Janie - I think we really got on this fast-track to self destruction in the 1980's, when an economic model was put forward that demanded continuing growing markets to abosrb mulit-faceted products in ever greater numbers. All of this put enormous
pressures on resources and spurred the pursuit and development of new resources.
             All of that, in turn, demanded growing markets and the cycle is endless.
             That's the way I interpreted the Robert Reich argument.
The thing that seems so inconsistent to me are all of the folks who argue against the growing consumerism, but who fail to recognize that human population growth is a very huge part of the growing consumerism. Human migration is a necessary component of population growth, and they would deny that too.
             I think if one is to set out to solve the problem, the place to start would be with world wide population growth along with a closly checked process of human migration.