The one thing I can see is people may have lifestyle differences even more radically different than now. I, a Technical Project Manager am involved in development of technologies for local webcasting and connectivity. I work several “levels” above the smaller “cells.” I can see a world where some people are local most of their lives, and several levels ‘above’ are people who never settle down.

However I strongly wish for better localization. Its just efficient and stable.

Pretty tough ones

I think we know that we are in trouble here

PS I agree re Dion – I can trust him to do his best to do the right thing

It seems implicit in your post that the standard of living would not change, or that it might even get better. I can see how that could happen, by replacing material things that don’t matter with a greater sense of self-sufficiency or well-being, but that wasn’t spelled out in the post. Shouldn’t it also include the idea that you will have to settle for a less material life? I don’t think this should be a surprise to be found out later in a proposition like this.

The monopolization of services, for example, is the cheapest way to do things in our current system, with energy still being relatively cheap. If you look at the price of real smoked meat vs. deli meat that has smoke flavour added and nitrites to preserve it, you will find a huge discrepancy because the latter is done in smaller quantities, takes longer to do, and is labour-intensive. So, if you want to dismantle this then you have to accept an increase in price in order to rebuild your local economy. With places like Walmart having reduced wage pressures by forcing the cost of popular goods to their rock bottom, many families may not be able to pay more.

One thing that struck me about Dion. He came across to me as very reasonable and capable based on what I saw him say about environmental issues in a 1-hour interview. Despite any hard evidence of what he intended to do, I would trust him based on an obvious intelligence. He was one of those guys that genuinely recognized that there were no easy answers. But it occurred to me afterwards that, to people who aren’t reading about environmental issues day-in, day-out, this guy sounds like he is trying to pull a fast one and has no plan. The relationship to your post is that I wonder whether enough people really think there is a problem with our economy, or whether it’s just a matter of having politicans fix the high energy prices so that we can go back to previously-scheduled programming.

I have no idea what it’s like on PEI, but I am just looking at the similarities between environmental issues — most people see no real environmental problems, especially when food is still extremely cheap, and after a mild summer and cold, snowy winter. Fishery problems, yet tuna is still frequently well under a dollar a can? But, they’re being told by politicians that these issues are so important. It’s easy to get tunnel vision with these things when you focus on an issue for too long.