University towns still have luxury housing being built in a frenzy, suburbs are still expanding. People are starting businesses left and right, and “digital nomad” housing appears on an international scale. College applications are still flowing, and people are planning to become billionaires. All of this is happening while cities are running out of water, violence is escalating, and heat is starting to test power grids. The question to be asked for all planners, developers, and municipal officials is this: So…what’s the plan?
If companies are so delusional that they believe there is infinite profit on a finite planet, they will continue to raise prices despite reality. Raising prices means that people lack disposable income, so restaurants, coffee shops, and retail will die. There is a finite amount of fossil fuels, and the subsidy game can only go on for so long before people have to start paying real costs. Money has to come from somewhere, and if not from employers, then from the general populace.
Despite the hype from corporate media, most people lack savings and retirement. Thus, if people have no more money from their employers, they have to tap their own resources. Well, people were disincentivized to communicate with others and pushed to code–but coding will not teach people social skills or human networking. As such, people will lack resources, financial and human, and the level of inequality will continue to rise.
Unfortunately, no one with control or resources has been thoughtful enough to consider these consequences. Elites are still running on the pipe dream that everyone is hiding secret money, and the profits will flow like the Mississippi River used to, and the rest of us are forced to suffer. People keep pleading while children keep being forced to live out the dreams of their grandparents instead of adopting different lifestyles and opening mind. Since this can only go on for so long…what’s the plan?