re: #12 Mr Pancakes

Most of the self-employed people I know have really struggled over the last two years.

I’m of the opinion that only a significant change in “life-style” (i.e., reducing the excessiveness of American consumption) coupled with a sustained, multi-decade reinvestment in infrastructure (built to last) for the purpose of making our cities/towns more efficient will be able to see the US social fabric through to the end of the decade.

Point is - a diminished lifestyle will come one way or another. Either we prepare for it and build for a congenial simplicity, or, we suffer from creeping crises that will see many people returning to a condition similar to the rural poor of the 1930’s.

Call me a doomer if you like, but there is no way for us to keep consuming such a disproportionate share of global energy and material resources.