When we moved to Europe 20 years ago, one of th first things we remarked on was that France seemed far more able to operate well on the basis of an economy of scarcity than the US- perhaps because of the lessons learned from the process of recovery from the aftermath of WWII. For example, in Paris, the city of light, the average citizen used one third the amount of electricity as the average US citizen.

I think you are wrong- scarcity will be far better dealt with here than in the US.
In the US, conservation is seen by many as a sign of economic failure, of weakness.
Wealth is waste.
Yuk.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.