If you could do with twice as less

Canell said:

OK, so it is. It was just a figure of speech. Bottom line was, if an industry becomes obsolete, what do we do? For example, if someone discovered cheap anti-gravity and cars could fly with no petrol, how would that impact the oil industry, the coal industry and the economy?

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It would destroy the oil industry. The coal industry could survive since that is more for electricity than locomotion; and it would do wonders for the insurance industry selling rider protection against litter falling through your roof Obsolescence just isn't a matter of technology though. It is also a matter of competition. I, for instance, think the American auto industry is obsolete simply because but for government carrying it along, it would collapse. That is the more fundamental issue that we are facing economically today--an obsolete wage/benefit model.

Fisher said:

The coal industry could survive since that is more for electricity than locomotion;

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Not if a cheap, reliable source of energy is discovered (the anti-gravity I mentioned). If not else, it will make sense just lifting a load and putting to a platform to turn a generator on the way down.

Fisher said:

Obsolescence just isn't a matter of technology though.

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I am afraid so. As the legend goes "where would I put the electric meter" said banker Morgan to Tesla with his allegedly "free electricity". We don't if the story is true but it illustrates the problem.

Canell said:

Not if a cheap, reliable source of energy is discovered (the anti-gravity I mentioned). If not else, it will make sense just lifting a load and putting to a platform to turn a generator on the way down.

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A lot of our coal could still be exported to the third world.

Canell said:

I am afraid so. As the legend goes "where would I put the electric meter" said banker Morgan to Tesla with his allegedly "free electricity". We don't if the story is true but it illustrates the problem.

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Well I have never heard that and I doubt it is true. Either way, technology is not the only thing that becomes obsolete. Anything no longer produced or used or is out of date is obsolete. The American benefit/wage system underpinning our economy is becoming obsolete. Socialists think it is going their way. I think it is going the other way on the production side. I think within the next 100 years American production will not be by big corporations but by a million small manufacturers, perhaps in global cooperation with other small groups like villages and towns overseas. I think it is an exciting turn of events that will screw Wall Street and Socialists alike in the end.

In my smallish town of 20K, the upper scale and retiree's make a point of working
the thrift stores and yard sales as a first option.

Canell said:

Imagine if you could live with twice as less compared to now without compromising the quality of your life - twice less food, twice less gas, twice less electricity, twice less water, twice less shopping, twice less whatever.

Would that be bad or good? How would that impact you, the national economy and the world?

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Well, first of all, you don't really "need" half those things to begin with, so we're already starting from the somewhat sheltered and ignorant view of living with an obscene over-abundance of all kinds of things that we don't need in the slightest.

But of those things I actually do need, I could do with half as much as I have. In fact, I have done so in the past.

The one and only problem with that, is that being so close to the red line of non-viability is incredibly stressful. It's stressful to the point where you could reasonably expect to live a decade or two less simply from the stress of it.

So what qualifies as "quality of life?"

I could still live on half as much. But it's difficult to be relaxed and happy, and thus healthy.

And if you're saying "what if everything was the same, only you needed less of it," well... what if we could fly? What's the point of such a question? We can't, so until we can engineer something to make it so, what's the use in asking?

SmokeAndMirrors said:

So what qualifies as "quality of life?"

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For example, eating half as much without feeling a deficit, i.e. feeling hungry. Everybody knows that old people tend to eat less.
Or may be just stop wasting food.

Almost half of the world's food thrown away, report finds | Environment | guardian.co.uk

SmokeAndMirrors said:

And if you're saying "what if everything was the same, only you needed less of it"

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Kind of. Again, it's an economical issue. It will be good for your wallet, but bad for GDP. And may be bad for your neighbour who produces the stuff. But politicians are definitely going to whine about it.
Thanks for coming by.