What would a lowered standard of living mean? We'd all live in closer quarters. My family members who have done very well live in McMansions. They have a living room, dining room, a play room downstairs, a gym, and at least one spare bedroom. Their lawns are chemically treated so that only grass grows on them. If we lived in a dryer area, I'm sure the lawns would be watered. Some of my siblings have in ground pools that get used a handful of times a year. Take all of that away from them, and it wouldn't make their lives miserable, just less ostentatious. Get rid of the lawn and put them in an apartment. Drop it down to a kitchen and dining room with a TV and computer in it. Boys sharing a room and girls sharing a room. Baby in the crib next to Mom and dad. One bathroom instead of 3. All completely manageable.

Transportation. No car. Live closer to the place you work and use your feet or a bicycle to get to where you need to be. The exercise increases your health. The fact that you have to carry your groceries makes you buy less.

Food. Less money means eating healthier because you have to cook to save. Less meat because meat is expensive.

See. We could live at that lower level. It might even be healthier for us. And we pretty much have to at some point. Because we'll be up to more than 10 billion by the end of the century, and if all of them are living at the level we are now, the forecast is disaster. Right now we aren't seeing it in the U.S. because so much of what we consume is produced elsewhere. But we read about pollution problems in other nations. That's our pollution. We've just exported it. Once everyone is at the same level, that will be everyone's pollution.

Yawn. Anyway. I'm tired, and I've finished this thing. I'm a bit of a hypocrite here. I definitely don't live at the standards I'm describing.