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http://peakoil.com/consumption/whos-behind-us-downward-mobility

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A comment below the article.

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Davy on Mon, 27th Feb 2017 7:30 am

Come on Jan, it is peak oil dynamics not peak oil that matters. POD is about a broad range of peak oil issues not just that one peak oil issue of declining production. It is the fact we built out a car and consumer culture with an exploding population that is the problem. Overconsumption and overpopulation were combined with horrible results at the same time our resources base and especially oil economically declined from depletion. Substitution and technology only partially offset this. You can’t double the global population and take more from the planet and expect good results.

The results have been increasing social injustice from too many people and not enough earth. The rich have always been rich and the more rich we got the less they would yield. Once you make more people wealthier they make arrangements to hold on to their affluence even as affluence stagnates. The whole society got wealthier but with a tendency to corruption and privilege. The system became one of increasing wealth and also of decreasing opportunity for all because of limits and diminishing returns. It became a revolving door of those in control to promote and lock in their wealth. It was more like a stagnation of the poor and middle class and a continued growth of the upper class because they controlled the engine of growth.

It is rather obvious yes but it is the “not” obvious that you are missing. The “not” obvious is the corruption of the entire system in malinvestment and bad behavior. All of the population is wrong now. Our consumerism and car culture are killing the planet. All classes want that. The attitude of “more” and “yes” to progress instead of the wisdom to say “no” to destructive change of more and progress.

We now have billionaires who are paper billionaires. What do they really control? A lot of paper and a yacht, private jet, and big house on some land. It is the huge paper asset portfolios that make them billionaires. That is abstract wealth and not real. There is a handful of super rich that is horrible but they are mostly paper rich. One person cannot physically control much it is a law of physics. You cannot kill the 100 richest and spread that wealth out to a billion people because the earth is already limited. Just wait around until the collapse of their world comes and look around at these rich in their rapidly decaying McMansions. There is serious wealth inequality but a more serious planetary crisis.

The 80’ and 90’s saw high energy sources but declining high energy sources in an economic climate of rapidly accelerating “fake growth” of debt based financialization, suburban sprawl, 3rd world urbanization, and the tragedy of the commons. We gutted our world and our social fabric for fake and destructive affluence along with bigger populations. This was across the board increase in living standards at the expense of the biosphere. There is a deeper reason for inequality than just the usual lame excuse it is all because of the rich. This is because of the human drive towards more without considering the consequences of cancerous growth. It is about too many people that all want to live better. Yes the rich are the problem too but it is mostly a dysfunctional human civilization in relation to a planetary system.