Chapter Two: Summary

I would like to end this chapter with the following insights:

1. Today's civilization has indeed become more complex compared to those of the past civilizations. We have a well-developed division of labor, with jobs requiring specialized skills and training. We have hierarchical leadership structure with various levels of government. We have business structures that traverse national boundaries. We also have put in place a global economic system that governs global trading as well as global financial systems.

2. Another point to ponder is the fact the today's modern civilization demands more natural resources to sustain itself. As the society's modernization continues to flourish, it is also becoming more and more expensive to maintain with the cost of living going up everytime there is an oil price increase. We also blame globalization everytime we want to increase taxes or increase the salaries of our leaders.

3. The complex society that we have built so far has also become a problem-solving machine tackling crisis one after another.

Will it ever happen that our society may reach a certain point where the twin crises of consumer debt and climate change may have become the so called "last straw that would break the camel's back" and the complex civilizations that the human race had built over time will, one day, just reach its inevitable collapse?

4. We defined the problem of consumer debt and climate crises in the context of wealth accumulation. The motive of expansionism, other than religion, is to increase economic activities resulting in the accumulation of profit in the hands of those who own the means of production. As the propertied class becomes richer and richer, those at the middle of the pyramid precipitate to the bottom. They fund consumption using borrowed money and continue to be in that state.

5. It is clearer now that the only way out of the crises is to immediately find alternative sources of energy and eventually reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and eventually reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

6. It is also clearer at this point in time that the middle class who are mostly affected by the consumer debt crisis can no longer survive with only one source of income. We should take advantage of the opportunity in using the internet and mobile phones to share knowledge for free or for a fee in system called "personal paperless system".


7. It also very clear that global warming requires a global solution - if necessary simultaneous global actions and not incremental global actions.

I will devote the next chapter entirely on this value proposition.

We dream of dreams dare no one dares to dream. We all know that all these are easier said than done, and conventional wisdom tells us that a journey to a thousand miles always begins with the first step.

In chapter three we will try to map out our first steps and suggest alternative global solutions to both the consumer debt and climate crises and formulate a framework in engaging the world towards a common exponential solution to the crises.