Coping with sacrifice

It is hard to find a person in today’s modern society who has not made some sort of sacrifice because of the cost of crude oil. Unless you belong to a lost Amazon tribe, or living the Amish life, there are things you gave up simply because disposable cash is on the decline.

Hearing the airlines cutting back and fully understanding why, it is hard to feel anger at the airlines, however the need or desire to vent anger someplace is still there. Is blame placed on a way of thinking where profit comes first by depleting resources? Could it be that the human population is getting too big for the planet to support? Or is it just your basic run of the mill long term bad luck?

Seeing the cost of basic food go up along with everything else is tough particularly when not buying food is not an option. Modifying the magic line between necessity and luxury it tough for some. Eating cheaper food like giving up steak for Spam is becoming a more common sacrifice many have made.

This problem will be around and only get worse until some changes happen. Adapting of modern technology is a start. Taking an idea from the Internet concept itself is a good place to start. The Internet was designed with the military in mind. The thinking was to decentralize in the event of an attack. If one place was attacked it would do little damage as the information was redundant across the Internet. Bomb New York and copies in Dallas Texas, Waterville Maine along with other places would simply pickup the slack. So with the speed of the internet, the commute to work changes from across town to wherever you keep your online computer. Video feeds at 30 frames per second via webcam is doable. That would cut down on weekly personal cost and price of fuel as per the rules of economics supply and demand. Trips to the office could be cut as much as 80% leaving only necessity visits. Pay could be direct deposit into your bank account and so on. This however will not work for every job, but it is a good start.

Startup companies that help people find work near to where they live would be another adjustment. This however would be geared for low to moderate skill level jobs. Focusing on the concept work at or close to home will be more widely embraced because of necessity and not choice.

Growing your own food is another adjustment. Although some say this may be a step backwards in time, it still works. However to suggest it is a step backwards leaves a person thinking that it was the same type of thinking ‘bigger, better, faster, easier’ that contributed to the problem. Back to basics is the theme.

This leaves us with the thought of looking at an end game to all of this. However the most optimistic views are bleak. Humans have set into motion a chain of events that just can’t be turned off quickly if at all. Global warming will continue to reduce the food supplies until negative population growth comes into balance with food supplies. Depleted natural resources will force us to find new forms of energy be it solar or thermal or other. The bottom line is we must change ourselves now and not wait for governments to act. Governments are slow to change particularly when money for them is involved in making poor choices.


One Response to Coping with sacrifice

  1. How true!
    BTW, I’ve been doing just about all of the above for some ten years now (except growing my own rice.. which would be great)!
    Guess we’re only counting down to the ‘big’ consequences.