27 March 2009 - scarce resources

In the big picture, the purpose of fighting (and boasting) is to garner scarce resources for yourself or your group, taking them away from somebody else. That’s why recessions cause theft and war (and trash talk). But you don’t need a financial crisis to make resources scarce; all it takes is economic progress to turn formerly abundant resources into newly scarce ones. Water is metered; soon air will be. And thanks to floating aspirations, we can never turn back (or turn off the commercials). It’s only getting easier to blow stuff up (and blow up over stuff), therefore no solution exists and the entire world is doomed to go down to fiery ruin. Get your bomb shelter supplies from me!