Civilization is a ponzi scheme.
As long as each generation is larger than the one before, civilization is a ponzi scheme.
Why do ponzi schemes always fail?
Because sooner or later, we run out of people to add to the bottom of the pyramid, to support the rest of the people.
Here is a link to Laura Ingalls Wilder's museum page.
Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs.
The great, dark trees of the Big Woods stood all around the house, and beyond them were other trees and beyond them were more trees. As far as a man could go to the north in a day, or a week, or a whole month, there was nothing but woods. There were no houses. There were no roads. There were no people. There were only trees and the wild animals who had their homes among them.
Wolves lived in the Big Woods, and bears, and huge wild cats. Muskrats and mink and otter lived by the streams. Foxes had dens in the hills and deer roamed everywhere.
This is a quote from Page one and two of the first in the Little House series, Little House in the Big Woods.
My point is that in Wisconsin in 1872, there was no problem with the pyramid scheme of civilization running out of land that could feed the next generation of humans. Laura's father could hunt and trap animals, catch fish in a nearby lake with a net, try as hard as he could to bring home the bacon, put meat on the table, and he would not deplete the food supply of the surrounding wilderness.
Fast forward to modern times.
Here is a link to a diary that explains the connection between scarcity of water in various places and the outbreak of violent conflict in those places. You see, there are two problems in our modern world, a looming shortage of food, and a current shortage of water in many places.
So, what to do? The conceptual answers are child's play.....
- either slow down the production of l'il punkins, or find somewhere with a surplus water supply to take them in.
I could go on and on with links and quotes, and I know that many of you here at Daily Kos love your links and quote. I know I do.
But, as the old saying goes, 'nuff said.
We have limited land that works well for farming and ranching to feed humans, and we have limited fresh, clean, safe drinking water. Therefore, we cannot keep adding more humans to the bottom of our Ponzi scheme pyramid, because as we try and try, the newest humans will suffer tha same fate as the bottom people in any pyramid scheme when it falls apart.
Those at the bottom are screwed. And they will starve and die of disease by the billions, not millions.
Peace.