“One the one hand, our economists treat human beings as rational actors making choices to maximize their own economic benefit. On the other hand, the same companies that hire those economists also pay for advertising campaigns that use the raw materials of myth and magic to encourage people to act against their own best interests, whether it's a matter of buying overpriced fizzy sugar water or the much more serious matter of continuing to support the unthinking pursuit of business as usual in the teeth of approaching disaster.”
![“[Economists' advice] is something like patent medicine - people know it is largely manufactured by quacks and that a good percentage of the time it won't work, but they continue to buy the brand whose flavor they like.” quote by Barbara Bergmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/5f2/barbara-bergmann-64259_advice_economists-advice-is-something-like-pate_3170455.jpg)
![“EROEI [energy returned on energy invested, or net energy] is to a civilization what gross profit is to a business, the source of the surplus that supports the entire enterprise.” quote by John Michael Greer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9b6/john-michael-greer-28078_business_eroei-energy-returned-on-energy-invested_1034993.jpg)
![“[T]he ideals and desires of the majority define the structure of society as it is; a would-be mass movement that pursues a different path will reliably find itself failing to attract members, while a mass movement that reshapes its message to attract a large audience will inevitably turn into a…” quote by John Michael Greer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/337/john-michael-greer-28078_architecture_t-he-ideals-and-desires-of-the-majority_1072057.jpg)
