[americandream]

Being in the top 1% is fraught with uncertainty from day to day in a world overrun with ponzi schemes and hustlers. But that said, for the duration that you are there, you do wield power over others.

[DesuMaiden]

The biggest irony is that 3% of the US population controls 54% of the USA's wealth. That just shows how unequal the USA is. I feel no sympathy towards the elite, but the masses aren't much better either. Overall, humans are just self-fish, hedonistic creatures who will do anything for instant gratification even if it endangers the survivability of future generations, whether it is the elite 1% or masses 99%.

It seems to me that every country on the Earth is racing to see who can use up all of the Earth's resources the fastest.

Look at the Club of Rome's predictions in the early 1970s. It is actually becoming a reality. There are already signs of industrial output declining, nonrenewable and irreplaceable resources being used to exhaustion and the global climate is becoming more and more unstable due to anthropogenic climate change(just look at the ice melting in the polar regions). Yet most people go consuming like there is no tomorrow.

I can almost be certain industrial civilization will start collapsing during mid decades of the 21st century. Even if the global population somehow reaches 9 billion by 2050, any suggesting we can indefinitely support that many people on Earth simply haven't done their research. Most likely at 9 billion, the crash, or die-off, will be even worse than if it happened at 7 billion people.

The human population bubble is just like any other bubble. It will pop one day. And when it pops, the shockwaves will be inescapable and catastrophic.

[Ibon]

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The human population bubble is just like any other bubble. It will pop one day. And when it pops, the shockwaves will be inescapable and catastrophic.

[americandream]

Desu

Not quite unless of course we are to designate irresponsible human design behind the evolution of culture at the scale of historical events. That said, we can through an understanding of how culture emerges, tweak it for more desirable outcomes. But we are as much responsible for our propensity to overgraze as is any other species in history.

[onlooker]

Very well posted Desu. I commend you for having this acute and keen intellect at a fairly young age. Yes, those of us here studying all this are quite unanimous that limits to growth have been reached and that fairly rapid decline is inevitable. I recommend if you have not already perused a book by William Catton "Bottleneck - Humanities impending impasse". It contains much information on the challenges and obstacles that the human species at this moment in time faces and will face. One ecological axiom that will be almost impossible to negate is that the aftermath of overshoot is die-off. Or another way of seeing it is Entropy and our limitations in dealing with it on a finite closed systems which is our planet.