I like to journalize my thoughts so heres something i was thinking about this morning.
Living within our Means.
Economist, politicians, and fellow Americans have been shouting at the rest of us for far too long. “Live within your means”, they shout, “You don't need a cellphone, a car, or any of the other luxury items. Your spoiled and if you would just live within your means all your problems will go away.” After growing up under this rhetoric, I have to wonder what the implications would be if we all truly lived within our means.
In order to understand what “living within our means” would implicate it is important to define the concept. My understanding of living within ones means is not only a practical statement, but also an ethical statement. Practically it is to only use what is produced by oneself; ethically it is to live a zero sum life, ie: not taking more than ones fair share. In summary to live within ones means would be to live a life that only consumes what an individual can produce with their share of the earths resources. Those resource would also have to become available for use at the end of that person's life to be use by subsequent generations.
The next question that needs to be asked is, how many of us are currently living within our means? There are approximately 315 million Americans according to the U.S. Census population estimates, that means that 4.5% of the worlds' human population are Americans.(
National Totals: Vintage 2012 - U.S Census Bureau) A measly 4.5%, yet we consume nearly 25% of the worlds available resources. In an even larger context world wide humans constitute approximately 0.01% of the Earths' biomass yet we are consuming about 150% of what is sustainably produced each year.(
Report: Global Biodiversity Down 30 percent in 40 Years | LiveScience,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)) This supposition is supported by our dependence on fossil fuels. If we were to honestly calculate what our share of the planets yearly product should be the figure would be dramatically smaller, somewhere in line with 0.01% of the biomass we constitute. Of that 0.01% of the resources we are entitled to Americans would only be entitled to 4.5% of them. The answer is no one on this planet who is ensnared in our global civilization is living within their means. If we are to live within in our mean the impact on our civilization would be incomprehensible, going from 25% of 150% of the Earths' resources to 4.5% of 0.01% of the Earths' resources.
Lets not beat around the bush, there is no way that we will ever reduce our standard of living to a sustainable level, so the question becomes what do we do next? There is only one viable option, extra terrestrial colonization. Life right now is as good as it is ever going to get. Resources abundance is also as good as it will ever be. Now is the time to seriously consider our future, a future that by necessity will be beyond Earth.
Will we take advantage of the current abundance or will we sacrifice our future for short term profits and selfishness?
let us discuss
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