  Using the formalism of Lyapunov potential function it is shown that the
stability principles for biomass in the ecosystem and for employment in
economics are mathematically similar. The ecosystem is found to have a stable
and an unstable stationary state with high (forest) and low (grasslands)
biomass, respectively. In economics, there is a stable stationary state with
high employment, which corresponds to mass production of conventional goods
sold at low cost price, and an unstable stationary state with lower employment,
which corresponds to production of novel goods appearing in the course of
technological progress. An additional stable stationary state is described for
economics, the one corresponding to very low employment in production of life
essentials such as energy and raw materials. In this state the civilization
currently pays 10% of global GDP for energy produced by a negligible minority
of the working population (currently ~0.2%) and sold at prices greatly
exceeding the cost price by 40 times. It is shown that economic ownership over
energy sources is equivalent to equating measurable variables of different
dimensions (stores and fluxes), which leads to effective violation of the laws
of energy and matter conservation.
