[quote=livinincali][quote=dumbrenter]
I will stick my neck out for this prediction: Nobody will be able to stop the coming wave of massive increase in production. The consequences of that are the ones which are hard to predict.[/quote]

You do realize that a massive increase in production will require a massive increase in energy production. Tell me where we’re building a massive increase in low cost energy production for this country? Where’s the thorium nuclear research. Where’s the permits for the nuclear power plants. I guess we better hope for a miracle in the fusion nuclear space because solar and wind probably aren’t going to be enough. Efficiency improvements can only go so far and even they can be rather expensive to implement.[/quote]

A decent net metering scheme plus some improvements in storage technology (energy, that is) plus a breakthru or two in fuel cell or bacterial methods of energy generation might get us there. …ok, I’ll stop here before I go too far into the dreamland!

Agreed that energy efficiency can only go so far, but increase in productivity need not be linearly related to consumption of energy. I give you the examples of TSMC or even INTC for that matter.