This economic model is deeply tied to Bitcoin, since the only guaranty that a currency won't be meddled with by the force controlling it is to decentralize it, and the only acceptable method for decentralization that I can wrap my mind around is 100% distributed, public data, which, by its very nature, requires higher means to secure it than centralized systems. It's like the difference between a population that is forbidden to own and wield weapons and an armed people. Naturally less resources will be spent buying guns and ammo in the former, but you're at the mercy of your government. On the other hand, an armed population can ensure it's own liberty, naturally at a higher cost, but you have to factor in all the wars your government won't get itself involved in thanks to that. I understand that you are not arguing about the need for freedom, rather, the point you are arguing is that there is no need for guns to ensure one's freedom, and that it's just fancy shit that a fist can replace for much cheaper. I'm arguing that your stance is unrealistic.
This is the main point of the 'waste' topic, what's being wasted is the limited potential of earth to sustain us. It's misleading to say electricity is negligible in the energy mix. Creating electricity is hard and polluting because of basic thermodynamics, and in no way can you compare the 1KW of burning gas with 1KW of electricity.
First, metals can be recycled easily, rotten dinosaur carcasses, not so much. Second, I wasn't thinking about worthless photovoltaic cells that can't even repay their production costs, I was thinking of newer, more efficient methods with low upcost, such as CSP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power). This is why I was speaking of southern hemisphere countries mainly. And yes, this technology is on its way to become as efficient as fossil fuels.
I thought it was beyond the need for discussion that a proper currency has to be a proper store of value to begin with. Unless you're willing to discuss it, of course