It is worth remembering that the average American consumes an exceptional amount of resources. Compared even to the relatively profligate Europeans, the average American consumes twice as much energy, twice as much water and lives on more than twice as much land. The disparity with even wealthy urban Chinese or Indians is greater still.

This lifestyle has in part been justified by the very high historical levels of American productivity, but it is clear that American productivity is not increasing at nearly the rate of that in emerging markets.

We are left with an obvious conclusion - as a factor of production, American citizens continue to be very resource-intensive, but are becoming comparatively less productive.

It seems to me that America is unique in a culture that sees consumption of scarce resources as tantamount to a human right. Much of the cultural divide in the US seems to rest on this basic notion. Many political issues in the US are really debates about resources that no-one seems prepared to engage with - the US healthcare debate ought to be a debate about why Americans spend such incredible sums on medicine, but is instead primarily a debate about what kind of accounting we use to pay those incredible sums.

The idea of what it means to be American is obsolete. The sprawling suburb, the hour-long commute, the SUV, the McMansion, all artifacts of an empire in terminal decline. American citizens simply cannot consume such vast resources if they do not have the productivity to match. I see every reason why Chinese and Indian productivity will continue to rise, but little reason why American productivity would suddenly rally. The American people are left with an obvious choice - produce more or consume less.