You make a very good point here. Implicit behind much of my writing since 2007 is the understanding of peak oil and what it means for the current economic and political models.

As I argued here, austerity finds some public support due to its ability to preserve privilege. In California, that plays out as white suburbanites who cannot imagine a lifestyle without dependence on the automobile and who see mass transit as being for the poor, people of color, and the young are fighting to block mass transit projects because it presents such a threat to their perceived worldviews and privileges. It's an absurd situation, but it's very real.

What we may well be seeing is the belief that the elite do not have to suffer any energy austerity, so that can be forced onto everyone else, and segments of the American white middle class are convinced they can cleave off from the rest of us and enjoy the benefits the elite are enjoying. They're convinced that's what happened in the early 1980s, so why not try it again?

Again, I am curious how this plays out in Europe, and what drives the public reaction to/acceptance of austerity, and whether it has any relation to the forces here in the US.

And the world will live as one