by DaveA » Mon 22 Aug 2005, 22:53:50
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('syrac818', '
')I think peak oil is hitting the main stream, which is both good and bad. Good in that awareness on a large scale bases could result in actual change. Our "conservation" sucks so bad it's laughable. I truly believe we could reduce our oil use by 60%, buying us some much needed time for a transition while training us to live a low energy lifestyle. It will suck, but we can do it.
Californians use 40% less energy than the rest of the country without a reduction in quality of life, the United States is significantly more wasteful than Europe for example, and I think it would be hard to convince most people that we have a higher quality of life. The people who will suffer the most are all those families that will be kicked out of the houses they couldn't affoard in the suberbs, and lose those SUVs because they can't affoard the car payment after they factor in price of gas - this will create a sag in demand, which if properly exploited can be used to fix the problems one at a time.
Frankly those people won't get much sympathy from me, they consume three or four times as much energy as I do because they insist on living beyond their means (I have never accepted any of those credit card offers in the mail, I have zero debt and have never in my whole life had any debt, this is because of my mom who always taught me that the economy cant keep going up forever and the first people to suffer are those idiots who live beyond their means)
This is not to say that HAVING debt makes you an idiot, it is simply saying that having debt which you know you can never pay back makes you an idiot. If you live in a $500,000 house and make $30,000 a year net income and drive an SUV - grats you're gonna be one of the first people to be screwed when the housing bubble collapses (if it happens before peak oil, which I believe is essential if we wish to have anything resembling a soft landing)