Hacker News Reader

There were similar "flattenings" in the early 80's

If you had a plateau with twice the number of points (years) than any previous plateau then I would buy that something was going on.

But sadly - we don't.

View on HN

I would also assume that there are still billions of people around the world aspiring to live lifestyles like people in the US/Western Europe, so absent the development of an energy source comparable to the convenience and low price of fossil fuels, any slack in demand from US/Western Europe will be picked up by the poorer billions.

I'm at least hopefully because this one appears longer (~9 years; if you count 2012-2019; most of the other drops were shorter and seem to be tied to major economic events - the 73 and 79 oil crises, fall of the Soviet Union in 91 and subsequent recession in Eastern Europe, and the great recession in 2009.

Seeing an apparent flattening in a period of major economic growth is really encouraging.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com