Toward a Welfare-Weighted Account of Aggregate Production.

Abstract

Global aggregate production is conventionally measured in tonnes. This paper proposes a parallel measure — the Rock-Distress Unit (RDU) — in which one unit is normalised to the complete comminution of a 1 kg rock body. We discuss the individuation problem (what counts as a single rock, and at what spatial scale), present provisional fractional RDU weights for extraction, dimensional cutting, and thermal events, and propose a reporting convention that makes both the underlying tonnage and the welfare-weighted figure visible side by side.

Key claims

• Tonnage figures, taken alone, understate welfare-relevant variation across event types: a tonne crushed to aggregate is plausibly more harm than a tonne sawn for dimension stone, under any reasonable welfare framing.
• The individuation problem is real and unresolved. We adopt the working convention that a "rock" is the largest spatially coherent body bounded by natural fracture surfaces, while acknowledging this convention is arbitrary at the margins.
• Our headline RAPD figure (4.2 million rocks affected per dollar) is computed under this convention and would shift by up to two orders of magnitude under reasonable alternatives.

Provisional fractional RDU weights

• Comminution — 1.00 RDU per kg (definitional)
• Acute extraction (blasting) — 0.60 RDU per kg
• Dimensional cutting — 0.35 RDU per kg
• Thermal stress (kiln) — 0.40 RDU per kg
• Chronic erosion — weight pending; provisionally excluded from acute totals

All weights are placeholders pending empirical anchoring. We say so wherever we report them.

Pre-print available on request via contact. Peer review pending.