They will have to move back in with parents, siblings or friends just like the poor do everywhere on Earth outside the United States. It is a hassel to live with relatives, but it isn't the end of the world.

There are even some advantages. A friend of mine remembers living in a traditional Italian-style house when she was a kid. You know, grandma on the first floor, daughter on the 2nd floor, granddaughter on the top floor. Her mother hated it, because she felt she had no privacy. But my friend loved it. She felt like she had a half-dozen parents, instead of just two. There was always someone around to take care of her, lend a sympathetic ear, etc.

Historically speaking, that is the "natural" human family - the extended family, not the nuclear family touted by the "family values" crowd.

Mortgage delinquencies seen rising in 2006

I found this delightful article on green mansions today on Yahoo! Canada.

Just shows how totally deluded we are, and that no real change whatsoever is going to be made. People will adamantly refuse to sacrifice their standard of living, or move to a smaller home. The energy savings that could be made by downsizing their home to a more reasonable size would surely reduce energy consumption more than one of these 'green mansions' would.

Golden rule of trying to get the consumabots to do anything these days... ensure it involves no personal sacrifice whatsoever.

Had we only been inspired many years ago to follow the lead of Paolo Soleri's vision of arcology and Arcosanti.

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Yes Lore, Soleri was a visionary.

I still dream of taking an elevator down from my 20th floor penthouse apartment, exiting the building, and stepping out into a verdant paradise. Maybe a pasture of cows or a river bank to watch the passing barges.

That would be ecologic perfection. The energy advantages of a well-insulated (and sound-proof) apartment in close proximitry to thousands of other but with the freedom, industry, ecstacy, and beauty of real country at my doorstep

none of this suburban bland bullshit we live in.

we will never live to see Soleri's dreams. He keeps it going by building smaltzy tourist windchimes. so sad.

I believe Soleri's primary building material is concrete, which is very high in embodied energy. Nevertheless, I have been fascinated by Arcosanti ever since I saw a former resident's slide show presentation about it.

-bill

His work should really be put into a time capsule as an architectural road map for the post apocalyptic generations, if any. At least we could say that we screwed things up, but left you with this gift for starting over; please don’t repeat the same mistakes.

It's maybe not depletion economics, more the revenge of an extremely imbalanced society were the difference between rich and poor gets bigger and bigger. This is an article about a group burning villas and SUV's in the US (in German): spiegel

How many of the US citizens feel sympathy for them, 50% or more?

Prompts an interesting question.

One man's rich is another man's poor.

Most people in the U.S. who are poor have chosen to be poor.

That was an environmentalist protest against deforestation for building non functional houses.

Yeah almost as hypocritical as them burning those plastic,oil, rubber and synthetic polymer laden Hummers a few years back. At least the wood in those houses wont release quite as many toxic chemicals, just C02.. then more C02 when they destroy more trees and consume more natural resources to replace the houses. Good work eco freaks!

One persons 'terrorist' is another persons 'hero.' What we're seeing is the beginning of what will become more and more commonplace.

Like it or not. Wait until civil order starts to break down.

Odd, the last statistics I saw said domestic terrorism peaked in the 1970s. Then all the radical hippies got jobs.

I'm totally for stigmatizing conspicuous consumption, but burning down those houses wasn't wise. Better to do things like put embarrassing bumper stickers on SUVs, luxury cars, and the entrances to McMansions. It gives the more materialistic amongst us a subtle push in the right direction.