Quote:
Originally Posted by SVOboy
Moving from the US to Japan is basically a microcosm of what it would be like in the US if energy stopped being cheap.
I pay 3x what you people pay for electricity, which is pro-rated to charge more if I use lots, 2x for gas, 2x for natural gas, have to buy trashbags to throw out my trash, etc etc on and on. No big deal though.
When people get used to having 90% of their money to spends on things they don't need, that's where problems arise, in my opinion.
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True in some sense but Japan is so totally different than here you won't see a move to Japanese life in the US even if energy becomes impossibly high, instead you will see systematic failure. We won't prepare our society, instead it will fail and then we will change but probably for the worse.
Japan started way ahead of us in every way, they were already used to small spaces, communal living and extreme obligations to the state, in fact its their heritage more or less. If I may, its not even too tough to walk across Japan in the right season with the right path.
Here in the US we are so BIG and have such poorly setup societies that we simply cannot operate like Japan without tearing down everything and starting over, we are just that far behind.
Also our mentality here is not compatible with how Japan lives.
I might and others here might not be too affected by massive shifts in energy costs (and we likely wouldn't mind the changes) but other people will likely be starving on the streets until the 30 years or so pass that it takes for society to restructure. (and I mean that, our society will not restructure safely overnight) Regardless of how prepared personally we are, that doesn't mean our society will be compatible with us for a long time and we might get displaced as special interests are grappling for their lost money/power/influence.
A cold dose of reality, we can be idealistic but lets face it, like Dodge we will keep doing the same thing until it kills us.
Cheers
Ryan