>> Once the amount of useful work
>> seriously declines is where the real problems start to set in.

Good point! We just have to be careful how we define "useful".

For example, I've often observed that the entire global "soft drink"
industry could and would be eliminated in any rational world, as this
is a collossal waste of energy and resources, with only two outcomes
(apart from source/sink stuff):

- a brief and mildly pleasurable stupefaction of the senses
- tooth decay

However, it is a big industry that indirectly involves many people's
livelihoods.

So, is the energy involved in the soft drink industry doing "useful
work" or not ? From a rational point of view, obviously no. From the
real-world point of view, if you eliminate it magically today, you
have to deal with the social/economic/political represcussions -
which could quickly (if analogous thinking were simultaneously
applied to other useless activities such as plastic toy industry)
take you into very deep water (social/class 'expectation
management',depression, war, revolution) which, while perhaps wll
worth venturing into, have their own serious implications for deeper
values you might wish to uphold.

No way out ?

-Scott Meredith