Comments on: Americans consume too much and that is going to change dramatically.

By: projektleiterin

projektleiterin — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:15:57 +0000

They need all the military equipment to invade other countries.

By: grumpypilgrim

grumpypilgrim — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:10:59 +0000

Interesting observation, Vicki, though “best” would not be the word I would choose to describe Africa’s ratio of deaths to spending.

Also interesting is the ratio for the U.S.A. I often wonder how much better off America would be as a nation if its leaders were to spend more effort building alliances with other countries and less effort shopping for more military equipment. To hear Republicans describe America’s military preparedness, one might think a squad of guys in a Zodiak (inflatable boat) could conquer the country, when in fact America outspends the rest of the world combined and is almost certainly more safe from serious military threat than any other nation on the planet.

By: Vicki Baker

Vicki Baker — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:25:32 +0000

Very interesting maps, grumpy. Looks like Africa has the best “deal” in terms of war deaths vs. military spending.

By: grumpypilgrim

grumpypilgrim — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:21:17 +0000

The quote that, for me, sums it up best (it might even come from Diamond’s excellent book, ‘Collapse’) is that we must stop treating our planet as an infinite department store and an infinite garbage can.

The other concept to remember is that our planet cannot sustain a substantial fraction of the global population at the current level of consumption in America, much less at some higher level than today. This has major significance as China and India increase the size of their middle class populations and, along with it, their levels of consumption.

For another view of things, look at the maps of the world’s imbalances, mentioned here:
http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=1131.