Can you tell what it is yet?

[SILVERHARP2]

I hardly know Germany and only a few Germans, so I bow to your better experience. That said and speaking purely subjectively of course, I'd think the Germans would be less willing to give up their freedoms than other nations, no? The Brits seem to take what's thrown at them, for the most part.

I dont disagree but the fact that other countries are going in differnent directions / different sppeds will put breaks on the UK gov. You might not like the particular direction the UK is going in but trends rarely go in straight lines and I guess you have to say to yourself what things are going on that make your life intolerable v living in France or Spain for instance. No country is perfect but you have 3 options , live the consumer in debt life with xfactor and Eastenders as your distractions in life, get out of debt/ downshift to the point that you dont care about the public noise (That's me) or thirdly emigrate to some backwater in central America or South America where again you can live under the radar.

[biffvernon]

Maybe us doomers have more influence than we guessed. We've been wittering on about the insoluble problem of peak oil and how civilization is going to collapse and we must fear the hungry urban hordes. What does government do? Put in place a security system that can keep law and order and a civil society when our predictions come true.

There seems to be a narrow line between responsible planning and an evil state.

[Andy Hunt]

There seems to be a narrow line between responsible planning and an evil state.

Indeed. A prime example might be Russia, where the general populace seems quite happy to choose authoritarianism over chaos and disorder.

[emordnilap]

An apt description of an unregulated free market, AH.