
America’s Millennials Are Waking Up to a Grim Financial Future - Deinos
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-21/america-s-millennials-are-waking-up-to-a-grim-financial-future
======
milennialthrwy
Here's my grim reality I'm just waking up to now as a millennial.

Married with $100k in student loans between the two of us. Her first job out
of college paid $30k with no benefits. No matter, I had the money making tech
degree, we'd be fine. My first job out of college was $100k, so I didn't see a
problem there.

Three year later I'm facing mounting healthcare costs incurred even with top
notch gold plated tech insurance. Most of my salary the last 3 years went to
my landlord and the government. The remainder went to student loans and
medical costs, so I don't have much in the way of savings even after earning
$300k. And somehow I still owe $100k in student loans.

And my $100k tech job didn't come with retirement benefits so I don't have any
retirement savings yet. It did however come with a generous stock grant. But
then again, the company folded and now I don't have a job or insurance.

And now I'm a full time caregiver for my wife, with no health insurance,
trying to get a job, with $100k in non-dischargable debt, looking to get on
welfare, but at the same time reading about how our government wants to take
even that away.

So that's what I'm doing this weekend.

~~~
mhneu
I'm sorry about your personal struggles, and hope things look up for you and
your wife soon.

There is something that millennials together can do differently, though --
_vote_.

Millenial turnout is terribly low in the US.
[https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/05/16/pew2ft_16.05.13_...](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/05/16/pew2ft_16.05.13_millennialvoters_turnout_custom-87c6d172f313bd060db92427b4f47e0dd2987783-s700-c85.png)
(So, yes, one party has made it a mission to suppress turnout; yes, Election
Day is a work day, which makes it harder for working people to vote; etc. --
we can change all that, but first we have to work in the system as it is
today.) And that means that boomers and the wealthy have had a _much_ larger
influence over society than young people. (The Piketty theory is that the West
went through a few decades of stability after the 1970s and that made many
people complacent, especially the young, allowing the wealthy and corporations
to acquire power. Given the last two years, the time for complacency is
ending.)

In particular, a better social safety net and a better education cost and
education loan system would make for a fairer playing field for all. The only
way you and I in America are going to get that is if we all vote - especially
young people.

And in your particular case, the biggest travesty is the non-dischargeability
of educational debt. That's a hard problem - both universities and the loan
companies are at fault for lobbying for and setting up this system. But we
need to fix it.

Again sorry for your current situation and I hope it looks up soon.

~~~
dcosson
> the biggest travesty is the non-dischargeability of educational debt

There's no doubt that non-dischargeable student can be really rough for a lot
of people. I'm not in insurance or anything, but it seems like if we just
implemented the simplest fix, i.e. let people declare bankrupcy to forgive
student loans, the math might just not pencil out to make it feasible to grant
any student loans.

For instance I couldn't take out an $80k loan to start a business with instead
of getting a student loan, no bank would give it to me. So there's definitely
something special about student loans and the way in which they're so easy to
get without needing good credit or any collateral behind them.

And if they could be forgiven by declaring bankruptcy, what would stop lots of
people from doing that right after they graduate? For a lot of young people
(including myself at that age), your total cumulative assets are worth
approximately nothing when you graduate. And it's not like you're gonna be
able to buy a house within 7 years of graduating anyway so the hit to your
credit score of a bankruptcy might not be that bad.

It really doesn't seem like there's a silver bullet solution to help people
finance the massive cost of college easily. What's the best solution here? Is
it possible to reduce the underlying cost structure of higher education enough
to make a big enough difference?

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _What 's the best solution here?_

Let lenders vary interest rates by institution and major. Also, give lenders a
choice: (a) loans dischargeable in court like any debt or (b) non-
dischargeable loans where total payments in a calendar year are capped as a
fraction of AGI.

This combination incentivises lenders to communicate employment and wage
information from the labor market to students deciding where to go for school
and what to study.

~~~
dcosson
Pretty sure b. already exists, there are consolidation programs where you can
get your monthly payment capped at a percentage of your salary. The downside
is just like with paying the minimum due on a credit card, the interest can
really screw you. In some cases the amount you can afford to pay may even be
less than the interest.

------
wheremind
It seems like this came to a head around the time of the occupy wall street
protests (is it 10 years ago now?). The public consciousness became aware of
the way our political/financial systems were in a kind of symbiotic conspiracy
to vacuum up productivity gains, there was huge pressure to do something about
it despite the media's constant stream of 'nothing to see here'..... and then
nothing happened. The popular culture of the west instead decended into this
en masse flame war around gender, race, sexuality etc.

Seems like there was a huge opportunity that was foiled or just missed and
this is possibly going to be the result of it.

~~~
pm90
> masse flame war around gender, race, sexuality etc.

I don't think its a flame war as much as a reckoning. Its like saying the
Civil Rights movement was a flame war; that is how deep changes happen in a
society and culture.

Specifically w.r.t the #MeToo movement, I think women demanding more
compensation and better workplace environment ends up benefiting everyone
(even if the movement's primary concern is with other things).

If there is one thing this horrible Presidency has accomplished, it is more
political participation among Americans; a recognition of the importance of
politics and of voting. That perhaps is the greatest opportunity in this
generation.

~~~
api
The problem is that these issues are so emotional they completely sideline any
discussion of economic well being or economic issues in general. As long as
they dominate attention other issues just don't come up.

~~~
pm90
"issues" like disproportionate incarceration for minorities, sexual harassment
for women, you mean? They may not be directly economic at first but building a
society that is more just and equal is certainly the easiest path to
increasing prosperity and well being.

~~~
api
I wish we could address both at once but recent history seems to suggest that
we can't. I think the problem is with how these issues interact with other
issues when projected down onto the demographics of the voting population.

The problem is that these issue cross-cut each other in almost exactly an X
pattern. The majority of the working class is socially conservative,
traditional, and religious, so any culture war issue tends to be a fault line
that neatly divides the voting bloc that would otherwise care about economic
equality.

I would like us to have racial and gender equality but unfortunately it might
mean we get to all be equal and poor.

------
sunshinelackof
>For some reason that period of tremendous growth barely helped millennials.

I don't think it's just us, though it probably disproportionately is. What
wealth small and medium towns had has moved to cities, you just won't have a
good job unless you move to the city.

Something about it all seems so sinister. Not everyone can be an engineer or a
doctor. If society is to function people need to be able to live a reasonable
life just being mildly productive.

~~~
Gibbon1
> If society is to function people need to be able to live a reasonable life
> just being mildly productive.

One of my criticisms of neoliberal economics/politics is it doesn't consider
stable meaningful jobs that your can support a family on as a necessary output
of the economic system.

~~~
anonymous5133
Because it factors in the idea that people need to be incentivized to work. If
people can free ride on something then they will.

I am definitely in that group. If i can have a decent living on social welfare
programs then i definitely would not work. Working sucks. I just hate the idea
of working or satisfying customer's needs because it represents a master/slave
type relationship.

~~~
sunshinelackof
At least how we organize work today, it sucks tremendously hard. Someone might
pretend he likes it, but no one likes waking up at 6am, commuting both ways,
and effectively losing half his day doing something he might not enjoy.
There's no real reason most work needs to be like that either besides the
momentum of the status-quo.

------
fear91
I believe there are some solutions to help alleviate the situation.

Introduce land value tax.

In the countries using it, stop the mandatory Ponzi scheme retirement pyramid
where young people are forced to pay a sizeable part of their paycheck while
having no hope of receiving any in 30-40 years - that's straight up, time-
delayed stealing.

Close the tax gaps used by corporations.

Provide free healthcare so people don't get ruined by medical emergencies.

Stop the student loan madness, provide free university education.

Restrict mortgage lending - it makes the property prices baloon in the long
run and encourages housing bubbles.

Most importantly, start treating renewable energy and emissions seriously
because we are destroying this planet with a speed with which we probably
won't have to worry about economy after a few more generations.

Unfortunately, all of those would require enormous political changes and are
impossible to implement.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _all of those would require enormous political changes and are impossible to
> implement_

Because our generation doesn't vote [1].

[1] [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2017/07/31/millennials-...](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2017/07/31/millennials-and-gen-xers-outvoted-boomers-and-older-
generations-in-2016-election/)

~~~
mattnewton
They also are clustered in coastal cities and votes there are worth less than
votes elsewhere for reasons.

I wonder how much of turnout downturn is just rational: If half my city didn’t
vote it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference for the last national
election. Probably wouldn’t have mattered if the whole city didn’t vote,
because I live in coastal California.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _votes there are worth less than votes elsewhere for reasons_

139 million Americans voted in 2016's general election [1]. Of that, 34
million were millennials, or 49% of millennial eligible voters [2].

69% of Boomers voted [2]. If a similar fraction of millennials voted, we'd
have had 48 million votes [a]. That would bring our share of the vote to 31%
[b], the same as boomers [c].

Geographic effects act on the margins. Bringing 14 million additional voters
to the polls will change outcomes and change legislative priorities regardless
of how they are distributed.

[1] [http://www.electproject.org/2016g](http://www.electproject.org/2016g)

[2] [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2017/07/31/millennials-...](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2017/07/31/millennials-and-gen-xers-outvoted-boomers-and-older-
generations-in-2016-election/)

[a] _(34 x 10^6 / 0.49) _ 0.69*

[b] _(48 x 10^6 - 34 x 10^6) /(48 x 10^6 - 34 x 10^6 + 139 x 10^6)_

[c] _48.1 x 10^6 / (48 x 10^6 - 34 x 10^6 + 139 x 10^6)_

------
acconrad
I feel like all of these "us vs them articles" (us = millennials, which I am
one, and them = baby boomers, who are my parents age) are red herrings.

Do you _really_ believe that your mother/grandmother is the enemy here? My
belief is that who you're _actually_ imagining when you read this article is
some fat-cat corporate executive in a suit and tie who is old enough to reap
the largess of Reagonomics. They _happen_ to be 60+, but in actuality, the
distinguishing feature is that they're rich.

My dad is a retired firefighter and Vietnam vet, and my mom is a executive
admin. These are two people who should not be blamed for the cards the youth
have been dealt.

It's the Elite. The Controlling Class. Whatever you want to call it, they
enacted policies some decades ago to benefit only them, and now they're
reaping those rewards at a staggering pace. And they're quite happy that you
have found someone else to blame besides them.

Even the "Top 1% vs Us 99%ers" is the same kind of thing. They're happy your
anger is centered at plastic surgeons and defense attorneys. The _real_ wealth
is in the 0.01%, the people who don't have to work (and haven't for
generations) and want to keep it that way.

As long as you are blaming someone else, they're safe and happy to keep
pulling the strings on society. But I'm not going to take a cop-out excuse of
blaming the grandmother down the street who has been living in the same 1800
sq ft home she bought with her husband and 3 kids in the 70s and hasn't ever
update the decor in her kitchen.

------
pembrook
Somewhat ironic that this is being posted on Hackernews, where if I had to
guess the average salary for millennials here is 3X the national average.

Seems most of us here already found the answer: learn something about the
fastest growing sector of the economy and participate in the future instead of
lamenting the present.

If you're waiting for government action to create a better distribution of
wealth in the only developed country where poor people actually vote _against_
a public safety net you're going to be disappointed.

It's just not going to happen politically in the US for decades so your only
option is to play ball in the system as it is now and _vote_ in the meantime.

~~~
nothrabannosir
_> Seems most of us here already found the answer: learn something about the
fastest growing sector of the economy and participate in the future instead of
lamenting the present._

That's so callous. Would you say the same if computers had turned out a dud, a
fringe curiosity nothing more? If the fastest growing sector of the economy
had instead turned out to be MMA cage fighting? Or perhaps you're physically
inclined; imagine whatever it is you would be vigourously annoyed doing. Cobra
wrestling. No-chute skydiving with plane re-entry.

I really wonder about those parallel universes. About what the parallel you
would have said, there, to the elite in their cobra wrestling ivory tower,
lamenting those lazy plebs. They should just man up and start hitting the
serpentine goldmine!

Or was it, like, a reverse psychology point, where precisely by explicitly
pointing out the absurdity of the only solution, you realise just how
untenable our current predicament is?

~~~
pembrook
If the fastest growing sector of our economy was cobra wrestling, I would be
telling everybody that the solution to their economic woes would be to _get
involved in cobra wrestling._ It's not callous, it's pretty simple logic.

Complaining that you don't like how everything is changing into Cobra
wrestling won't change the fact that it's happening.

Even if you're physically not suited to cobra wrestling, there would many many
tertiary jobs and functions needed to support that growing sector you could
enter. Cobra wrestling promoter. Cobra wrestling trainer. Cobra wrestling gym
manager. Cobra wrestling photographer. Cobra wrestling filmographer. Cobra
wrestling transport.

What would be your better solution for people? Try to get government to
artificially support the no-longer needed computer workers so they can still
pretend they make money from working on computers?

~~~
anonymous5133
I completely agree with what you are saying. People like to live in this world
thinking that only government can solve problems but the truth is most change
has come from a few visionaries who decided it was time for change and worked
diligently to make it happen.

You want free universal Healthcare? Build a system that does that.

Free university? Build it.

Solution to global warming? Solve it by inventing new technology.

Be the change you want to see in the world and dont let anyone tell you that
you cant do it because history is filled with the tales of those who have done
what was once thought of as impossible.

------
kamaal
Indian Millennial here. Lived in the US(for work) for around 4 years and
returned to India. So I know a little about what I'm talking about.

I am yet to understand why US millennials have all these troubles, or is it
just perceived by them as such? Because frankly, comparatively speaking food
is not expensive in the US. Even on minimum wage you can eat the best, healthy
food there is. Infrastructure is just a whole country Disneyland.
Opportunities are higher than all of human history including the present
combined. Schooling is free. You can afford a good car for minimal monthly
payments. You get pure drinking water, and more importantly unlike the third
world countries, you get to breathe the purest air possible. Its not hard to
exercise and maintain good health either.

Gaining any skill or knowledge has never been more easier, than it is today.

I understand if you had a unfortunate health complication beyond your control,
or you are disabled at birth. But for healthy people, there isn't much you can
complain about.

Sorry for sounding rude here. This sounds a lot more like decadence, than any
real problem.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Lived in the US(for work) for around 4 years and returned to India. So I
> know a little about what I'm talking about.

The US is a huge country; living in it for 4 years for work — unless that work
is, I dunno, leading a large cross-regional socioeconomic study — will leave
you knowing pretty close to nothing about it related to the issues you
discuss.

> I am yet to understand why US millennials have all these troubles

Because radical shifts in US tax policy over the past several decades have
changed the arc of financial prospects for the non-elite much faster than
cultural expectations have adapted.

> Even on minimum wage you can eat the best, healthy food there is

No, you can't. On minimum wage you can't even afford minimal (as in, not so
substandard as to be condemned and illegal for habitation) shelter in much of
the country, much less shelter + “the best, healthy” unprepared food + food
storage and prep equipment, or shelter + “the best, healthy” prepared food.

> Infrastructure is just a whole country Disneyland.

It's really not, you need to see more of the country if you think it is.
(Unless by “Disneyland” you mean “glitzy facade that's hollow underneath”,
which is closer to true, but even there much of the country lacks even the
facade.)

> Opportunities are higher than all of human history including the present
> combined.

That's not even abstractly possible, much less true.

> Schooling is free.

But often absymally bad.

> You can afford a good car for minimal monthly payments.

Median used car price in the US is just under $20,000; median auto loan
interest is 4.20% (for used cars probably higher, because the most credit-
worthy people are more likely to buy new cars.) On a 60 month loan with zero
down, that's 50+ hours at federal minimum wage to make the monthly payment.

> You get pure drinking water,

No, you don't, in many cases, though _awareness_ of this (except for Flint,
MI, which is not unique in its toxic lead levels though perhaps unique in the
manner by which that occurred) is poor.

~~~
kamaal
I understand where you are coming from. I lived in Bay Area, CA. Chances are I
saw the best parts of the US. And yes I travelled mostly to Philadelphia, New
York and New Jersey where the top knowledge work people live.

My point is US citizens are still well off than all of humanity
together(Though I give it to you, certain parts of Europe are equal if not
better). Rice, Lentils, Meat and Vegetables are not expensive in the US.
Learning to cook today is getting a smart phone, and a having an internet
connection. Running doesn't take much money to do. So you can eat healthy and
live healthy. Education is bad in some places and yet way better than what you
get in other countries.

Learning how to save or personal finance is basically knowing basic
arithmetic.

And yes, a nation wide freeway system is great transit infrastructure. Nissan
Versa is cheap. And learning anything today is the cost of internet bandwidth.

And US is still largely a very free country. Where there are tons of
opportunities for anyone who wants to show up and try.

Most of what I'm writing is bootstrap level resources you need to start, And
these are not hard to do with wages delivering Pizzas at dominoes.

It largely feels like Millennials in US need some reality check. If you can't
succeed in a country as awesome as the US. Chances are you won't survive weeks
in other countries.

------
apo
It's surprising the article leaves out medical expenses. There's this one
mention:

 _The same 2017 survey found 27 percent skipping medical treatments because
they can’t afford them._

In the end, I suspect that medical costs driven to astronomical levels by
retirees is what will do the most financial damage to millennials.

~~~
dv_dt
Medical costs in the US are driven by the only healthcare system in the first-
world that puts profit at the center instead of people.

~~~
EADGBE
I'm sure the largest generation in retirement entering late-life doesn't help
with the situation.

Provides ripe opportunity for jacking up health care costs on age 50+
ailments/treatments.

~~~
dv_dt
It doesn't but other nations such as Japan have a much older shifted
demographic and their costs are much better managed. All other first world
nations have better cost and overall performance outcomes in their healthcare
than the US.

None of them allow private companies to dictate drug and procedure prices.

The US dedicates 50% more of it's GDP to healthcare than Japan does, despite
having more favorable demographics for need of services by age. (see fig 2
[1])

[1] [https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/Country-Note-
JAPAN-O...](https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/Country-Note-JAPAN-OECD-
Health-Statistics-2015.pdf)

------
throwaway2016a
Just waking up to it? I'm an older millennial 33 and I've been awake for a
long time.

My friends who didn't get PTSD in the war spent the first 8 years of our
career in a recession so when the market grew had no money in the market to
capitalize on that. And even as a healthy person with good health care and six
figures in my bank I worry I can get wiped out by a medical emergency.

I think it's more like: other people are finally realizing what millennials
have been living with their entire adult life so far.

------
acd
Here is the thing central banks are printing exponential debt money from
nothing. Most people from youth generations cannot afford to buy affordable
houses priced with that debt.. You could even say younger people are
exponential debt slaves working for the old and rich. Having kids myself I do
not feel this system is fair.

~~~
gruez
>central banks are printing exponential debt money from nothing

Source? Didn’t QE end a while ago?

~~~
daxorid
OP said "central banks", as in plural. The ECB, BOJ, and SNB are doing a bang-
up job to inflate global asset prices. As for the Fed, their balance sheet
unwind rate has been a mere rounding error thus far.

~~~
Gibbon1
I saw a chart that broke out the rise in various prices over the last ten
years as the banks injected vast amounts of capital. Things like stocks and
real estate went up 150-250%. Things that make up 'core inflation' went up
17%.

As someone in my 50's I've come to look at my remaining working years as an
asset. The central banks did a bang up job of devaluing that.

------
shellyhaddon234
I don't know how to thank this private company who just grant me a loan, I
never believe it was real till i got my loan credited into my account and i
promise them i will tell the whole world their benevolent and kindness towards
their company, they are still 100% ready to give more loan to serious and
needy people, contact them via email for more info markdonaldop@gmail.com

------
RickJWagner
Single-paycheck family here. We've got the first of 3 kids in college now, 2
and 3 are not far behind.

We hammer on scholarship preparation, hard. Our college boy works paid
internships each summer. The kids are all in band, good for small scholarships
at little effort.

We are fine so far. Good luck to others on this path. Avoid the debt, it can
be one.

------
balls187
I wonder if this is just the inevitable trend that all great societies move
towards--adding social safety nets programs to lessen the impact that "luck"
and "timing" having with individual success.

~~~
ianai
My impression is that they move toward chaos. Rome used “bread and circuses”
to keep the people occupied. Meanwhile power concentrated into the emperor.

There’s probably no exact trend. But that golden eras are easier to identify.

------
RickJWagner
Ha, ironic they chose a picture with an avocado in it.

Seriously, the current age feels like the mid 80s. If that holds true, the
millenials will be fine.

------
m52go
It's a messed up world for a young adult, but it's also full of more
_accessible_ potential than ever.

If people would stop and make an honest assessment of their situation, why
they're not where they want to be, commit to grinding until they get there,
and actually DO IT...things would be better.

Unfortunately it's become fashionable to point fingers, assign blame, and make
a ruckus about being 'oppressed'. That may get you more Twitter followers, but
it won't lead to economic betterment.

~~~
arcaster
As a millennial, this is why my generation is pathetic.

I'm not sure where I read this, but a quote that really resonates with me as a
millennial who went out and found / fought for nearly all their opportunities
"I love being a millennial, because it's so easy to be better than most of my
generation".

~~~
holografix
I’d invite that person to consider how much of her/his success is due to luck
and I’d draw parallels with the peasant who working twice as much and
providing more grain is allowed a bit more privilege.

I’m all for meritocracy. But only if the game is fair.

~~~
ericd
It's more than a bit hyperbolic to compare our current economic setup with
that of medieval serfdom. The difference in economic mobility is extreme.

Yes, we have some issues we need to sort out - NIMBYs and zoning laws tamping
down on new housing supply in cities, and a broken healthcare market are the
largest ones. But it's dangerous to forget that the system we have is overall
overwhelmingly better for most people than what came before the 1900s, let
alone before the 1400s.

------
dawhizkid
This assumes basic income won't become law

~~~
yifanl
I can't imagine a more grim scenario than whole populations being entirely
reliant on government money.

I'm not decided on where I sit on basic income yet, on the one hand, it might
become a necessity as jobs vanish, but on the other hand, it consolidates a
lot of power into a benevolent state, one which has not shown it's ability to
stay benevolent.

~~~
paulcole
I would love to have enough money for basic living necessities (healthy food,
rent, utilities, clothing, healthcare) provided by the government. I'd never
work again.

~~~
ghaff
That's a very honest answer and is also one that argues against such a system.
I also wonder if you feel the same way about a true BI of maybe $10K per year
plus the equivalent of Medicaid (very limited doctor network) in the US.

~~~
paulcole
At $10k/year I would move somewhere cheap in the midwest and use my savings to
buy a home with cash. I require expensive prescriptions to live and if those
were covered I'd be fine. If not, I'd stay put, continue to work for decent
insurance, and just bank the $10k/year.

------
s2g
At some point is the media going to realize that most millenials are adults,
and have been for a while?

~~~
electricslpnsld
While many articles erroneously refer to 12 year olds as millennials, I don't
think this article falls into the trap. They clearly define the age ranges
they are bucketing into millennial at the outset and continue the analysis
from there.

------
allthenews
I would argue that the wealth gap is symptomatic of a degeneration of culture
and education in this country. I am in my late 20s, and even when I was
graduating it was apparent that most students in my cohort simply were not
leaving school with the skills to function as adults, let alone be productive
members of society.

Same in college, 18-21 year old children. And now these same children look
desperately for others to blame, while in reality we have a growing proportion
of incompetent workers performing increasingly meaningless tasks, walled away
behind miles of red tape and a Goliath of bureaucracy.

American popular culture places little value on education and self-
improvement. The windfall that was WWII is dwindling, while other nations take
steps to optimize the very parts of their labor pipeline that we in the U.S.
neglect.

Millennials are waking up to a decline that they are ill-equipped to reverse.
Twitter, Facebook, et al. are only hastening the degradation of western
culture, accelerating an existing, emergent glamorization of shallow
materialism over knowledgeability and competence.

~~~
ianai
The government could fully employ people in digging holes in the ground and
filling them, alternately. But that’d be too shallow, so the machinations of
government employ the many.

The free market is built on ends - singular goods and services. But the living
world is not. What dies or is consumed today feeds the survivors for tomorrow.
A sparrow could never be reimbursed by a hawk for its life. But eventually the
hawks raw materials rejoin the worlds supply and plays its part in supplying
for more life. Life on earth takes energy from the sun or earth, ultimately -
that’s the “end” that fuels all life. Humanity does itself the greatest
disservice in defining goods and services as ends in themselves. Humanity
ought to “close the loop” - find a way to survive and thrive through
redefining how humanity works such that it obeys that the only end that the
earth actually receives is energy from the sun or earth.

