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I'm over 3/4 of the way though the article and it just keeps getting more depressing. Somebody please hide all the sharp objects!

I've felt for a while that high unemployment (20-30%) is the normal state of affairs. 20% of folks should probably be engaged in some sort of sustenance living. It wouldn't really have to be that bad, like digging in dumpsters or anything, but just living in a commune, farming, and building their own debt-free shelter.

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Comfortable high-tech subsistence farming is around the corner. Efficient local renewable energy, RepRap machines, domestic robots... it's going to be a very interesting century.

Farmers are the original pioneers of "renewable energy." Their main energy source is sunshine, converted directly to foodstuffs by some amazing works of generic engineering (a.k.a. "plants). Biofuels? Yeah, they've been burning corn and vegetable oils for decades. Robots? How about biological labor aids -- horses, herding dogs, chickens, etc.

Regardless, there's a reason you seldom hear "comfortable" and "subsistence farming" in the same sentence. Growing enough food to feed yourself is a full-time job, even with modern agricultural tech. Yeah, there could be a singularity-style event that makes traditional farming obsolete, but RepRaps and Roombas ain't it.

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