I hope this helps to explain where we find ourselves. The meat isn't scarce. The lumber isn't scarce. The liquid fuel to run the farms and the trucks is. Well...liquid fuel isn't "scarce" per se. It has become too expensive to extract and bring to market for most people to afford. In a capitalistic monetary based economy built and run on liquid fuels, that just doesn't work.

So the idea is that the "liquid fuel" club needs to get smaller and smaller, so only people who can afford to pay will get the "stuff". The meat. The lumber. The transportation. The healthcare. The technology. All the energy intensive services and activities we've become accustomed to are about to become a luxury only the super wealthy have access to.

It has to do with energy. Primarily the cost (energy and monetary) of extraction. The oil based civilization is winding down. Rich folks want that lumber for their kids to be able to buy. So they're increasing the price of lumber (and anything else of value) to ensure their kids can have the fossil fuel lifestyle. But in order to do that, they have to price a segment of the population out of the market. So the product remains, it's just too expensive for most people to afford.

It costs more to find, extract, and bring to market fossil fuel than they can ask people to pay without wrecking the economy. If you find the graph (there are a few good ones) of the price energy companies can afford to pay to extract the product, and the price the consumer can afford to pay for it, those lines have now crossed.

The energy companies need more money to stay in business than the average person can afford to pay for their product. Rich folks have seen this coming for years, and it looks like they've finally decided it's time to tighten up what is available (affordable) to who.

Personal transport, and air travel are on their way out for the average person. The electric initiative will fail to maintain expected living standards, and they know it. There is nothing that comes close to the energy density and convenience hydrocarbons provide. All the hype about "electrify America" is just so they can say they tried, and hopefully people will not get too riled up when they realize they no longer belong to the "single mode transport" club. Mass transit, bike, or walk for middle class very soon.

Absent a solution that I haven't seen, the "winding down" will continue. Technology is not energy. Technology REQUIRES energy. The problem is geological, and the elites know that the clock is ticking.

I've watched this coming for over 15yrs. The "shale miracle" bought us about 2 yrs. Now we're sitting back where we were around 08-09. With a lot of bankrupt shale companies and angry/broke investors. Getting back to "normal" isn't going to look at all like what people think. What we've been doing the last 150yrs or so isn't "normal". What's normal is what we are moving toward, and most people have no idea what's involved.is helps to explain the situation a bit.