Gnome, You forgot the third and most probable one: powerful nations will liquidate weaker ones to take their land and resources. In life threatening situations only the law of the strongest will count. Countries will invade and occupy other countries with any excuse ( a dictator,oil.....), just to improve or protect their own situation. This is not a prediction but sadly enough already a reality. But in the end this third solution is no solution but a delay of execution; they will continue to waste natural resources and final end up in one of the two possibilities as mentioned by you. It's called self destructive behavior driven by overconsuming. Even the most powerful nation in the world will lose the war against nature, that's inevitable. The only advantage that the powerful nations will have is that they will survive the longest. But i wonder if that is an advantage because they will live in constant war with others who want to take their land back, and in a natural environment that will be so destroyed and exhausted that they maybe will be relieved if they finally can die.
People in this country are so brainwashed into thinking that they need to buy every single new stupid gadget that comes out today. They need that 60 inch television, ipods, suv's, and 7 bedroom houses for 3 people to live in. Of course, the manufacturers, home builders, and lenders want people to consume as much as they can and as often as they can. They want us working 70 hour weeks slaving away to pay for all that debt. Banks don't care; they just want to keep earning as much interest as possible on their loans from all of their debt slaves. Another major scam is fashion. You have stupid advertisers talking about fall and spring fashion and this year's new summer fashion. What a crock of shit. Why in the world do people need to keep buying new clothes every single year. If it isn't torn up, keep wearing it. They make these clothes in Bangladesh or Cambodia paying these poor workers 50 cents an hour and then the fashion crooks bring it back it here and charge $200 for a pair of jeans which probably cost $1 to make. Sometimes, the only way to wake people up is when they are broke and bankrupt.
you need to go watch more tv and subject yourself to more advertising and product placements. my god can you imagine what would happen to the world if everyone thought like you. ?
So what level of consumerism is good? Obviously our economy depends on consumerism. I think Ricardo's concept of trade is a good one here. Every company(worker) produces a good at a competitive advantage and then trades it(with wages to their workers) for other goods. Everyone is better off. Except now our economy is based on crap. What are the benefits of services? Making your own food is actually less expensive than going to a restaurant, compared to making your own car which is infinitely more expensive. You trade your hard earned money for a service of possibly lesser value than the value of the work you put in your daily job. It's not sustainable.
Fuckism [rhymes with Fascism] is a political system when there are two parties both financed by multinational corporations to benefit nobody but them. Current archaic and corrupt lobbying and campaign financing laws and regulations block any viable 3rd party. The American public is a victim of a myopic and stupid ailing multinational corporation GM, Ford and others and the sellout, bastard politikos.
Ooh i see, not the americans but the multinationals are guilty. That's too easy. The CONSUMER consumes. Why don't americans sell their fuelwasting SUV and buy a much more economical car?
I forgot to add that the public is brainwashed (you are a perfect example) into a consuming flock of drones....
My attitude is "How can I make money off of it?" to every seemingly bad situation. There's always someone getting rich.