>Generally speaking people will try not to just throw away money if they can think of a better way to spend it. Actually I think that is exactly what we do. My

>Generally speaking people will try not to just throw away money if they can think of a better way to spend it. Actually I think that is exactly what we do. My neighbours buy bigger and bigger cars which have very little extra utility for them. The same for their houses. Conspicuous consumption is a thing. >Energy usage is directly correlated with standard of living, health, and economic output / productivity. Energy use in the UK has declined over the last twenty years whilst the economy has been growing. Health is largely a function of clean water, good diet and exercise. Food in particular has been consuming a decreasing part of the economy for a century. We can go a long way by being a lot smarter, the laptop I'm typing this on consumes a fraction of the energy of the one I used twenty years ago. The new houses near me use heat pumps vs the resistive heating in my house. >I doubt it will be quite a “Mr. Fusion” on the Tesla I can toss breakfast scraps into and then drive 300 miles, but for example, solar panels and battery system efficient and cheap enough to give me all the energy I could need for something on the order of $1-$2 a day (current electric bill is more like $12-$15 / day). I can remember when we were promised energy too cheap to meter. It didn't happen and I doubt it ever will. Wishful thinking isn't going to get us out of the mess we have created.