Peak Prosperity is featured in the new novel, Cesspool. The main character reads the Daily Digest, is aware of the 3E’s, and invests in precious metals. Cesspool is available to U.S.-based Peak Prosperity readers for free Tuesday, July 26th through Saturday, July 30th, and heavily discounted for international members. Click the link below to go to the free deal. For international members, I set the price as low as possible in all the Amazon international stores. I am unable to set the price to free internationally at this time.
A disgraced teacher stands between a crooked police department and a runaway girl.James Fisher was the devoted teacher who taught his students to question authority. He was the devoted husband that didn’t know what his wife was up to. His life was a tragedy waiting to happen.
After the accident, he moved to a backwoods town, content to waste away while the world burned. He was awakened from his apathy by a small girl with a big problem. It was safer to look the other way. Getting involved would place James squarely in the crosshairs of the local police.
He was afraid, but he did it anyway.
Adult language and content.
Below is a scene from Cesspool where the 3E’s are discussed.
James sat alone at a round table covered in white linen. The placard next to him read, Lori Fisher-Wells in fancy cursive. His placard read, Guest. He ate yellow cake with white icing and small silver candies. He finished his cake and set his fork down. He reached into his suit jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. He scrolled through the headlines of his favorite alternative news site.He shoved his phone back in his jacket pocket. He stood and surveyed the ballroom. The ceiling had sheer white fabric hung across the room like elegant clouds. In between the clouds, white lights shined like stars. The expansive room was raucous with men in suits and tuxedos and women in formal dresses standing and drinking and talking. Lori was across the room, wearing a clingy black cocktail dress, spiky heels, and holding on to a glass of wine. She held the attention of two men in tuxedos. James trudged across the ballroom. He sidled up to Lori and tapped her on her lower back. She turned with a scowl.
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“It’s getting late,” James said.
“I haven’t seen you all night,” Ron said with a smirk.
“Hey Ron,” James replied, his eyes on Lori.
“I’m not ready to leave,” Lori said. “You can go. I’ll catch a ride with Ron.”
“It’s still early,” said the man next to Ron.
“James,” Ron said, “this is my friend and managing partner, Walt Davidson.”
James turned toward Ron and his balding, bookish friend. “Hi Walt, I’m James Fisher, Lori’s husband.”
Walt’s beady eyes lit up as they shook hands. “You’re the one with all the interesting theories.”
Ron dipped his head and covered his laugh with his fist.
Lori groaned.
“I guess so,” James said, blank-faced.
“He thinks the stock market’s going to blow up in our faces,” Ron said.
“I’ve seen some insiders with dire forecasts,” Walt said. “The S&P down as much as 20% in 2015.”
Ron chuckled. “He’s not talking about a bear market. He’s talking about a total collapse.”
“Like 1929? The seventies?” Walt asked.
“Much worse.” Ron lifted his chin to James. “Tell him Jimbo.”
“Why don’t you go home,” Lori said to James.
James ignored his wife. “It’s a mathematical certainty. And it won’t just be the stock market. It’ll be our entire way of life.”
Lori shook her head. “Here we go.” She frowned at Ron. “See what you did.”
Ron smiled back at Lori like a mischievous child.
“We’ve always had doomsday predictions,” Walt said, “and yet here we are.”
“The problem is that our system must grow exponentially,” James said, “but we live in a world with limits in terms of raw materials and energy and food and water and a million other things we need in modern society.”
“Are you familiar with a book from the early seventies called, Limits to Growth?”
“Great book,” James said.
Lori gulped the last of her wine. “We’re going for refills,” she said holding up her empty glass.
Ron and Lori moved toward the bar.
“I agree with you that our system must grow,” Walt said. “It’s a debt based money system that has to grow or the debts can’t be paid.”
“We saw what happened in 2008,” James said. “GDP growth was down, but still positive, and it was like the end of the world.”
“What I don’t agree with is that we can’t overcome the limits you talk about with respect to energy and raw materials. We are becoming more efficient every day and technology is growing exponentially, keeping up with our growth rate.”
James nodded. “I agree that we’re finding ways to be more efficient, but technology is not an energy source. All this technology requires more energy, not less.”
“Solar and wind technologies have had vast improvements over the past few decades,” Walt said.
“We get less than 5% of our energy from renewable sources, and most of it is in the form of hydroelectric and biomass. Solar and wind are just a drop in the bucket. And how much oil and coal do we burn to dig up the metals required to make a solar panel or a wind turbine.”
“In Brazil they get a lot their fuel from sugar cane.”
“There are some bright spots. Human beings are certainly ingenious. I’m not disputing that.” James pursed his lips. “I’m just saying that our economic system requires growth, and that growth has been destructive in terms of using up natural resources and polluting the environment in a way that’s unsustainable. And every day, it gets worse. Every day we have more people, more energy used, more stuff, more of everything. Anything that’s unsustainable will eventually end.”
Walt smiled. “And yet commodities are in a bear market, and the stock market is near all-time highs.”
“That’s true,” James said with a crooked grin, “but I would imagine it’s easier to manipulate computer digits than the real world.”
Walt cackled. “You know James you might be on to something there. Prior to 2008, we used a proprietary trading system that worked very well for us, but after 2008, it’s been ineffective. Thankfully we were smart enough to follow the herd back into equities, and we’re using high frequency trading algorithms.”
“And what’s changed since 2008? Do we have more or less derivatives? Are the banks bigger or smaller? All we’ve done is, postpone the inevitable, making the outcome more destructive.”
“What’s the solution?” Walt held out his hands. “Go live in the woods with a truckload of canned goods?”
“There isn’t one. We have a predicament, not a problem. Problems have solutions. Predicaments have outcomes. You joke about living in the woods with a truckload of canned goods, but it isn’t the worst idea. I definitely wouldn’t want to be here, where everything’s trucked in. Seriously, where’s the nearest farm?”
Walt smirked. “Ultimately, you may be right, my friend, but not in my lifetime. I should probably go find my wife.”
~ Phil Williams
Phil Williams is a permaculture consultant and designer and creator of the website foodproduction101.com. He is also the author of numerous books, most recently, Fire the Landscaper and Farmer Phil’s Permaculture. His website provides useful, timely information for the experienced or beginning gardener, landscaper, or permaculturalist. Phil’s personal goals are to build soil, restore and regenerate degraded landscapes, grow and raise an abundance of healthy food of great variety, design and install resilient permaculture gardens in the most efficient manner possible, and teach others along the way.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://peakprosperity.com/cesspool-free-to-peak-prosperity-readers-until-july-30/