[extropy-chat] peak oil schmeak oil

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of spike
...
> smeared out extended suburb which we call the Silicon Valley, bus
> transportation is not all that practical.  If one can afford to
> live there, one can afford one's own car, eh?*
...
> *One can purchase a decent running used auto for the price of
> one month's typical rent on an apartment here...


Actually this is an understatement.  I do not understand
the economic drivers that would cause the median home
price of anyplace to be over 10 yrs the average gross
income.  But 1500 bucks a month is a verrrry cheap
apartment, a one bedroom one bath in a bad neighborhood.

There used to be a consignment lot in south San Jose for
three digit cars.  The thing had to make it there under
its own power and be less than a thousand bucks, and 
there were skerjillions of cars available there.  So
a running auto is equivalent of three weeks apartment
rent.  Even this might be an understatement: if you
looked around hard enough, some generous soul would
probably be persuaded to give you a worn out but still
running auto.  One was given to me recently.

This whole sitch gave me a vision of the future in which
ever more advanced manufacturing techniques and ever larger
markets emerge (India and China) which causes increased
economies of scale, more advanced factories, etc.  As
envisioned by the nanotech advocates, the eventual result 
is the relative prices of manufactured goods drop steadily
as the relative price of a place to actually park the
stuff increases steadily.  Major appliances, cars,
things that take a lot of room eventually become
cheaper than the piece of real estate it sits upon.  In
some parts of the world, we have effectively reached 
that point before the nanotech era.

spike