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The age of Scarcity

Joined
30 June 2008
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http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic...s-upon-us-says-investor-jeremy-grantham/3436/

The rest of the story is equally sobering. It is also worth checking out Jeremy Granthams whole paper.

Implications for economic growth are profound and final. Thoughts ?


http://www.gmo.com/websitecontent/JGLetterALL_1Q11.pdf
 
Only read the quoted section there. Its fairly obvious though. A planet only has finite resources and with a population whose growth rate is increasing it is only a matter of time before we run out of things.

The only hope is that we continue to innovate and improve our mining/recycling/farming etc methods.

The World can support about 2 - 3 billion people in a comfortable Western lifestyle :2twocents
 

At the bottom of the article, sole respondent to date "BenAiken" makes this final comment -

"My bet is on more government control and meddling."

Ergo, "Mr Market" is increasingly becoming "Mr Gummint" in sheeps clothing..

Couldn't agree more. :cool:
 

what a fantastic read, thankyou for posting, would encourage all to take the time (it doesnt take more then 15 mins or so) to read the full report.

How lucky are we to be living in a country with the natural resources of australia. Makes me feel truly priviledged, we and our country will need to act with the utmost responsibility in the future, for ourselves an others around the world.
 
Speaking of scarcity, here's an interesting site to keep track of from time to time.

Sort of puts into perspective how easy we here in the yeehaar 51st state of Oz have got it when it comes to lifestyle & comforts, compared to some more populous and less "westernised" parts of the globe....

http://www.energyshortage.org/reports
 

Are you serious Prawn!!!??? There is NO way the Earth can support 2-3 billion in our lifestyle - check out your footprint as you live and you'll see that we'd need about 6 Earths to support our lifestyle. That equates to more like 1 billion.

IMO the price imperatives will push us to space sooner rather than later - while it might cost some billions - tens of billions ?? to catch an asteroid and bring it into Earth orbit, the value of having that amount of pure nickel/iron (+ whatever else they get out of it) will cover the cost. Plus once they have the process sorted, it's a rapid reduction in cost to continue it once a space port/elevator is established.

Go ahead and scoff, but unless you're into population control, it's the only way we're going to move ahead.