This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

Collapse, Part 2: The Nine Dynamics Of Decay

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Charlkes Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

Rome didn't fall so much as erode away. That's the template for collapse. 

While collapse may be sudden, the decay that generated the collapse had been rotting away the foundation for years or decades. In distilling the vast literature on collapse into nine dynamics, I am drawing upon many other authors' work, including:

The Collapse of Complex Societies
The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change
The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age
Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects

 

Here are the nine dynamics of decay that lead to collapse:
 
1. complacency and intellectual laziness
2. profound political disunity
3. rise of unproductive complexity
4. those bearing the sacrifices opt out/quit
5. decay of effective leadership
6. rise of bread and circuses social welfare and entertainment to distract/placate restive citizenry
7. decline of wealth-producing capacity--status quo living off financial trickery
8. sclerosis--status quo controlled by vested interests
9. resource depletion/environmental damage
 
All of these dynamics are currently in play around the globe.
 
 
Michael Grant touched on many of these dynamics in his excellent account The Fall of the Roman Empire, a short book I have been recommending since 2009:
 
There was no room at all, in these ways of thinking, for the novel, apocalyptic situation which had now arisen, a situation which needed solutions as radical as itself. (The Status Quo) attitude is a complacent acceptance of things as they are, without a single new idea.
 
This acceptance was accompanied by greatly excessive optimism about the present and future. Even when the end was only sixty years away, and the Empire was already crumbling fast, Rutilius continued to address the spirit of Rome with the same supreme assurance.
 
This blind adherence to the ideas of the past ranks high among the principal causes of the downfall of Rome. If you were sufficiently lulled by these traditional fictions, there was no call to take any practical first-aid measures at all.
 
If our idea of intellectual rigor is Paul Krugman dancing around the Neo-Keynesian Cargo Cult campfire waving dead chickens and spewing nonsensical claims of grand success, we're doomed. Placing our faith in failed monetary-legerdemain and policies of the past is the height of hubris and complacency. There is a cost to complacency and it's called collapse.
 
A lengthier book on the same subject by Adrian Goldsworthy, How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower, found that a key driver of decline was the constant political struggle for power drained resources and led to ineffective leadership.
 
This profound political disunity is not the usual staged battles of the Demopublicans vs. the Republicrats. The real disunity is between a doomed Status Quo and those willing to deal with reality. Right now those willing to deal with reality are few, but they have the distinct advantage of reality on their side, while the Status Quo has only propaganda, artifice, phony political theater and empty promises.
 
Another dynamic of decay is expansive, sclerotic bureaucracies that lose sight of their purpose while piling on unproductive complexity. The top leadership abandons the pursuit of the common good for personal gain, wealth and power, and this rot at the top soon spreads down the chain of command to infect and corrupt the entire institutional culture.
 
Grant describes how key classes of productive citizens opt out as their sacrifices are squandered on propping up rapacious elites. Those making the sacrifices look around at what they've sacrificed to maintain and decide it's no longer worth it. So they opt out or quit, draining the status quo of talent, drive and wealth-producing assets.
 
As the masses become debt-serfs or dependents on the state, the costs of providing bread and circuses becomes unsustainable. The state and central banks are currently papering over this mismatch by printing or borrowing money in the trillions of dollars. But financial trickery is no substitute for actual wealth creation: printing money is not the same as printing real-world wealth.
 
As for resource depletion and environmental damage--look no further than aquifer depletion, soil erosion, the stripmining of the seas and the poisoning of our air/water/soil on a grand scale.
 
Rome didn't fall so much as erode away, its many strengths squandered on in-fighting, mismanagement of resources, complacency and personal aggrandizement/ corruption. That's the template for collapse, and you see it in every status quo globally. 
 
 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:07 | 6225747 youngman
youngman's picture

I think the strange lifestyles had a part of it too.....only so many orgies you can go to......

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:37 | 6225874 Herd Redirectio...
Herd Redirection Committee's picture

Rome's problem was they let a small group of people gain undue influence in the media/communications sector, and the finance sector.

Oh wait, no, thats America.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:42 | 6225895 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

They also debased a shitload of their money and put the squeeze on the plebs with insane taxes.

 

Or is that the USA too?

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:55 | 6225940 bob_stl
bob_stl's picture

We haven't had the true dictatorship of the Romans yet though. That will come when the president receives enough power through either a national emergency or contin uous handing over of power from the legilative branch. Very wealthy people will start disappearing or be convicted of crimes by which their assets will be seized by the state to pay for debts and public placation while more power is centralized in a very select few. History will repeat itself with the slaugter of millions in the name of a better society. Basically, North Korea on a global scale. Millions will be cheering it on, as well.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:16 | 6226016 Citxmech
Citxmech's picture

I'm pretty sure we have a functional fascist dictatorship at this point hidden under the false-cloak of a socialist democracy.  

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 04:45 | 6228710 EddieLomax
EddieLomax's picture

Since both socialism and fascism support the idea that the state knows best, and the state has the authority to order the lives of its citizens, then it is hard to tell when socialism ends and fascism begins.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:22 | 6226028 Almost Solvent
Almost Solvent's picture

The Roman 'Senate' was there til the end as well but was nothing more than a bunch of rich dudes tryng to curry favor with the Emperors post-Caesar.

 

Although the rise of the praetorian guard over time may have been the real power behind the throne.  

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:38 | 6226107 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

Oh..You must mean the Pentagoons and the MIC?

 

Same as it ever was and ever will be....except this time with Nukes.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 15:46 | 6226676 idontcare
idontcare's picture

That sounds about right, Mssrs. Boehner, Reid and McConnell!

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:35 | 6226093 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

MOSTLY IT IS RULE BY EXECUTIVE ORDER AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW. WAKE THE FUCK UP.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:52 | 6226159 bob_stl
bob_stl's picture

You dummies need to look up and see what a true dictatorship is. I am awake, you're just dreaming in goofball land.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 16:38 | 6226920 beaglebog
beaglebog's picture

 

 

And the Army crossed the Rubicon, to enter the City proper ... which is a delicious analogy for a militarized police-force.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:10 | 6226238 FrankDrakman
FrankDrakman's picture

And today? DSK arranges soirees for IMF grandees that include teenage prostitutes who end up being brutally ass-fucked. What's different?

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:08 | 6225749 Salah
Salah's picture

This is exacly why all the employed blacks of the DC-based OPM (Office of Personnel Management) let the Chinese hack 14 million personnel records.

D.C. = "District of the Coloreds"

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:04 | 6226211 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

I had my fill dealing with the affirmative action lower level 'civil servants' in DC.

Third world level capacity but with AC in the offices.Took me three months to find one that knew

what he was doing, and he was an Asst. Secretary at State.

Reminded me of my visits to the  Soviet Union.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:09 | 6225750 stant
stant's picture

My last post fellow zhers. This was my last online presence and its time to go dark. I'll still be lurking but won't log in. Time is short now . And I'll not feed the mega data beast

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:14 | 6225773 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Do your patriotic duty and turn your property into a Bermuda Triangle for reinforced Fedcoat platoons.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:24 | 6226050 Farmer Joe in B...
Farmer Joe in Brooklyn's picture

Good luck and give 'em hell..!!

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:51 | 6226155 Black Warrior W...
Black Warrior Waterdog's picture

See you tomorrow.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:46 | 6226392 messymerry
messymerry's picture

Hey Stant,  Best of Luck whatever your grand plan is. 

;-D

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 22:41 | 6228182 Policraticus
Policraticus's picture

I came out of the dark to agree.  It is the only way now.  In time I believe things will normalize.  Unfortunatelly, there is much pain between now and when things will improve.  The people seem to be sleepwalking and happily ignorant.  Only when they wake up and understand what has transpired will things improve.  That day I fear, will not be pretty.  Hunker down and be patient.  Time to hibernate.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:10 | 6225757 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

I think Amerika is at peak 'gimmiedat'.  We're literally conjuring fiat to fund free shit for people who are highly reproductive, but aren't interesting in being productive.  Soon, .gov will have to begin cutting the benefits.  That's when times will get REALLY interesting.  I cant wait.  Tick, tock Fedcoats.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:23 | 6225813 MonetaryApostate
MonetaryApostate's picture

If you had the power to save America (Financially)....

 

What would you do?

A) Keep the Power for yourself?

B) Take the Power to another country & get rich off of it?

C) Give America your Power?

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:28 | 6225840 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

I would send a great Flood to wash away the filth and work with a faithful remnant to rebuild . . . elsewhere.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:10 | 6225764 lawyer4anarchists
lawyer4anarchists's picture

The illusion can only be maintained for so long in each stage. But it is an illusion at every stage.  Was there "greater" freedom in the past? of course.  But the entire paradigm is a laughable show. That is the truth that is just too much for most people to accept. It has always been the way.   http://www.thetruthaboutthelaw.com/they-tell-big-lies-about-our-supposed...

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:44 | 6225903 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

Shit that would have gotten a chuckle and a slap on the wrist when I was a teenager would quite literally get me labled as a terrorist these days. 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:11 | 6225766 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

The difference between Rome and now is we communicate a lot farther, faster. Information is power and we've given the power to the village idiots. Rome took a long time to fully rot away, but now the implosion will happen in weeks to months and bread and circuses has been replaced by the free shit army... May you live in interesting times.......

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:15 | 6225782 European American
European American's picture

Second Law of "Thermo"dynamics: The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:47 | 6225916 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

Delta-S >= 0

 

And applying it to societal collapse is not appropriate for anything other than a metaphor.  Our industrial society increases entropy much, much faster than a collapsed agrarian society ever could. 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:23 | 6226048 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Yep, humans are the only living creatures to actively fight against entropy, but it's a continuous battle and the special snowflakes not only don't fight it but do their best to increase it. Of course your a racist homophobe if you point that out.....

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:15 | 6225787 youngman
youngman's picture

we have thousands of Billionaires now...we never had that 10 years ago....with all the printing of fiat..we will soon have trillionaires.....and so it goes....until they lose the faith of the paper....just like the Romans who cut the gold out of the coins in the end....and then it was worthless....same here...when that paper you have in your wallet does not matter anymore...it will end...

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:50 | 6225925 Proofreder
Proofreder's picture

... cut the gold out of the coins ...

NO, it was Ag (clipping coins and also reducing the silver content) for the most part.  

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:48 | 6226144 youngman
youngman's picture

details...details...details....but that is why you are the proofreder...lol

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:12 | 6226007 Obama LaForge
Obama LaForge's picture

You don't think the 1% has their gold already?

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:16 | 6225790 Bill of Rights
Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:17 | 6225795 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Moar free shit!

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:16 | 6225791 q99x2
q99x2's picture

We're pretty much collapsed here in the United States ain't it about time to remove the dangerous and dying government and replace it with open source software?

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:24 | 6225820 BoPeople
BoPeople's picture

Yes, I get that ... and yet, there has been a multigenerational and consistent march by the powers behind the country governments toward a global government.

This is the power that Kennedy and Disraeli (as well as many others have mentioned, it is the power that Wilson talked about people mentioning only in whispers) talked about.

One has to question whether the destruction of nation states and the transference of power around the world is all part of this greater plan.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:50 | 6225927 Quinvarius
Quinvarius's picture

I don't think they are marching towards anything.  They come up with escape fantasies and excuses in the last hour.  But they plan nothing beyond what can be stolen today.  The history of government, bankers, and human organizations is long list of stupidity and delusion.  In the end, they all disappear.  They have a fantasy about global communism as an escape route?  That is great.  They can tell whomever they meet in the afterlife about how it was supposed to be if only everyone had just given up their humanity to them.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:30 | 6225847 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

It is not decay, it is cancer.

Decay is where something dead is broken down into its constituent parts by various agents.
Cancer is part of the body gone rogue and then devouring the rest from the inside.
A cancer is what ails us. The cancer of Zion and their plunder; their grifting banksters, and the tyranny of their violence-puppets', government.

The cancer must be cut out and consumed in Liberty's fire.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:38 | 6225877 rlouis
rlouis's picture

Paul Krugman would be embarassed if he could objectively imagine what a pathetic footnote he would deserve in the collapse of the second empire.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:51 | 6225930 Apocalicious
Apocalicious's picture

Paul Krugman would be embarassed if he could objectively ANYTHING.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:47 | 6225909 falconflight
falconflight's picture
2. profound political disunity Uh, seems like the fast track authority vote dispels that notion. I want extreme disunity
Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:49 | 6225922 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

Yet they fight like cats and dogs over unimportant bullshit and over who has the power.  The Ds and the Rs are competing crime families.  They are often going to do the same things because that's where the profits are, then turn around and bitch at each other for, well, doing the same things.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:18 | 6226026 Citxmech
Citxmech's picture

What's more telling is that when the issue turns to what benefits the fat cats, the silent unity of both parties is deafening.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:48 | 6226145 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Party loyalty is the only sacrament of the DemPublicans.  Doesn't that remind one of other societies of recent history?  That's why Senator Cruz is so reviled along with the TP  sympathizers in general.  

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:19 | 6226276 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

That's my point about them being competing crime families.  Which fat cat is willing to support which congress critter is analagous to turf where some goon extorts businesses for "protection."  Who has control of the turf?  Who pays whom in Washington DC?

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:46 | 6225911 Proofreder
Proofreder's picture

Two more must-Reads ...

The Fourth TurningHowe and Strauss and Fooled by Randomness - N. Taleb (black swan guy)

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 12:51 | 6225929 Seer
Seer's picture

Ahem, you missed this one:

THE FATE OF EMPIRES and SEARCH FOR SURVIVAL Sir John Glubb

http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf

No form of governmentt, no ideology, nothing is exempt.  Sadly, Glubb couldn't put his finger on THE origin of all failures: the underlying premise that ALL had, that of promiting perpetual growth (on a finite planet).

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:26 | 6226059 Orwell was right
Orwell was right's picture

Seer....  you hit the nail on the head!!     While I still rank plain old greed and the desire of a few to control the many.....as the top problem....

I firmly believe that most discussion about "the economy" completely ignore the fact that all popular economic theories have at their core, the expectation of constant 'growth'.....both in population to 'buy more',  and use of natural resources 'build more'.        Mankind got away with this for centuries....but we are hitting the limit.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:53 | 6226163 Seer
Seer's picture

Yup.  We've ALL been in this game.  I look around and see all these folks lashing out at others as though others are to blame for what is the natural course of events and find there is quite the thick cloud of hypocrisy masking the facts as we know them to be.

Been well over 5 years that I've taken a beating on ZH over my promotion that people understand the core underlying fact of growth.  They seem to get close, even recognizing the "math problem" with printing up endless fiat, but when pointing out that the earth isn't a perpetual printing press of resources they then lash out like you're, um, who the fuck knows!  (I want MINE; or, "tech will save us all" because, well, hopium)  It would be comical if not for the fact that such thinking is going to end up killing a LOT of people (well, a LOT of people are going to die anyway, so  I guess the more troubling point would be that no lesson would be learned, we'll end up trying to  repeat he very same thing, only to once again complain about our heads  hurting because we're not able to bash them against the wall as per our "god given right" [whatever the fuck that means- queue up George Carlin's "Words" as in, it's only fucking words!]).

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:22 | 6226292 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

Greed and the desire of a few to control so many and exponential growth on a finite planet are merely two sides of the same coin in my book. 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:05 | 6225991 CitizenPete
CitizenPete's picture

Meanwhile in the land of milk and honey...

 

NY Fed President Dudley Sees a Stronger Economy in Second Half of 2015

While uncertainty remains about whether growth will be strong enough to lead to further improvement in the labor market, President Dudley expects that the Federal Reserve will be able to raise interest rates later this year. However, the likelihood and timing of the increase will depend on the economic outlook, which will be largely shaped by incoming economic data.

http://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/speeches/2015/dud150605.html

 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:17 | 6226021 Liquid Courage
Liquid Courage's picture

Everybody's got something to hide, 'cept for me and my monkey.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:14 | 6226010 Batman11
Batman11's picture

Everyone wants to invest in someone else doing something.

The short term solution here was derivatives.

With the derivatives market at ten times global GDP, producing useful products and providing useful services is already nearly irrelevant.

 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:15 | 6226013 Obama LaForge
Obama LaForge's picture

There is no solution to the crash. The crash IS the solution.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:20 | 6226031 Liquid Courage
Liquid Courage's picture

Make it so, Mr. LaForge.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:55 | 6226170 Seer
Seer's picture

Naw, no need to expend precious energy, it'll come on it's own... Of course, if you're wanting to speed up the trainwreck THEN  you're going to have to pitch in and give things a shove.  For me? I'm using my energy to get on with life as I see it needs to be: and I aim to minimize the negative impacts I have on others.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:21 | 6226036 Glass Seagull
Glass Seagull's picture

 

 

All this, and yet:  stocks grind higher. 

It's just those that don't/can't participate in this rally that come up with these negative, fatalistic views.

For fuck's sake, just go invest in something...do yourself what you say people aren't doing enough of (investing in productive assets).

 

 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:48 | 6226400 Seer
Seer's picture

"For fuck's sake, just go invest in something...do yourself what you say people aren't doing enough of (investing in productive assets)."

The very notion of "invest" is highly perverse.  The reason why the "productive assets" seem to be fleeting is because growth is  waning.  There's nothing in the  "System" that addresses a no-growth environment.  Productivity means growth.  This is the reason why "wealth" is seemingly "invested" is  stupid stuff- we're still spinning the wheel after it's been off the cart (and the cart will no longer be pulled).

Stocks = paper.  There's no physical there, therefore, there's no reality there.

"Invest" is all about the "future."  The "future," as the "System" has programmed us to understand, has been thoroughly pillaged.  It's time to define one's own, realistic, future.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:39 | 6226109 stock market loser
stock market loser's picture

Death to the human race. Long live the non human species!

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:49 | 6226148 sschu
sschu's picture

The circles are some of Charles best work.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:01 | 6226195 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

Whats in it for me to be productive. The fruits of my labor thing? I will not be making pies to eat crumbs.

 It sure looks like a controled crash to me. Not one thing has been left up to chance. This is not random or a natural progression. It is under some form of control. Who or what is controling I cant say for sure.

 Can this cycle be broken tho? With the technologies we have today we might not get another shot a breaking it.

 It comes down to the will to do what needs to be done. That and a plan that actually addresses the true issues facing Earth. The complete loss of accountability of a small fraction of mankind.

 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 15:12 | 6226513 Seer
Seer's picture

"This is not random or a natural progression. It is under some form of control. Who or what is controling I cant say for sure."

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell ya!

This is all perfectly predictable!  As resources diminish there is always tighter control.  And if there's anything that power knows, it's CONTROL.

Anyone believing that POWER is not trying to maintain itself for as long as it can just doesn't understand basic human behavior.   Really, who expects power to step up and admit that our outcome is one of declining resources on a per-capita, of a reduced "lifestyle?"  Fuck, look at Greece; nothing says how fucked up things are than that recent "protest" sign asking to side with the EU and NOT austerity (of words to that effect).  We are incapable of accepting the truth because it'll mean that we'll have to accept that in order to have MORE we will have to get our hands "dirty."  So, we forever blame those in power, and those in power continue the great lie (of our false premise/promise of perpetual growth).

"Can this cycle be broken tho? With the technologies we have today we might not get another shot a breaking it."

Ah, another "technology can save us all" kind!  Ever notice that the numbers of poor on the planet are only increasing?  Technology has not, nor will it ever, CREATE actual resources: technology is a process- matter cannot be created or destroyed; "technology" is no more than our hubristic minds believing that we are capable of continuing our exponential plundering of the earth's resources.

" It comes down to the will to do what needs to be done. That and a plan that actually addresses the true issues facing Earth. The complete loss of accountability of a small fraction of mankind."

OK, go ahead, tell us what you believe "needs to be done."  Be sure to include guidance on what is to be done to/with 7+ billion humans.  Will that which "needs to be  done" scale?  Keep in mind that this is for eternity, unless, that is, you wish to specify a timeline for human existence.

BTW - Earth will be just fine; well, until the universe blows out (or in, or whatever will eventually happen to it- expect the sun to expire prior to that event)

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 19:20 | 6227600 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

Wow nice bit of spin!

 Aside from that. What needs to be done you ask? Well its all starts with some real accountability. That changes our dirrection in a big way. As to the future of billions of people? Well thats not realy for me to say. People need to make their own choices. Hopefully based on informed consent would be nice.

 On the piont about technologies saving us? Well my view is the technology is like a tool. Its all in how its used.

Case in point. The massive data collecting is simply used as a tool to force things and people. Now if it was used to root out corruption? I think many good people would be ok with it. Truth and accountability should work very well together. No?

 

 So ever given any real thought into what it would take to actually set things right long term? I am looking forward to your  thoughts. Or are you just going to lay there while they stomp all the good things to dust?

Sat, 06/27/2015 - 05:40 | 6240740 gladius17
gladius17's picture

All of your complaints can be easily and simply addressed, by the use of existing technology. It's an engineering problem.

Asteroid mining will save Earth.

"Technology has not, nor will it ever, CREATE actual resources:"

Technology give us ACCESS to resources that were already there.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:18 | 6226269 American Sucker
American Sucker's picture

One important thing CHS missed: the Roman Empire suffered several devastating plagues.  The Plague of Galen from 165-180 wiped out huge portions of the Roman Army, utterly depopulated some sections of Italy, and killed two Emperors.  It may have killed 5 million people.  The Plague of Cyprian from 250-275ish itself killed two Emperors, re-depopulated some sections of Italy, and killed probably another 5 million people.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:29 | 6226320 sschu
sschu's picture

I sat thru a meeting this AM and the political guy from the mayor's office says they want to keep Seattle a "middle class city" and not let it become San Fran with an "hourglass" population.  He mentioned rent, cost of living, etc.

When confronted that the government was dictating to business their costs via minimum wage, sick leave, ACA, taxes, permitting, etc he gets the deer in the head lights look.  The problem he says, is business "did not organize as labor did on the minimum wage issue."

Of course, the issue is the pols were not lobbied sufficiently or paid enough to do the "right thing."

Poor police protection, lousy schools, high cost of housing, traffic, property taxes.  All are primarily the result of government interference.  Of course, these issues have little to do with a family moving to the burbs.  :-)  

FWIIW, sschu 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 14:52 | 6226417 BlackVoid
BlackVoid's picture

Empires are about energy flow, everything else is secondary (symptom).

While energy input can still grow, empires grow. When energy declines, empires decline too.

The US share of global energy consumption is shrinking: US empire is shrinking.

CHS does not get this.

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 15:18 | 6226540 Seer
Seer's picture

No, No!  The empire isn't shrinking, energy "consumption" is just that much more efficient (thanks to Teslas and hope!)! </sarc>

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 17:12 | 6227060 Batman11
Batman11's picture

The nation’s brightest minds were enticed into Wall Street by the massive rewards.

This elite was set to work on building the biggest ponzi scheme the world has ever known on the back of sub-prime mortgages.

They came up with securitisation, CDOs, CDO(squared)s, synthetic CDOs, CDSs in their efforts to build the ponzi scheme.

Seven years after the bubble blew the global economy is still crippled, they had succeeded.

"It’s nearly $14 trillion pyramid of super leveraged toxic assets was built on the back of $1.4 trillion of US sub-prime loans, and dispersed throughout the world" (pg 404, “All the Presidents Bankers”, Nomi Prins).

This is probably the least productive allocation of human resources the world has ever known.

 

The end is nigh.

 

Tue, 06/23/2015 - 19:55 | 6227712 GRDguy
GRDguy's picture

It takes two things to topple a mighty oak:  the rot within, and then a strong wind.  Of course, The Great Red Dragon just arms its agents with chainsaws.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!