enjoyed by some of us (i.e. certain people in certain countries) in the past few decades was predicated, in very large part, on cheap energy.

In particular, oil was outrageously cheap; cheap to extract, and competition in the form of excess supply kept prices so low that it undercut sustainable forms of energy, and undercut efforts to diminish waste.

And that added (unsustainably) huge amounts of wealth into the world economy.

As the price of oil goes up, more expensive oil finds its way onto the market. Those who are producing this oil are only making an "honest" profit. Those who ares still producing cheap oil from legacy fields are making out like proverbial bandits. You thought those sheiks were already rich?

Meanwhile, we (those of us who became used to the relative wealth derived in large part from nearly free energy) have a nasty adjustment to make.

Who Could Have Predicted?

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}