To be sure, there is a direct correlation between economic output and energy consumption — in an industrial consumer society, that is. But the correlation between economic output and quality of life is far more complex. To be sure, it it better to be affluent than to be impoverished, but there is no such easy correlation thereafter between per capita energy consumption and human well-being. It is possible, that is, to live a good, convivial, stimulating life WITHOUT many or most of the energy-wasting toys we take for granted — jets, super-fast cars, leaf-blowers, clothes dryers, synthetics, etc. If you don’t believe me, google “Permaculture” or “Geoff Lawton” or “Toby Hemenway” or “Andrew Millison” or “Joel Salatin” (to name a few of the visionaries out there who are successfully designing high-quality, low-energy-consuming, relocalized homes, communities, and economies.