Fortunately there is some good news from the crap comsumpto-meter. As usual it doesn't come about because of growth in empathy but from the fact that so many 'consumers' are so far in debt already for all the crap they've already consumed they've reached their crap saturation point. For some the credit card companies said adios, some found it hard to get more credit while living in their car. For various reasons, seldom based on choice, consumer spending has dropped month over month and during the high psychosis season of Xmas despite the plummeting gas prices leaving a few bucks in their wallets..
"The oil price has plummeted in response to a massive buildup of shale-derived oil in the US, reduced fears of fighting in Iraq disrupting supplies, and slower growth in demand as the world economy falters.", says The Guardian. Analysts and experts generally agree that the plunge in oil prices is part rising supplies from the shale frackers boom, part slowing demand as Europe and Japan falter and China's growth weakens. Oil barons themselves, like T. Boone Pickens, agree that oil is down due to weak demand, "Oil prices fall because global demand is down, as much as because supply is up. A crucial point that few seem to grasp; the Saudis do though".
Oil demand is dropping in parallel with almost all other commodities. Oil prices have slid because of a slowdown of overall world economic growth. Demand for transportation energy demand isn't dropping it's slowly increasing as it has been for many decades. But transportation fuels, are 18% or 20% of total demand for energy and all the other parts, 80%, are dropping because they all are to differing degrees embedded within the multiple layers of extractive capitalism.
Demand drives every market exchange. Even slightly less demand, creates a domino effect where slightly less is produced, shipped, stored and slightly less is borrowed by idiots to buy it. The producers need less oil/coal/gas to run their operations, less of the commodities they make it out of. Turns out consuming less needless crap is at least a partial solution to pollution as well as the remedy for many an individual psychosis."The way that can be spoken of is not the Way" Lao Tzu taught over 5,000 years ago. The way that can't be spoken of by the economic analysts and experts is that deflation driven degrowth, worldwide, is being caused by the slow drop in discretionary spending caused by the pressure of personal debt which in turn opens people's eyes to the fact they've got enough crap already.
