Peak America – Is Our Time Up?

[Nordmadr]

Peak America – Is Our Time Up?
by Pat Murphy


New Solutions #6 summarized a part of the United States’ story which is not in our history books. It’s the story of a nation that joined Britain and other European powers as an imperial power. We suggested that the U.S. Empire is no longer sustainable and that trying to continue it runs the risk of a nuclear war fought over control of the remaining oil and gas resources.

This newsletter looks at our culture and where it’s headed. Evidence suggests that consuming has become our psychological reason for existence as our values have become increasingly materialistic. Just as we threaten the stability of the world with our imperialistic tendencies, we also pose a threat to ourselves as our standards of care and community decline, and it becomes more difficult for average Americans to attain or sustain well-being.

How does this bode for our place in the world? Is the American Century over? When the impact of Peak Oil really hits, how will we deal with it? Will we cooperate with the rest of the world in sharing scarce resources, or will we rely on our status as the only Superpower to try to bully the world? And if the latter, would we survive?

Measuring U.S. Inequity

There are several ways to measure the quality and health of a society. We can look at the distribution of income and wealth over time. We can ask how generous we are at home and abroad and seek an honest answer. We can compare the level of violence in our society to the world’s norm. And we can compare our spending for the social good with our spending on military might. Finally, we can ask if confidence in the honesty of our government, business and other institutional leaders is increasing or decreasing?



More:
http://www.energybulletin.net/12271.html

Origianlly published here: PDF WARNING
http://www.communitysolution.org/pdfs/NS6.pdf

Olafr

[HereSince1628]

1. We are beyond peak,

and *'s deficit will knock us down several notches. If the deficit gets paid off, it is likely only to be paid-off in deeply devaluated dollars.

[dusmcj]

2. Doober's job is to put us on the downslope

Following the conspiracy-minded, Doober is just a pawn of transational business interests (equivalent to the captains of industry of 100 years ago) who need us to be de-powered, since nature doesn't suffer a unipolar world. We will be cut down by incompetence and corruption until we are financially and culturally impoverished. Simpletons will characterize this as "hanging the breadbasket higher" but what it really is is general demolition of civilization to favor a more socioeconomically stratified society. Of course this is driven by those who have most to gain from that change, those already at the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy. We serve the ownership class, the elite championed by the corruptist-fascist Straussians.