100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending: Data for the Nation
I heard a program on MPR today, including a representative to a Dep of Labor report "100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending: Data for the Nation"
http://www.bls.gov/opub/uscs/home.htm
The most disturbing statement from the program was that in 100 years we'll be as many times more abundance then to now as compared from now to 1900, all thanks to technology.
I suppose it is easy to confuse technological progress and progress in accessing more cheap energy, and the two are not unrelated, but energy is what runs technology so it is more fundamental, and all the smart minds in the world won't be building much like what we've know unless we find an equivalently dense cheap substitute to fossil fuels.
SURE, we'll do SOMETHING, but will it be anything like what we have now? I have little faith - which is to say technology will make a difference only by necessity when everything we've done slowly grinds to a halt. The difference will be in brute survival skills - learning to do more with less and doing a lot less in the conversion!
So 100 years ago the average family was spending 80% on necessities, while now we're only spending 50% apparently. Big deal unless this wealth is properly "invested" in a future that can run without cheap energy.
I've not read the PDF reports in the link above, just linked it out of curiousity.
http://www.bls.gov/opub/uscs/home.htm
The most disturbing statement from the program was that in 100 years we'll be as many times more abundance then to now as compared from now to 1900, all thanks to technology.
I suppose it is easy to confuse technological progress and progress in accessing more cheap energy, and the two are not unrelated, but energy is what runs technology so it is more fundamental, and all the smart minds in the world won't be building much like what we've know unless we find an equivalently dense cheap substitute to fossil fuels.
SURE, we'll do SOMETHING, but will it be anything like what we have now? I have little faith - which is to say technology will make a difference only by necessity when everything we've done slowly grinds to a halt. The difference will be in brute survival skills - learning to do more with less and doing a lot less in the conversion!
So 100 years ago the average family was spending 80% on necessities, while now we're only spending 50% apparently. Big deal unless this wealth is properly "invested" in a future that can run without cheap energy.
I've not read the PDF reports in the link above, just linked it out of curiousity.
posted by Ares Olympus at 2:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home