Finding Profit in a Depleted World

Today's World presents some truly amazing contrasts. For example, about a billion people on the planet enjoy human history's only episode of mass affluence. On the other hand, about two billion people endure the most profound poverty. Most economists believe that it is entirely possible for everyone to enjoy an affluent lifestyle. On the contrary, our opinion is that mass affluence was a transitory phenomenon based on aggressive exploitation of nature, and nature is nearing exhaustion.

What prospects are there for enterprising individuals in this exhausted world? Let's start with food.

Modern farming is a grotesque of the natural cycle of sowing and reaping. It poisons the soil, killing its inhabitants and stripping its nutrients. Modern agriculture's 'soil' becomes merely a medium into which to put chemical fertilisers. This strategy, this 'green revolution' is declining in efficacy. Farmers of the future will simply have to return, gradually or all at once, to more classical methods.

The consequence of that retreat from modernism will be a tremendous decline in yields and the end of agricultural abundance. Food will become more expensive relative to other goods. Enterprising individuals will learn to eat lower on the food chain - tending towards vegetarianism. Perhaps more significantly, they will learn to prepare this diet for themselves, as the current food marketing system - from fast food restaurants to the purveyors of prepared meals - is still pushing the burger, fries and soda version of nutrition.

Moving on from food, we take up shelter. In North America, at least, the modern concept of shelter has also become a grotesque. The 'McMansion' and the strip mall in their suburban seat is a dreadful distortion of living space. Sadly, most North American compact towns and cities were more or less destroyed to make way for sprawl. Unfortunately, there is very little money to build space that is worth living in, so people are going to have to make do with what exists.

If you are lucky enough to live in a place that remains along the traditional village or urban neighborhood line, then you can simply enjoy it. For the rest, you will have to make the best of what is closest to that. Enterprising individuals will take care to site their living situations optimally. If you can't get to pretty much everything you need to in a 15 minute walk (or less), you should move on. Car-dependent place have no future. Consider making do with as little space as you can manage, sharing larger abodes with more people, if necessary.

Clothing is by far the easiest item to manage for the time being. It can be bought by the bag at many thrift stores, or at least quite inexpensively. Clothing can be mended to keep it going for quite some time. Do not be vain about clothes. It is silly. Having clean clothes in adequate repair is much more important than fashion. And in any case, fashion that you create with what you find is much more interesting than fashion that you buy.

Food, shelter, clothing. That is pretty much all anyone needs materially. Beyond this is luxury. If you don't agree - well, you're entitled to your opinion - but remember your 'needs' are just what you perceive them to be, and please don't force the responsibility of their satisfaction upon others.