I agree in the dearth of personal responsibility. In our litigious society everyone want to blame someone else. If you take a sip of coffee and it's too hot sue McDonalds. That's ridiculous and it in turn makes everything more expensive. Lots of great school playground equipment has been removed, not because it was particularly dangerous, but because there was no ownership trail so there was nobody to sue in case of an accident. Ridiculous because accidents happen all the time and they are just that accidents.

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All that aside capitalism is still a driver of overconsumption because it's existence depends of constant growth, expansion and continued consumption.

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The world population is pushing eight billion now. There are not the resources for continued expansion and growth. Water is already becoming scarce in many parts of the world. Many people face starvation. It's estimated that 673 million people are undernourished around the world. The earth lacks sufficient resources to bring the world up to US standards. At some point changes must be made unless we are willing to sit back and watch people starve while we in the US continue to overconsume.