So I'm back to quoting Ed Abbey:

"The ugliest thing in America is greed, the lust for power and domination, the lunatic ideology of perpetual Growth -- with a capital G. "Progress" in our nation has for too long been confused with "Growth"; I see the two as different, almost incompatible, since progress means, or should mean, change for the better -- toward social justice, a livable and open world, equal opportunity and affirmative action for all forms of life. And I mean all forms, not merely the human. The grizzly, the wolf, the rattlesnake, the condor, the coyote, the crocodile, whatever, each and every species has as much right to be here as we do. "

I have to agree with that, and at three hundred million and growing how can the US ever get to a society of true progress: Environmental, Economic and Social. Abbey is right, without the social progress and justice we are no where, not better, not progressing, just here. How much can we say we have "progressed" beyond our very earliest ancestors. What did Neanderthals do for fuel? They extracted resources from their environment and burned it. They found down wood or took wood from trees and burned it. Where do we get our fuel? We extract oil from the ground and burn it. Progress? No, not in the abstract, as a "technology", we are not at all advanced.

So, it's time for true progress. To live within our means. That means living on current net solar income. That means providing for our people, that means do the right thing by us, by the coyote, and the desert tortoise. All of us are not only a part, but we are all critical to all our survival. Isn't that what we all want?