The End of Growth

I just finished reading "The End of Growth" by Richard Heinberg and I was pleased. It wasn't very expensive for my Kindle (about eight dollars) and was very well done in talking about the consequences of limited resources.

One thing I particularly liked was his discussion on the categorizing of countries. Developed, developing, under developed. Seems there is another category that should be used, overdeveloped. That would be a situation where continued inputs which are finite are required to sustain the country.

If anyone has read it yet, or wishes to discuss it, I thought it might be useful in discussing intentional communities, etc.

I believe the Transition movement is largely informed by the ideas discussed by Heinberg (though I don't know if there is a direct influence, just a common interest).

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

One can transition to something, or just have to immediately change over. The problem is, if all of a sudden you find yourself without something critical, you might not have enough time to transition.

About 10 years ago I got all our money out of the Stock Market and US real estate and put it into forestry. I can't tell you how happen I am to be ahead of the curve.

In truth, it is easy to do well in your life, if you can see the future. Anything that tries to discuss where we might be headed is worthwhile. It is better than walking off cliffs.

Please explain more about this move into forestry. I have about $20,000 coming to me next year and I'm looking for a good place to put it since being in the millitary I'm moving nonstop and see no reason to buy a home when I'll be leaving in 3 years.

Josh Rocky wrote:Please explain more about this move into forestry. I have about $20,000 coming to me next year and I'm looking for a good place to put it since being in the millitary I'm moving nonstop and see no reason to buy a home when I'll be leaving in 3 years.

I wouldn't fixate on forestry, but on resources. Just about every possible resource right now is getting scarcer, and some of them are hitting "peak". But realize, it is a long term investment, for all of them. Sometimes up, sometimes down, but generally up.

I am not a financial adviser - just telling you the way I think.

A home is not an investment - except in sustaining your life if you include a way to feed you - but they aren't that good if it is just place to live. After all, you have to live somewhere after you retire, so you can't get to the equity in your home. The only exception would be if you were to live in a very expensive area, and move to a cheap place to live.

Better to have the smallest house you can live in, than the biggest house you can afford.

We used to let people buy trees with us because in investment in forestry, the challenge always is being large enough. You don't make that much just selling a few logs, better if you have the whole package - so we had people who owned trees with us so they didn't have to have lots of money. We have stopped doing that now because we got up to a size that we felt was adequate and wanted to focus on harvesting at this time, instead of planting.