Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8338938" data-attributes="member: 82106">Why, yes I do actually! Do you want to discuss Bessemer Process furnaces, or Open Hearth? Or maybe even modern thermoelectric ones? LOL. Don't assume the people you are discussing with are ignorant or simpletons. I do hold a degree in the physical sciences, and I've worked as an aerospace engineer. No big expert on blast furnaces, but I can explain to you the equations of state, change in free energy, enthalpy, and electrochemistry involved in reducing ore to metal. I've some experience in the quality, management, and information and logistics areas of running a factory. But honestly, yes, these are complex processes. Still, an early 19th Century blast furnace was far less complex. And if we look at logistics, the difference between Aurignacian flint knappers and 19th Century steel barons has a lot more to do with scale than anything else. The flint was acquired through long-distance trade in many areas, various specialized workers apparently carried out different parts of the tool-making process, etc. You have to be careful to consider all the different dimensions here. If you asked some manufacturing firm to turn out flint knives for you today they would laugh. Its virtually impossible. No living person even has a very good idea of how to do it, certainly not at the skill level displayed in 35k YA Europe.No, you have a very limited view of capital. I suggest you should read some basic economics texts. You might want to give Marx a read as well, his definitions of value and capital are some of the most sophisticated. Suffice it to say that when I refer to capital I am referring to the means by which the productive capacity of society is directed, and the ways in which productive capacity is self-amplifying and how it can be mobilized in different directions. The factors involved are complex and not always apparent. Capital and cash are not the same thing at all.</blockquote>

Verification