment, I simply share the thought that one can try to get out of plants more of what one needs, given that the costs of eating animals are huge. It might take less energy per unit of nourishment to treat vegetal products than to treat animal products. It seems one is slimmer when one eats more plants. Since many people are at risk of being overweight and many others have died of diabetes, plants seem attractive.
1.1.1.2 One can choose what to eat, so that one’s food includes whatever is useful for one’s activities and context.
To the extent one feels like learning more about this, one can consult with a dietitian.
The more one wants to restore a balance, the more useful it is to choose one’s actions carefully.

1.1.2 How efficiently can we manage our food? What plan do we make to reach this efficiency?
I don’t have proof that the most efficient way were that every individual or every household manages food by themselves. As in many other cases, there has been a trend to increase the size of the average farm. This is very far from having each household farming for themselves. This can mean that we want to maintain a network of farms and to carry their products to households (localities).
One can carry food for thousands of kilometres. Because people can usually live on food made closer to their residence, we can think carefully: For what do we want to burn petroleum, which can run out in several decades? What are the most valuable things to carry over the longest distances?
One also pays taxes to import food. What do you want done? Import less food? Lower import tariffs? What if people charged one another nothing for crossing borders?
How many farms? One per country? A handful per country? Maybe national networks connected among themselves.
It seems that there are more than 2.1 billion households, so each farmer serves 2.5 households. There might be some 2 billion cooks; maybe one person cooks for 4 people, including themselves, on average. It seems better to maximise the number of people served by one cook.
It seems that a cook spends at least 2 hours a day preparing food: more than 4 billion hours, or 0.5 hours per person, per day.
For how many people is it healthy for a cook to prepare food daily? 100?
To how many minutes per person would we reduce the daily time for preparing food, while avoiding to reduce benefits and to increase costs?
What were the efficiency of using e.g. stoves, refrigerators, and utensils? I expect higher values when one reduces the number of kitchens.
By using public kitchens, we can:
a. condition the air more efficiently.
b. reduce the consumption of water.
c. procure ingredients, utensils at lower costs.
d. manage waste more efficiently.
e. one doesn’t need to carry food to school or to work: one can walk into the nearest kitchen and eat.

1.2 Purchases

People have spent an inordinate amount of time buying things for their households. How much of this time do you want to spend otherwise?

1.2.1 We have spent a lot of time going to shops and marketplaces.
It seems less costly to carry products between the places at which they are made (e.g. watermelons from fields) and the places at which they are used.
A house is mainly the place in which people sleep. One can also have a home office.
To the extent one eats in a public house, one might need no pantry. If one bathes at a public bath, where they can also get a massage, has one’s laundry done professionally, and parties in a public house, one might choose a small house with a small yard and free a lot of money for other purposes, e.g. because one needs less furniture and equipment.
Other consequences:
a. one’s sound environment promotes a healthier life.
Most machines could run in an industrial park separate from residential areas.
Once one has enough clothes and footwear, one might prefer receiving products at home, after they reach the local warehouse.

1.2.2 We have spent a lot of time trying to find what we want in online shops.
Whatever you want sent to a certain place, you can order with us. We can reduce the time one needs for procuring things or increase the extent to which they benefit from spending this time.
We can place your orders with the best farms and factories. Once they pack your products, we can have a vehicle pick them up and drive towards the address you’ve indicated. To keep costs within the budget you set, each vehicle can pick up products for other orders on its way to your address and can transfer your products to a vehicle that meets the applicable requirements to a higher extent.

1.3 Feel good!

1.3.1 We enjoy swimming, sunbathing, and other things that bring us physiological benefits.
1.3.2 We want to feel good in the presence of other people. We talk with them; we party with them.
Psychological benefits and costs play a major role in our lives; we invest a lot in personal relationships.

2. Costs

Not all people work as long. People work approximately between the ages of 5 and 67 years. A human being can live for 600,000 hours (sleeping for 200,000 hours) and work for 100,000 hours, maybe including the work one does in one’s household. I’m not sure, because I’ve seen many people spend huge amounts of time working when not at work. It is easy to find people who provide services to others for at least 40 hours a week, work in their household for many hours a week, and rest e.g. on Sundays.
Irrespective of how long one lives, the percentage of hours spent on household inputs and outputs differs among people. How many free hours does one need? What is a healthy percentage of free time?
It seems that people have been dreaming of living life enjoying themselves and resting, while minimising the number of hours spent rebalancing through basic activities (sleeping, drinking, eating, washing, etc.). It is natural for a being to prefer more resources to fewer resources; this situation increases their benefit-cost ratio. To make this dream come true, one can try to spend more time in places that are richer (in food, etc.) and more balanced (regarding the water cycle, etc.).
Sometimes one values one’s free time enough. Some people try to increase the numbers of free hours they can afford. Sol can help with this.