"Sure you'd have to logically create 'centers' around town close enough to walk, or have a neighbor maybe deliver if you're elderly or something, but there's convenience in having more options if you don't have a specific tool and only need it once." or just have a garage or a shed for tools.

"Now that you don't need your own tools, lawn mower, 3d printer, printer, atv, weed whacker, you find you could've done without even having a garage, maybe we can start building smaller homes that are cheaper to heat or cool and with less environmental impact." ah yes, the number one reason people get large homes: forget having family or simply enjoying spacious living conditions, i'm storing all of my tools around my house.

"Some sort of share/rental thing maybe for the atv's, and boat/rv storage." Good luck proving that the ding on the ATVs fender was done by your neighbour and not you.

"Commercial kitchens and space for community get together's, I grew up in the 80s and we knew our neighbors back then." Why can't you just invite your neighbours to your house?

"... been conditioned to think we all need to own so much shit, when really we don't..." or perhaps some of us are conditioned to think that we don't need anything, that everything should be rented/lended by a neighbour and basically make your house into a shed because all you do is store tools anyways.

Nice of you to imply that only "the rich" can buy/sell assets, especially in a post-Gamestop world.

"The biggest problem is the rich have created a system in which people's future (retirement) is basically linked to "the market" growing over their lifetime." ah so trade and supply/demand that are moved by "standard persons" = rich people, ah yes.

"This system of course is built 100% on governments/employers not wanting to guarantee financial security of elders and offload the risk to the individual." great idea, have people at governments mercy and build a voter block that is going to put the tick where they're going to be told to for some of that extra pension plan dough.

"...the rich benefit insanely more by market movements than a standard person does..." while also contributing the most tax revenue...

"...Does growth, as currently practiced and measured, really increase wealth? Is it making us richer in any aggregate sense, or might it be increasing costs faster than benefits and making us poorer?..." increasing costs of what exactly? Manufacturing? Materials? Servicing? Marketing? Privately held assets? State corporation stocks? The cost of a pint at your local bar?

The interviewer isn't any better. "... to accept the idea of having “enough” and that constraining the ability to pursue “more” is a good thing. Those ideas are basically anathema to modern Western society ..." completely CLUELESS take that implies that the ideas of striving for wealth, growth, luxurious consumption and people wanting things are exclusive to Western countries, but then you read about "Making ecological room" and it becomes clear what is the exact point of all that fancy talk.

But back to the economist: "My duty is to do the best I can and put out some ideas. Whether the seed that I plant is going to grow is not up to me." wink-wink

With all due respect to academia, i don't think that ignoring the harsh reality of how people behave, attempting to lightly enforce a feeling of guilt upon the society thanks to which the academia has the privelege to just "...put out some ideas" is responsible at all. I sure hope that this is just a one off case of a bad interview.

"...are of the wrong nationality." not sure what you're trying to imply there but regardless of whether you're investing through a "decentralized" investment system or "traditionally", you're still going to have to abide by the laws of the jurisdiction the company is in.

"...nobody can prevent me for entering into mutually beneficial financial relationships" and nobody can help you if the "mutually beneficial financial relationship" (which is quite a bold thing to imply) is going to turn out to be one way beneficial ;-)

I mean, i would understand if the "gatekeeper" stuff was pushed by countries/organizations that have little to no manufacturing prowess, but it's Europe we're talking about and there's no way that the EU doesn't understand what they're doing (unless...).