[quote=briansd1]CognitiveDissonance, you haven’t addressed what you believe is a sustainable system. [/quote]

That is a tough on to answer though there are many good ideas being floated around – that all kind of have similar themes. I’m not sure yet

[quote=briansd1]
You seem to be saying that humans should consciously live modestly and not use up so much resources. That sounds like austerity to me.
[/quote]

I’m saying we — the human race — have some serious thinking to do about how we want to interact with the planet and each other in terms of social and species survival and essentially holistic planetary health(looking at the whole system) . What are our goals? If our patterns of behavior (culture) do not support those goals – it is an issue that needs to be addressed.

Indeed, global macro forces are going to come down like a monsoon and impose austerity on the world and potentially cause a lot of unnecessary bad behaviors and we need to be aware of this. Consider this time period like cosmic austerity;)

[quote=briansd1]But in Greece and Spain, people are demonstrating against the very austerity that would to lead to a sustainable economic system. The people want more money, more prosperity, that is more stuff and junk to consume.[/quote]

I’d say that is an incorrect assessment of what is going on