[Twilight]

So I'm talking to a colleague and he mentions how everything is changing where he lives. Lots of new homes being built in the open country. A big boom, we're talking hundreds of thousands of new houses planned, entire towns springing up in several parts of the UK, of which his is one of them.

I remark what an inefficient redistribution of resources it is.

He objects strongly, it must be done because there is demand, he insists. When I point out the demand local to that area implies an abandoned surplus elsewhere, he bristles. Oh no, it's growth, there's new people needing new houses. The demand must be met.

I point out our population growth is negligible, it's mostly through immigration anyway. I use his own statistics against him.

He changes tack, says everyone wants their own bit of country living, nothing wrong with that. Explains how great it is that everyone from builders to buyers can quickly triple their investment.

I try not to laugh. Where have I heard this before? It would take too long to explain the creation of money, the resource drain of longer commutes, the bubble of it all, the precedent. Instead I say it means the city centres being gutted, cities hollowed out.

He says it's not a problem. We don't need cities, we have a service economy now. Everyone can live in comfort and commute if they want. And he doesn't understand why I'm talking about resources anyway, they're not important, there's always more.

I gave up.

By the way, it's not just talk, he lives it. He owns. He is an owner. In fact, I suspect twice. A double-ownerer. And he does resource allocation for infrastructure.

I conclude the following about the future:

1) The UK is in the process of making the same mistake the US made a generation ago,

2) There is a third generation of people who would believe the economic rules are rewritten, if they didn't already believe current conditions are eternal,

3) They know of no past, and enquire of no future,

4) Every additional debt slave is one that I am not,

5) We are all fucked, but some will be sooner than others!

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('killJOY', 'S')ome friends of mine came over to watch End of Suburbia couple of years ago.

One woman really got it. After the movie, she covered her face and said, "Oh. My. God."

Later, she told stories about how people at work thought she was a nutcase because she would talk about peak oil.


Recently, she has shut up about peak oil. It never seems to come up anymore.


She is now pregnant.