me – makes ya wonder if last year was a massive field experiment to determine the worlds ability to cope at price levels – if so, where do you think the super computers are putting the point of demand destruction vs max return … with the twist of R&D for the future vs killing (acquire) the opponents attempt to jump out in front?

DanM and Justin jumpin in here

on material things vs services – it needs to be phrased more like this poster I made (but with a twist) because if a catastrophe hits you and yours (like bad weather or a job loss or etc) one thing you can always take with you – the other stash maybe not

What d’ya wanna do?
What d’ya need to do?
What ya gonna do?
Get ur done.
http://grfxplus.dotphoto.com/CPViewAlbum.asp?AID=5287197&IID=191040240&Page=1

I realized how lucky I was to be born in the most comfortable era of all times and that it probably would not last.

Europe builds things to last longer but their way of life is not sustainable either.

But I still think their socialism is somewhat a reflection of their economic maturity. A movement from goods to services. Services manage the goods! For example, have you seen the underground postal system in Paris? Impressive.

And let’s be honest, where are the vast majority of the hard goods we produced in the last 20 years? Try the dump.

Hard assets are just as important as services. That’s where we have to use our heads and figure out how to spend our energy efficiently. That is produce goods AND services that will give us a better quality of life and make us richer.

But people keep on focusing on hard goods. It’s definitely a love story. People want to spend 100K on a Porsche and get that massage for free because they own the Porsche.

Of course, it’s much easier to get filthy rich by selling assets than by selling services. You can thank leverage and economies of scale for that. Thus our love affair with hard assets.

But hard assets will be our downfall. Limits in energy will kill our system.

If you sell a brick and get an IOU for a bowl of rice, you are owed a bowl of rice in the future.

In bothe cases, there needs to be trust whether or not it’s hard assets or services.

Actually the US needs to get away from the hard assets stuff because maintaining them or creating them uses up a lot of energy.

The problem is that human beings are materialists and furthermore, hard assets are easier to account for. That’s why the US is going to have trouble changing gears. Leaders are going to focus on visible works so this implies, energy intensive projects.

The other reason why I have trouble seeing our western world reducing it’s energy consumption is because human beings will always be attracted to scarce goods. As energy and commodities get scarcer and scarcer, they will be coveted more and more. Example: poaching of near extinct species.

I never said they would fix the problem. I think they will create a bigger one: huge inflation. Maybe I’m wrong.

But at the end of the day, they will do everything in thier power to devalue that debt and every scenario leads me to think that the screw-ups will get bigger and bigger.