Some very good posts here. Humans are consumers. We will always be. The problem is we consume much more than we should. But I think the truth is it ain't going to matter much in the next 50 years. America and the rest of the industrialized nations have consumed too much over the last 50 years and now with some other nations entering the industrialized world there will not be that much left for us which will skyrocket prices. China will be the big dog in this century.China population 1,321,851,888 in July 2007. We have 300 million consumers in the US. Can you imagine when 1 and a half billion people enter the consumer generation what thats going to do?
I forsee a time when we become the 3rd world country and we start supplying the rest of the planet with cheap labor.