bss03

Well, I would say you could immigrate to the U.S., but that's a bad idea for a number of reasons, IMO.

No countryside up in Scotland anymore?

Come out to the country. Just make sure your field is outside city limits, and you'll probably be fine living there, as long as your sewage doesn't drain into a protected waterway. A 3-phase septic wouldn't be too hard to put in, but it's a lot easier if you'll rent heavy machinery instead of shovels.

The future for S. Korea looks bleak, not better.

I agree that infinite growth was always impossible, but in some countries birth rate is well below replacement rate (if they matched, population would be stable, not growing), and in many birth rate + immigration rate is also below replacement rate -- we are failing not at growth, but "mere" stability.

Yeah, I pay it off about twice a month, but usually between the day I schedule a payment and the day it arrives I've used the card again, so it's rare for me to have a zero (or negative!) balance.

I do like the CC rewards, but they get that my "shorting" / charging the merchant. So, if the merchant is part of your community, try to avoid involving a CC processor by paying in cash. (I think cash is a pain to deal with, so my in-built preference is for some sort of card / phone payment system.)

I agree with your premise, but I don't think it implies your conclusion, which I disagree with.

They often are, yes. I'm not sure exactly what "in debt" means to OP. But, when I use it like this I generally mean "negative net worth" not "carrying a line of credit".

I currently have a balance on a CC, but I don't consider myself in debt, because it's smaller than my checking account balance, and that's smaller than my investment account balance, and that's smaller than my retirement account balance.

I don't own a home, but I also didn't really consider myself "in debt" when I purchased my current car.

Oddly enough I would say I am "in debt to" my CC company, because I do owe money to them and they do not owe money to me. The "to X" part of the phrase restricts my consideration to just two-party financial relationship, in my mind. When you leave off the "to X", I consider all the financial relationship I have and (roughly) sum over them.

I don't think it is shrinking globally, yet. But, some countries (e.g. South Korea) are in dire situations due to shrinking and aging population already.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus with a lot of legs/limbs removed.

I guessing there might have been a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautiloid, now extinct that had "only" 4 legs.

Mushroom? In particular, the ones that look most like Smurf houses?

I've dealt with people that made it to adulthood not really understanding that if they have cash in their pocket, but more debt than that, they don't really have money available to spend on frivolous things. Some of them are my friends.

They will be "broke" 5 days of the week, but spend freely from when then cash their paycheck (or get that next payday loan!) until all they have is change.

But, I've been lucky. I got a degree without taking on debt AND the worst CC hole I had to dig myself out of was not even to the limit of one card. I think most people have to ignore student or medical or other debt just to function...

Sorry, maybe I was ambiguous. The violent/revolutionary approaches would be to achieve some sort of climate recovery, which might obviate needing an "exit plan".

There's no acceptable use for something that can only exist by violating the copyright terms for millions of artists.