[Thymeclock]

You don't seem to understand the concept of inflation. Here is a quote pulled from the Wiki page on the topic:

The term "inflation" originally referred to increases in the amount of money in circulation, and some economists still use the word in this way. However, most economists today use the term "inflation" to refer to a rise in the price level. An increase in the money supply may be called monetary inflation, to distinguish it from rising prices, which may also for clarity be called 'price inflation'.[23] Economists generally agree that in the long run, inflation is caused by increases in the money supply. However, in the short and medium term, inflation is largely dependent on supply and demand pressures in the economy.

To underscore that point of which I have not been able to convince you: inflation is largely dependent on supply and demand pressures in the economy.

You keep saying it is "only" supply and demand - but that IS a form of inflation!

Absolutely not. The increased cost of exploration is because all the easy-to-get-to places are already explored. A century ago an oil company could drill a few hundred feet into Texas, and hit oil. Nowadays they have to run a drilling platform and drill 10,000 feet into the Gulf...

And it costs more to do the survey, and it costs more to buy or lease the drilling equipment, and it costs more in every other aspect - but you choose to ignore all that because it doesn't bolster your narrow argument.

Saving the planet is idealistic? It's always seemed pretty pragmatic to me. I mean, where exactly are you planning to go if the planet isn't saved?

"Saving" it from what, exactly?

But there is no elsewhere, at least that I know of. No place on Earth where I could afford to own a decent tract of land

There are fifty states, probably a zillion real estate listings for available property in them and you say "No place on Earth where I could afford to own a decent tract of land".

Who are you kidding, other than yourself?

- and I'm far from poor, too. It's just the reality of an overcrowded planet: only the super-rich can afford to own land.

So according to your bizarre, radical definition, every homeowner in America is "super-rich". Do you realize how absurd all these statements of yours sound?

And finally we now have an admission of your subscription to the old Malthusian nonsense (click here). I am not surprised.

Where do you keep the horses? Or the garden?

My garden is half of my back yard. I have no need or desire for horses.

I said: Why do you feel a NEED for 100 acres or more upon which to live? Do you have a need to be alone, away from society? Or do you just envy anyone who builds a large new home on a small plot of land?

I can't tell you why, any more than I can tell you why I get hungry or sleepy. Can you tell me why you apparently don't? It just seems an inherent part of being. Nor do I envy those people at all.

Then why did you voice your disdain for "Mc Mansions"? And why did you cite the real estate listing for an enormous tract of land that virtually no one can afford? It smacks of class envy.

Apparently you cannot distinguish the distinction between a need and a desire.