RE: Diminishing Marginal Returns...

Couldn't agree more. I lived my first 24 years in the USA and that trend has always felt like an unsustainable path. Now that I've lived in Europe for over a decade, every time I return you are immediately confronted with the absurdity of the "size" and Scale of many things stateside - perhaps no better example are the massive flags that fly in random courtyards while on the highway. That "we do it bigger" mentality has been there every since I was born and I think that it has a lot to do with the change from manufacturing mentality to consumption led economics. In many ways, I think that some of what Trump's administration has in mind in terms of the need for a complete economic culture change is likely the zeitgeist of the moment, BUT the way that they are going about it is just callus and chaotic. Ironically perhaps it is what rises from all of this chaos that will allow Americans and many other people world to pivot to a more sustainable path forward. No doubt this is an inflection point reminiscent of the fall of the Berlin wall.