Gizmodo - How Long Will Our World Last? (Yes, We Are Screwed) - Technology

Gizmodo - How Long Will Our World Last? (Yes, We Are Screwed) - Technology: "Most people get worried about how much energy reserves we have left, but as this graphic shows, that's the least of our problems. The real problem is the materials we use to make things."

Cool graphic, stupid eco-nazi idea. We have so much valuable material in our landfills that I am surprised that no one has started mining them yet. Oh wait, I know why, those stupid eco-nazis have made it too expensive to bother. So what does that mean, more exploitation of the earth and less actual recycling.

I know our economy has been deeply distorted by various policies for various sources. Wasn't it last week that there was a story about a paper plant that started adding fossil fuel to its process just to get some stimulus money. Ahh, here it is, good ol' Google news FTW.

It also doesn't help that the stock market has reduced companies view of the future to just next quarter, few companies see beyond that in any real sense.

Then again a truly unrestricted market gets us the hedge fund industry, but even that was influenced by the subprime mortgage market as they tried to sell things that had no value but had to or face government displeasure.

I am thinking that the best roll of government in the market would be a verifier of claims. If you want to sell snake oil go ahead but the government will be testing to make sure that it contains at least some actual oil from snakes.

Human nature being what it is some people will take advantage of others, that needs to be limited but not at the expense of too many people not even trying to get into business.

There just needs to be a mechanism to keep businesses from gaining power in government to limit new entries into the marketplace, which seems to be the only role government fulfills at the moment.

We can and should do better.