Human consumption will take 7 earths

Let’s do a logical exercise > kind of like the rubric’s cube only simpler: Don’t forget, I solved the cube the old fashioned way > I twisted the squares around until I saw patterns that repeated, and then I solved the cube without any instruction.

So let’s go forward.

According to scientists doing research on the earth’s resources, if all people in the world consumed the same amount as Americans, it would take 7 Earths to fill their needs.

Further studies show that the world’s consumption is rising with the increasing number of people. Further studies show that Indians and Chinese and Latin Americans are increasing their consumption per capita.

Since you like things simple, I hope the previous 3 levels of information have not zapped your aging memory circuits.

Given the information above, which do you think is most likely for the future?
1. The cost of American consumption will increase geometrically or at least proportionately with the increasing numbers of consumers, and therefore consumption will fall?
Or
2. American consumption will decline?

Now I’m going to add another dimension to the cube.

Since most of our nation’s wealth is held in leveraged real estate, and your retirement dollars are underwritten by the promissory notes on said real estate, which do you think is most likely to occur in the future?

1. The number of large consumer-homes will continue to increase, and the value of those homes will spiral upwards over the next 20 years?
Or
2. Americans will start to demand smaller more-efficient abodes, only to find that the holders of America’s real estate have paid too much for their property and the cash flow to build smaller more-practical homes is gone? [along with your retirement]

Since I have been writing about our top-heavy investment in real estate for about 10 years, it’s would be nice to get your economic appraisal > and don’t pull out the old re-treaded ideas of ‘liberal’ and ‘great society’ to answer a question about the 21st century.

In short, I am asking you to pull out the big brain this time.

Gene Haynes