My dad grew up in The Great Depression and fought in both WWII and Vietnam. My mom grew up in Germany during WWII and it's aftermath. I've done a lot of reading and thinking on "economic collapse" type stuff. And I'm an environmental studies major and have had a couple of classes that covered peak oil.

First of all, even in a depression, people still need food, shelter and clothing. The shallow end of the pool empties first. So luxury items may be an issue but, for example, clothing didn't take as big a hit during The Great Depression as most people would think.

Second, even during The Great Depression, there were businesses that boomed. Second hand stores boomed. Bicycles boomed (people couldn't afford cars but still had to get to work). Some company began selling frozen french fries (and I want to say dehydrated onions) in supermarkets and eventually made a mint (because they were cheaper for the end user at a time when every penny counted -- ie they had real value for the consumer). I read his story (the founder's story) and it was fascinating.

When he was a kid (teen), there was a glut of pigs on the market, so farmer's were killing piglets. It wasn't worth raising them. He went around and offered to take piglets off their hands for free and got a bunch of piglets for free. He had no resources so he would go hunting for wild horses or whatever to feed them. He managed to make it through the few months it took to raise them -- he managed to keep them all fed somehow. And the next year, low and behold, there was a pig shortage. Why? Because the farmers had all been killing their piglets the year before. So he made a lot of money for a kid because he got the pigs for free, worked to feed them (rather than spending money to feed them) and sold at a premium. And he later went into business.

I believe in peak oil and I think it's a serious issue. But I don't think it's an end of the world issue. It's just an end of our current culture issue. (Favorite song line: "It's the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine.") Current culture is constantly in the process of "dying" -- and something else is constantly in the process of being born to replace it. I wish people would quit wigging out about that.

I have given up my car, in part because I believe in peak oil but mostly I couldn't afford both my rent and my car and I decided I would rather walk to work than live out of my car or move back in with family. I don't expect to go back to owning a car, which is rooted in health issues that have benefited tremendously from being carless. So I basically think, yeah, we could all stand to make some lifestyle changes which will be more peak-oil-friendly. But those lifestyle changes should be ones that make sense for us as individuals, not driven by fear. My choice to be carless and remain carless is in line with my belief that peak oil is an issue but it is not driven by that. It was driven by real issues in my own life -- which is as it should be. So I don't think that making decisions to solve your own problems in a way that takes into account the whole peak oil thing actually means we all need to move out to the country, buy a shot gun, stock gold, and start a garden. My future may well include a more rural location and a garden. If living in a rural location makes having a shot gun a logical thing to do, it might even include a shot gun. So my future might resemble some of those details, but not in a hysterical "head for the hills, the martians are coming" sort of manner.

Well, I have to go get ready for work. So my editing is done, whether the post is polished or not.

Later.