>>I don't think reprioritizing our apending habits would necessarily end civilization. It existed pre iPhone and pre - Industrialization.
Come on, Mike. We've known since H.G. Wells that the essence of civilization is specialization. For specialists to be productive, an economy and currency is required, and then the parasites appear. The parasites need to be taken care of occasionally. Simple as that.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
