I've come to understand that

the morality and relational well-being of mankind cannot be reconciled through the means of politics.  This does not mean no government
is needed.

"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved
    by the level of thinking that created them."

in any case, any chapter of history since the dawn of time ought
to suffice as either proof or evidence.

discuss

>>15

You're actually reinforcing the point you're arguing against.

In a purely free, purely democratic system, like a radically libertarian one, or an anarcho-capitalist one, there would be nothing to prevent price gouging, collusion, or monopolizing. You're just agreeing with him. :P

>>16

I think the point you're trying to make is that hypothetically you get more product Y out of resources X by increasing efficiency. This is a point I've already addressed, and the answer is that some resources are essentially finite and you will eventually run out of them anyways.

It really matters very little if you use oil half as fast or twice as fast, most of us will personally meet people who will live to see the end of oil as a viable commercial product. If not us, our children, if not our children, our grand-children, but a hundred years or so is as far as I can imagine stretching it. And please don't resort to the naive point of view that all we use oil for is fueling automobiles and heating homes, you know very well that it's used in almost every stage of manufacturing in every product made by industrialized nations at multiple steps.

We're not talking about finding an alternative fuel, we're talking about finding an alternative to thousands of common applications which are as of now very inexpensive, and while those alternatives will be found, they won't be cheap, and that cost index increase across the board on all industrialized products will brutally reduce the standard of living for billions.