Of course we need to expand net energy to increase productions of goods and services and thus pay off our debts. Unfortunately it’s only going down, slowly now and quickly in a few years, probably 2-3. Factor in population growth and the per capita energy use has to go down and however that manifests. Most likely it will concentrate. Economics does not sufficiently handle this problem. Bernake can’t print energy and that by definition is the ability to do work.
As for movies depicting the future. Watch the first 15 minutes of “The Running Man”. Has the timing dead on, IMO. The creators must be peak oil savvy.
The year is 2017. The world economy has collapsed. The United States has sealed off it’s borders and has become a military controlled police state which controls TV, movies, art, books, communication and censorship. In the police state America has become, criminals have a choice…
Arnie gets in trouble for not obeying orders to shoot food rioters.