Well it's Friday, so I'll be serious too!
Remember only 20% of the world live like we do. That's us, the Seppo's, and a few Europeans.
The rest of the world lives somewhere between subsistence, and what the yuppie alternative lifestylers would mistake for utopian comfort.
They lead a life of assisted by a degree of self-sufficiency, just as our parents (for those over 60) or grandparents did.
I am not alone on this board in remembering a time when close to a minority of families had cars, no town water, few home phones, one light in each room (used sparingly), and that's more likely to be the picture here.
A return to "the good old days", when a train trip to the beach 60 k's away was akin to annual leave, and you killed the oldest chook for a special meal when someone had a birthday.
Most in this country, are one generation or less (in the case of many immigrants) from that lifestyle, and generally we haven't forgotten how to be resourceful, so will survive comfortably.
We are very detached from the holocaustic scenarios one can paint if one realistically analyses lifestyles in much of the US and Western Europe, so I don't have any grave fears for my generation.
I think it will be my grandchildren who will really need to learn stuff that I was exposed to as a matter of course, so while not going all dreadlocks, mushrooms and strawbales, I will certainly be working towards a more self-sufficiently oriented lifestyle that I can use by way of instruction.
Mind you, I have fairly strong thoughts on rabid consumerism as it is, so won't be putting my thoughts out on a podcast just yet! ;)
Don't worry about running out of fuel, it won't happen in our lifetime, and even when it gets hideously expensive, they'll still have public transport. You just may have to sell some Eggs or Chokos to pay the fare.
Cheers,
P
:D :D :D
