@Zero Sum
Agreed, not only is the US economy unsustainable, but so is the world economy.
Myself, I’m thinking about these things long term, big picture.
The world has been fundamentally ascending economically and in many other, but not all ways for the previous several centuries.
The western world has been at the forefront of this ascension, the spearhead, but most of the rest of the world has now hitched their respective wagons to its star.
But it hasn’t been a steady climb, no climb is, there’s been setbacks along the way, but so far, these setbacks have been minor, even the depressions of the early 20th century and the latest one were relatively minor, because we were able to recover from them shortly afterward.
However, all the, reasonable economists, and ecologists, have been warning us we cannot continue growing forever, because, well, the economy is not a God, and it never will be, it is subject to the laws of physics, it has limits, a ceiling made of iron.
We may not be able to presently locate exactly where it is, but make no mistake, it’s there.
If we had any sense as a species we’d be willfully full stopping, and thinking more about what to do with all this wealth we’ve accumulated, how to conserve and spend it wisely, but instead we’ve chosen to deny such a ceiling exists.
Once we crash into it, it won’t be just another minor setback, it’ll deal a devastating blow, from which not only will we not be able to immediately recover, but will send us toppling, at best, much of the way down from whence we came, and at worst, to our demise as a species.
Historically we’ve never been this high before, and that should give us pause, for the higher the precipice from which you fall, the harder the crash.
Civilization is essentially a house of cards built on sand, removing just one card could cause a chain reaction.
There are so many hazards on the horizon, from global warming to another coronal mass ejection like the one we witnessed during the mid 19th century, which could destroy all or most of the electronics we’ve come to depend on.
From peak oil to food and water shortages, from the deflated middle class to nuclear warfare, and the list goes on and on.
If just one of these calamities were to befall us, it’ll likely trigger many or most of the others, for example famine and drought could precipitate nuclear war, and conversely nuclear war could precipitate famine and drought.
And the longer we permit ourselves to continue this climb: the more we pollute, the more dependent on electronics we become, the more non-renewable resources like fossil fuels and minerals like uranium we consume, the more we overpopulate and cultivate the land, the greater the chasm grows between rich and poor, the more weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, space based, viral and so on are built and tensions foment between west and east, north and south over diminishing resources, the more likely these catastrophes will occur, and the less likely we’ll be able to manage the aftermath, the fallout.
And to the aforementioned you can add deforestation, thousands of species dying due primarily to man’s activity, thousands of more following, leading to another mass extinction event.
epidemics, rising cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity rates due to all the unnatural, unwholesome foods and drugs we’re consuming, chemicals in the air and water supply, an increasingly physically and psychologically debilitated society, overmedicated and stimulated to the point of zombification.
Killer viruses, strengthened by antibiotics, or artificially concocted in a laboratories and (un)intentionally unleashed upon the unsuspecting masses by (mad) scientists or terrorists, fomenting tensions between the sexes (see feminism) and cultures largely isolated from one another for centuries-millennia, coming into contact for the first time, or cultures with centuries old bad blood, like Christians and Jews, Muslims and Hindus, forced to live together in increasingly crowded inner cities.
And to all this, we’re adding genetically modified organisms and AI…because apparently the challenges we’re already facing are insufficient, now we want to tinker and toy with the very fabric of life itself, despite man, especially in the last few centuries, not having a very good track record with its haphazard, reckless and unnecessary meddling, we have the gall, the audacity to suppose, our civilization is unsinkable?
On the contrary, it’s a miracle we’re still here, we’ve been on the brink of annihilation several times already, like during the Cuban missile crisis.
No it’s by sheer dumb luck we’re still alive, and it will run out.