A little less; a lot more David Ehrenfeld outlines a strategy for a bottom-up social shift from oil dominated consumer capitalism to a more moderate approach to getting and spending.

A voluntary lowering of consumption -- the end of gross materialism -- would bring about many beneficial changes in our society. It would improve our health by breaking the stressful spiral of working more to buy more -- and to pay the ever-ballooning interest on credit card debt. It would increase our need and concern for each other as we rediscover that neighbors can share goods and exchange services at great savings and with much joy.

Lowering consumption would also have dramatic effects beyond the industrial world. It would reduce exploitation of children and semi-slave laborers in Third World countries, and would slow depletion of global resources. These countries could then promote a healthy, equitable commerce among themselves by forming regional trading blocs, free of the negative economic and social consequences of depending on Western markets. This in turn would lower the risk of war and international terrorism, and would narrow the now-widening gap between rich and poor everywhere.

Yet ending our consumption habit, both voluntarily and as a result of a growing energy crisis, may also cause widespread and profound commercial failures and economic disruption -- possibly economic chaos. This is especially likely if the change is abrupt. A few examples will suffice. The demise of the energy-sponging, automobile-dependent suburbs without adequate provision for the people who live there, and the disappearance of giant malls without replacement of the useful services they provide and the retail jobs they generate, will bring about much suffering. We should also anticipate the loss of the sales-generated surpluses that now pay for the arts, much environmental protection, special education, and many other necessary amenities. Moreover, if local communities revive at the expense of centralized authority, we should be ready to deal with a resurgence of parochialism, prejudice, and intolerance -- implementing the transition from excess to moderation will challenge both our ingenuity and our humanity, if the best of modernity is to survive the end of materialism.

Chris Floyd weighs in on the plundering of Iraq.

(A)nyone with even a passing acquaintance of the history of U.S. foreign policy since World War II could tell you, the reality is likely to be something quite different. To wit: years of wholesale gouging by politically connected foreign firms, accompanied by growing internal strife, massive corruption, guerrilla warfare and terrorist attacks, followed by a gigantic bust-up -- civil war, Islamic revolution, military coup, etc. -- followed by a panicky pullout (as in Havana, Saigon, Teheran, Beirut, etc.), followed by years of scab-picking recriminations on editorial pages and political hustings: "Who lost Iraq?"