Minimalist efficiency

Economic efficiency is described as the ratio of economic outputs to
economic inputs. This is analogous to mechanical efficiency, which is
power (watts, horsepower etc.) output over power input. Since much
economics these days has the look and feel of "the study of business,"
outputs are understood to be the goods (products and/or
services) produced by a business, and inputs are understood to be
things (assets) the business spends money on, evidently as means to
the end of creating these products.
I propose the nomenclature "minimalist efficiency" as a measure of a
type of (or perhaps a take on) economic efficiency, viewed from the
consumer rather than producer POV.
For now, let's define minimalist efficiency as outputs divided by
inputs as with rival efficiencies. Here's how I propose defining
"minimalist output" and "minimalist input:"
 Output is measured in human beings. The purpose here is
minimalist, so naturally we aren't talking about number of humyn
beings produced. It isn't about number of humyn beings consumed,
either. Remember, the motivant for minimalism in efficiency
evaluation is consumption by, not of humyns. (See
fair use) The schema for measuring "magnitude" of output should reflect
minimal humyn consumption needs, such as peer reviewed empirical data
concerning minimum daily requirements of nutrients, or other
parameters of individual humyn survival, such as temperature range.
For obvious ethical reasons, research of interest should reflect
physical requirements of healthy humyn living, not minimal
requirements of nonlethality. Minimalist output, then, is the
number of humyn beings who can be supported (austerely, but not
punitively so) for one unit of time on a given "market basket." The
second is the SI unit of time and therefore probably the most
arithmetically straightforward to integrate into databases
collated from disparate sources.
 The "amount" of input should be a "measurement" of the amount of
normative compromise (see norm spec) incurred in obtaining the market
basket used to "calculate" effective input.</o L>
Obviously, our "definition" of output is complicated and our
"definition" of input is both abstract and subjective. It seems
unlikely that there will soon be an empirical instrument capable of
measuring quantities thus defined in scalar units such as watts,
joules, pounds, shillings, ounces, etc.
So far, the approach I have taken to the problem of efficiency has come from the jargon
of finance rather than economics. I have been exploring
the use of efficient frontier analysis. This is a technique
that has been invented apparently for negotiating between competing
objectives. The textbook presentations of the subject with which I am
most familiar deal with investment objectives, specifically the
pursuit of income and the avoidance of risk. The concept also seems
to apply to design objectives, as evidenced by the presence of
optimization theory as part of the discipline of
engineering.
Category:Economic wellbeing